Insomnia is a Helluva Disorder(s)

  by Timothy

Image Courtesy of Wayoutonthecorner.blogspot

  Insomnia is a condition prevalent in one third of the adult world population, without taking the adolescent or youth demographic into account. Insomnia is so common because it can be caused by anything from marital stress to acute or terminal illness, and no one is necessarily safe from its hold. Although able to be an independent condition, not being caused by anything but itself (yes, that can happen), Insomnia is most commonly linked to stress or age (elderly people will experience Insomnia naturally due to a decrease in melatonin production). My name is Timothy, I am sixteen, and I am currently suffering from Insomnia. Not being in the main body of the studied population (adults), it is a bit easier for me to make unbiased observations than that of an adult Insomniac, but it also allows for me to make statements based on personal experience. Insomnia, one of the most widespread health problems in the world, needs more research to combat and even reverse the condition; helping at least 2.6 billion people sleep at night (including myself).

Image Courtesy of saveyourslef.ca

I have been suffering from Insomnia ever since I can remember, always only sleeping three or four hours a night: however the severity of the condition increased,from what I can tell, around the same time that I hit puberty. My Insomnia is mainly based on stress, but also backdrops into anxiety about sleeping (this is what i mentioned earlier about Insomnia causing Insomnia) itself. However, Insomnia can be caused by severe conditions such as Schizophrenia or Major Depressive Disorder. Insomnia can also cause many conditions and diseases over time, but not usually in small cases (secondary Insomnia). Of these conditions that Insomnia can cause, Schizophrenia (hallucinations) and MDD are present, making Insomnia one of the few conditions that can be a symptom as well as an overlying cause (Vijay et al. October 01, 1999). Other conditions caused by Insomnia include Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) ("umm.edu" January 20, 2012).

Image Courtesy of  The Rumpus.net

As I previously mentioned, Insomnia can also be caused by stress, not needing a physiological or mental disorder to be initiated. In everyday life, one acquires stress from social problems or conflict, perhaps not even realizing so; the stress will almost always manifest itself one way or another in one’s dreams. From personal experience, these manifestations can be quite traumatizing, and can cause one to lose a significant amounts of sleep (My personal record is six days, and at that point it gets quite scary). Out of fear of having these recurring dreams (manifestations), one will purposefully avoid sleep altogether, perhaps thinking that they do not necessarily need to sleep until their body makes them. They are absolutely right in this assumption, and their bodies will almost always get what it needs when they least expect it; they will pass out unexpectedly and probably sleep for a good 10-12 hours (once I did this mid-sentence on the phone). 

Works Cited

Vijay, Rajput, and Bromley Steven. American Family Physician, "aafp.org." Last 

modified October 01, 1999. Accessed March 29, 2014.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/1999/1001/p1431.html.

University of Maryland Medical Center, "umm.edu." Last modified January 20, 2012.

Accessed March 29, 2014.

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/insomnia.

"Its In The Air!" No, I Mean The Head

by Donesha

I Cause Harm

Kill Off Lives

Lie, Confuse, and Damage

Incapable Of Escaping My Presence

I’m Everywhere You Go

Especially When I Know Something You Should

I’ll Whisper It In Your Ear, Give Off A Scent Here and

There and Pass A Touch Too Your Body.

The reality of our world is unbearable. There are so many opinions about a weird smelly homeless man, who argues with himself daily about things you don’t quite understand. When you actually sit and think of him, you think “what was going on in his head?”

It is a mental disorder where you don’t know the difference between reality and the make believe. It’s hard to have normal emotional responses and act normal in social structures. It gets really noticeable when the patient experiences catatonia, abnormality of movement and behavior arising from a disturbed mental state. There are positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms. In a normal sympathetic person’s point of view, none of this is positive. Positive symptoms are classified as hallucinations, delusions and thought and movement disorders (agitated movements, disorganized and dysfunctional thinking.) Negative symptoms could be a lack of normal emotions and behaviors: Stiff expressions, dull voices, and being incapable of having pleasure in everyday life. Certain things can go unrecognized which are cognitive symptoms; Foggy memory, forgetting what you had planned for next week, small attention span (little to nothing), and being at the break of not being able to make decisions.

6% of the type of people who suffer from this mental disorder end up in jails, 5-6% resides in hospitals, 10% live in nursing facilities, 25% live with a family member, 28% live independently and 20% live in a group home.(http://www.schizophrenia.com/szfacts.htm) So stop to think, when you see those homeless elderly men on the corner arguing with themselves about crossing the street and sitting in that spot by McDonald's, does he fall in this category. Everyone are not meant to have the same mind set as you. Be mindful of your thoughts because your unaware of their situation. 

I’m young and not so cautious of my actions, but I believe the world we live in is horrible. I have a personal story that connects to this situation.  When I was younger, I remember waking up early in the morning, and walking to the bus stop with my mom, little brother and sister. We waited on the same bus every day. Every time our bus pulled up, as I peeked through the window, waiting to get on the bus, I saw this old man. He was very tall, light-skinned, had the most rigid beard, and a shiny bald head. He always wore a brown bulky coat and had an old black cassette player resting on his lap. He always chuckled and laughed at himself. Although no one would ever sit next to him, he seemed to always answer questions to himself and laugh afterwards. He would rock in a very fast motion and point and talk to inanimate objects. He frightened me a little. This was one of those times where you saw something and it grasped your eye very tightly.

Schizophrenia is a scary thought, especially when your naive to the truth. Anyone can be diagnosed with it. There are about 7.046 billion people in the world and about 24 million people worldwide that suffer from schizophrenia. (World Health Organization) Schizophrenia is hard to bear with and hard to know that someone close to you suffers from it. It’s also hard to know that when you see someone suffering from it, you don’t hesitate to make a  remark that wasn't well thought-out. They say you can’t help someone that doesn't want it, so the only thing that you can do is hope that they get the best in life and offer your help. If they refuse your gesture, don't force it, they'll eventually find their way. No one deserves to live a life suffering from such a cruel disease.

Visit the link below to learn more about the personal life of someone who suffers from Schizophrenia:

http://www.mtv.com/videos/true-life-i-have-schizophrenia/1586145/playlist.jhtml

Works Cited

1.  "What Is Schizophrenia?" National Institute Of Mental Health, www.nimh.nih.gov

2. "Schizophrenia" World Health Organization, 2014

Poem: What is Sleep?

What is Sleep?

Sleep is peace

Sleep is that place you go to be

Free

Sleep is unattainable

At least for some people

What is sleep?

I don't know, so don't ask me

Sleep is the epitome

Of everything there is

To be

Sleep to me

Is a goal

It's a

State of mind

That I can never reach

Insomnia

According to Web MD

It's when you have trouble sleeping

At least three times a week

You're lucky

If you just have it

However, despite what the Dr. Internet says

You can be it

Insomnia

For those of us who only sleep

Maybe

Two nights a week

It's tiring, 

Exhausting, 

It

Complicates things

As in side effects

As in what they call fatigue or depression or

Other various mental disorders

Not something annoying

As in curable

But something serious something Permanent 

Like Schizophrenia

Because it can

I looked it up

On Wikipedia

In my everlasting 

Sleep

I am still awake

Recently, insomnia has been affecting me very severely, even to the point where I did not sleep (aside from dozing off for five to ten minutes) for eight days straight. I have been plagued by nightmares, anxiety, and exhaustion because of this strange disorder. Insomnia also causes fluctuations in my appetite so that I go from starving to not hungry at all in minutes. At the end of a sleepless stretch, most of the time I pass out and sleep, without dreaming, for hours on end. Insomnia has become a huge problem for me in my personal and educational life; causing me to fall asleep in class constantly and not being able to do anything with my friends because I am just too tired all of the time.

If you want to read more about Insomnia, check out this website: http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/insomnia.

Next

"Is he here today?" someone would ask.
Not surprised, it's happened in the past.
My bubbly, smiling, happy Mandarin teacher,
has stage four stomach cancer.

She complained about pain near her stomach
her entire life, but no one would hear it.
She found blood on the toilet
and decided no more could she handle it.
A couple of tests and a trip to the doctor later,
she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
She tried her best to hold in her tears.
After that, my aunt would only live for half a year.

Six months later, my mom gets a call.
"Hey, it's about mom. She's not doing well at all."
A couple weeks later, my mom's on a plane to another country.
"It was hidden in her cough, something that we didn't see."
Slowly and painfully, my grandma started to plea.
She couldn't beat this lung cancer. "Please don't help me."
She died six months later, just like my aunt.
Sitting here we worry, who's next in its hunt?

Cancer has personally affected me and many of my loved ones. I hope that this poem will raise more awareness about about cancer and encourage people to be more invested in their health. The American Cancer Society's website, www.cancer.org, is one of many resources that people can visit for more information about cancer.

1. Paranoid About Thyroid

Courtesy of Dalton Surgical Group

I was almost diagnosed with thyroid cancer. My family has a history of thyroid disease, specifically my dad’s side. My dad has three brothers and two sisters. Two of his brothers and one of his sisters developed thyroid disease, including my dad. The thyroid is an organ located just below your Adam’s apple (Office on Women's Health). It’s shaped like butterfly wings and weighs less than an ounce (The Nemours Foundation). It’s responsible for producing two main hormones called T3 and T4, which helps control a person’s metabolism and growth. It can affect how fast you can burn calories and how fast your heart beats (Office on Women's Health.)

The two main thyroid disorders are hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. Hyperthyroidism is a disorder where your thyroid makes more hormones than you need, making it overactive. Hypothyroidism is the opposite of hyperthyroidism. Hypothyroidism is when your thyroid doesn’t make enough thyroid hormones, causing it to be under-active. Hyperthyroidism can cause bones to weaken, and increases people’s risk of developing osteoporosis. Hypothyroidism can increase the amount of “bad” cholesterol someone has in their bad which can lead to heart disease (Office on Women's Health.)

I’m not sure which of these disorders my aunts and uncles with thyroid disease have because I’ve never asked. But I know they all take medicine for it. There are several treatments for hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. For hyperthyroidism, there is something called anti-thyroid medicine which prevents the thyroid from making new hormones, radioiodine which destroys and damages the thyroid cells that make thyroid hormones, surgery to remove most of the thyroid, and beta blockers which block the effects of the thyroid hormones on your body. When someone has surgery or takes radioiodine, they must take thyroid hormone pills for the rest of the lives to make up for the missing thyroid hormones. With hypothyroidism, medicine is the only treatment for it. There are artificial T3 and T4 hormones in these medicine, some have one or the other while some have a combination of the two. Again, this type of medicine must be taken throughout a person’s entire life (Office on Women's Health.) When my dad started taking thyroid medicine, the doctor told him that he might have to take it for the rest of his life in order to maintain normal thyroid levels. But slowly, he tried to wean himself off of those pills while still having normal thyroid levels and he did it. But he still has normal checkups to make sure that his thyroid levels are where they should be.

Because of my family’s and dad’s history, my parents were worried about me. My mom has always commented on the size of my neck, saying that it looked bigger than normal. She spoke to our family doctor and he decided that it was better to be safe than sorry, and suggested that I get testing to try and figure out if I had thyroid disease. Thyroid diseases are hard to diagnose because their symptoms are fairly common among other diseases. Symptoms for hyperthyroidism can include muscle weakness, increased sweating and sensitivity to heat, shaky hands and fingers, trouble sleeping, irritability, anxiety, increased appetite and weight loss, and irregular heartbeats. Symptoms for hypothyroidism include a hoarse voice, puffy face, pale and dry skin, fatigue, depression, muscle or joint pain and weakness, increased sensitivity to cold, and unexplained weight gain. You may also develop thyroid nodules, which may or may not cause thyroid disease. A thyroid nodule is a swollen thyroid gland. A thyroid nodule can be seen on either side the windpipe below the Adam’s apple. It looks like a bump and will move up and down when you swallow. Less than 10% of thyroid nodules are cancerous. Cancerous thyroid nodules may cause people pain of difficulty when swallowing, and it may also cause the neck to look swollen (Office on Women's Health.)



Works Cited

1. Office on Women's Health. "Thyroid disease fact sheet." Last modified July 16, 2012. http://womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/thyroid-disease.html
2. The Nemours Foundation. "Thyroid Disease and Teens." Last modified February 2012. http://kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/growth/thyroid.html#

2. Trips to the Doctor

There are five ways to diagnose thyroid disease. One way to test for thyroid disease is a blood test. A blood test can check the amount of thyroid hormones present in your blood. The doctor can determine based on whether your thyroid levels are too high or too low if you have thyroid disease.  (Office on Women's Health) The first test I took was a blood test and the results showed that my thyroid levels were normal. But after some more tests, they discovered something. The doctor wanted to perform an ultrasound on my neck just to be sure my thyroid was normal. A thyroid ultrasound is another test that is used to diagnose thyroid disease. Sound waves are used that allow doctors to create a computer image of the thyroid (Office on Women's Health). It is the same type of ultrasound that expecting mothers get. When the doctor came back with my results, he gave us some unexpected news. He told us that I had a 1 mm cyst in my thyroid area. Because it was very small, he told us it wouldn’t cause much problems as long as there wasn’t any sudden growth. And of course, there was a “but” to his news. He said that they found a layer of calcium around this cyst of mine, and that usually pointed to signs of thyroid cancer. Once my mom heard that last word, she broke down. The idea of cancer is one of the worst things that people try to shield themselves from and pray that it misses them. The doctor tried to reassure us by saying that the layer of calcium around my cyst was not a definite sign of thyroid cancer and that he wanted to do more tests.

Courtesy of Radiation Products Design, Inc.

I had to go to a different hospital. I don't remember much, but I do remember that the room that I was supposed to go in had the sign “radioactive” on the door and I wasn’t sure whether or not I was in the right place, but it turned out that I wasn't mistaken. My dad came with me to make sure I was okay and because he was familiar with the testing, seeing that he has thyroid disease. The doctor seated me and asked me the typical series of awkward questions. She looked over the paperwork and then went to her cabinets and table and came back with a pill in a cup. Just as I was reaching for the pill, she told me that I couldn't touch the pill because it was radioactive. Something in my expression must have told her that I was uncomfortable with taking a radioactive pill. She quickly explained to me that the pill wouldn't hurt me and my thyroid would collect the radioactive iodine from the pill and that it would help her determine how my thyroid was functioning and on what level. This is another test that doctors use to diagnose thyroid disease. If the thyroid only uses a little of the radioactive iodine from the pill, it means that the thyroid is not making enough hormones and vice versa. (Office on Women's Health) I took the cup and I tried my very best to avoid having the pill touch my lips and I threw it into my mouth and swallowed it. It was a very odd feeling and I didn't know what quite to think. After a couple of minutes, she did an additional scan on my thyroid area and recorded her observations. This is another diagnosing test used by doctors called the thyroid scan. The thyroid scan uses the radioactive iodine from the pill and creates an image of someone's thyroid with a special camera. This test is mainly used to tell whether or not someone's thyroid is cancerous. (Office on Women's Health) It felt like another ultrasound. After she was done and I was all cleaned up, she told me that I would hear the results from my family doctor and dismissed my dad and I. As I left the hospital, I couldn't stop thinking that there was something radioactive inside my body, sitting in my stomach. And I just felt uneasy with myself.


The last test a doctor can use to diagnose thyroid disease (I wasn't given this test) is a thyroid fine needle biopsy. A biopsy is performed on the thyroid where a thin needle would be placed in the thyroid and withdraw cells from it. These cells would then be analyzed to determine if there was something unusual with them. Unusual cells typically pointed to signs of cancer. (Office on Women's Health)



Works Cited

1. Office on Women's Health. "Thyroid disease fact sheet." Last modified July 16, 2012. http://womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/thyroid-disease.html

3. In the Back of My Mind

Courtesy of Gettysburg Flag Works
Did you know that the thyroid cancer
ribbon is the only ribbon with 3 colors?

Someone with thyroid cancer can be treated in two ways: radioiodine (radioactive iodine) and surgery. Surgery is the main course of treatment that doctors would take because a successful surgery could result in completely eliminating the cancer. However, the entire thyroid gland would need to be removed. With radioiodine, if someone is treated with large doses of it, it could eliminate the thyroid cancer cells while inflicting very little to no harm towards other cells. (Office on Women's Health)

It's weird, huh? When one hears "radioactive," they usually get a negative impression and think of it as something that detriments our health. That's what I thought, and especially if I wasn't allowed to even touch the radioiodine pill, how could it possibly benefit my health or help me in any way? But upon further research, there has been studies that have been done to show the effectiveness of radioiodine, especially when used after surgery. Studies also showed that low doses of radioiodine essentially had the same effect as higher doses of radioiodine, causing less exposure to radiation and fewer side effects. (National Cancer Institute)

A couple of weeks later, we went back to our family doctor to hear the results of my tests. I did not have thyroid cancer. The air of the room suddenly felt free and I could almost feel the weight of the world leave the shoulders of my parents and me. The doctor told me that although I was fine for now, my cyst needed to be monitored so that they would be aware of any unusual activity that might occur. In the back of my mind, I know that although I don't have thyroid disease and cancer right now, the chances of me developing it is against me. With my family history, the odds are stacked against me and I believe, without a doubt, that I will develop it in the future.

In 2010, it was estimated that 534,973 people in the United States had thyroid cancer. 1.1% of people are expected to develop thyroid cancer in their life at some point. Thyroid cancer accounted for 3.6% of cancer cases that occurred in 2013, a total of 60,220 people. But thyroid cancer has a 97.7% survival rate and with all the research that I have done, I am confident that this disease is conquerable. (National Cancer Institute)



Works Cited

1. Office on Women's Health. "Thyroid disease fact sheet." Last modified July 16, 2012. http://womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/thyroid-disease.html
2. National Cancer Institute. "SEER State Fact Sheets: Thyroid Cancer." Last modified April 2013. http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/thyro.html
3. National Cancer Institute. "Low-Does Radioactive Iodine Destroys Thyroid Tissue Left after Surgery." Last modified June 7, 2012. http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/results/summary/2012/radioiodine-thyroid0612

No More!

by Jordan
           
                 Sitting with a smile on my face watching TV "Jordan! Jordan!" my mother yells while running into my room, "Hurry up, throw on something, L'A just got shot!" OMG! Different thoughts running through my head, tears running down my face. We finally got to the scene and my brother was shot outside of a studio waiting on my granny to come pick him up on September 26, 2013. He died at Northwestern hospital that night at 8:27 p.m. That night I went home feeling so dead inside and didn't know what to do. I was so filled with rage and wanted to go find the person who did this and do to them what they did to my brother. I cried myself to sleep, but woke up the next morning feeling a little okay, because I knew I had lost an soldier but gained an angel that was watching over me.  

                How does violence effect people? Many have asked, watching and seeing violence effects people in many ways. Once people get drawn into the violence, they get used to it and want to bring it into the real world. Someone who have might grown up with violence or sees it in their "everyday way of life," may try to be like what they see and want to fit in. There are many different types of violence such as: physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, spiritual, cultural, verbal, financial, and neglect. The ones that seem like they have the greatest mental effect is physical and emotional violence. When physical violence happens it can turn into emotional violence effecting an individual's health and well-being.

                      Physical violence is " The Problem Child" in my eyes because it's the most hurtful. With physical violence somehow it just seems like they don't care with what they are doing. The abuser doesn't understand that they are hurting someone that loves them the most. They may even think it's fun to hurt and kill, to take a life that can get you life. Also to take a life not worth it, because they have put a toll not only on the victim's family & friends, but also on themselves. Now they can go to jail or could even be in danger of dying. 

                   Violence puts such a heavy burden on everyone, because everyone gets effected in a certain way. People may now feel like it's not even safe anymore for them to go outside on a nice day. With these gang-related murders you all kill your "opps", as the generation calls them today, and once they die or get killed, you all go into wars. What Is The Problem?Everyone should get a chance to live their life. All of the violence isn't making anyone's life better. We need to all stand up and put a stop to this. THE VIOLENCE NEEDS TO STOP!

Diabetes

 By: Jordan

                     

           "STOP! This can’t keep going on, I’m sick and tired of all the people around me dying, and getting hurt." 

"Are you okay? Talk to me about it, what’s going on?" 

"DIABETES! That’s what going on, it’s killing and hurting people I love and I need to get some help to stop it from killing others." 

"What idea do you have in mind, is there really anything that you think can do?" 

"I don’t know, but I can try at least something." 

           These are the conversations that should be happening in households where a family member has diabetes. My best-friend and my great-grandmother both have diabetes, luckily neither of them have a really bad case of it. I really just want us to stop the increase of diabetes rates by knowing more about it. You may not know, but diabetes has a really big effect on Americans today. People also think you can only develop diabetes as an adult, but you can also be born with it and this disease can be passed down from generation to generation.

             There are three different types of diabetes; Type 1, Type 2, and Gestational Diabetes. Gestational Diabetes only effect pregnant women but Type 1 and Type 2 can happen to anyone. Type 1 diabetes is early-onset, which people develop in their young adulthood and teenage years. Type 1 diabetes used to be called juvenile-onset diabetes. It is usually caused by an auto-immune reaction, which means the body's defense system attacks the cells that produce insulin. Patients with type 1 diabetes produces very little insulin or none at all. People with type 1 diabetes need injections of insulin everyday in order to control levels of sugar in your blood and if they don't have any access they could die.

           Type 2 diabetes is called the non-insulin dependent diabetes or even adult-onset diabetes. This accounts for about 90% of diabetes cases. This type can occur at any age. Type 2 diabetes can be undetected for many years and the diagnosis is often made when a complication appears, or even a blood test can be done. Type 2 is often associated with obesity, which itself can lead to high glucose levels. Patients with type 2  can often somewhat manage their condition with exercise and a diet. Most people will also require oral drugs.

              Gestational Diabetes (GDM) is the form where consisting of high blood glucose levels during pregnancy. It can developed every 1 in 25 pregnancies  and is associated with complications with the mother and the baby. GDM usually goes away after the pregnancy but women and even the children can be at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. About half of the women with an history of GDM go on to develop  type 2 diabetes within 5 to 10 years after delivery. 

       These 3 different typr of diabetes can affect people in all different ways. They all have different characteristics. Type 1 are like the early onset diabetes. Whereas type 2 are where you get affected, but also not really affected. Gestational diabetes really just affects pregnant women and their baby. These are all the types of diabetes and how they affect us today.