Inner Demons
Human lives revolve around relationships and maintaining them. It takes a stable person to maintain a healthy relationship, without this they could emotionally hurt themselves or others. The idea of maintaining healthy relationships is a topic John Green explores in his book Turtles All the Way Down. Aza is a high school girl that deals with a mental illness that controls her life. She is constantly worried about getting sick and dying by her microbiome. She constantly lets people in her life down and is not there for them when they need her. When people are not in the mental state to maintain healthy relationships they should accept help from others and not push them away as seen through Aza’s therapist appointments, arguments
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with Aza’s friend Daisy, and Aza’s date with Davis. Appointments with Azas therapist take a turn for the worst when Aza decides not to accept help from her therapist and take her prescribed medication. Aza doesn’t realize taking her medication will help her but she believes the medication will control her and change who she is as a person. In Aza’s mind she believes “‘If taking a pill makes you different, like, if it changes the way-down you . . . that’s just a screwed-up idea, you know?’” (Green 88). Aza is not even in the right mental state to make the decision to not take her pill but decides to not take it anyway. She believes the pill will change her, but in reality her mental illness is changing who she is and interfering with her relationship with her mom. Aza’s mom has to keep up with her medication after “I had switched to a different medication, which Mom made sure I took every morning,” (Green 235). Since Aza hasn’t been taking her pill everyday she can not maintain a healthy relationship with her mom and her mom doesn’t trust her anymore because she hasn’t been taking her pill. If Aza accepted help from her therapist she could have maintained a more healthy relationship with her mom. Aza however, just pushes them both out and tries to deal with her mental health issues by herself fabricating unhealthy relationships between them all. Aza continues to push people near to her away, leading to an argument with her best friend Daisy. Aza is so caught up in her head she neglects her relationship with her best friend Daisy and doesn’t accept her help. Daisy wants to help Aza but she pushes her out and doesn’t care about anything in Daisy’s life, Aza doesn’t read any of Daisy’s stories or even been to her house in years. Daisy continues to ask “‘you okay?’ She asked. ‘Yeah,’ I said” (Green 213). Shutting her best friend out and not accepting her help causes a toxic relationship between the two friends. Aza only cares about herself because she is in her head and Daisy is always worried about Aza, Daisy’s life is just swept under the rug causing problems between them. Daisy tries to tell her that “‘you should take three seconds away from your nonstop contemplation of yourself to think about other people’s interests’” (Green 214). An unhealthy relationship forms between the two just because of the mental instability Aza is in. If Aza accepted Daisys help and confided in her problems they could mend the brokeness between them and Daisy could try and help Azas mental health issues. Dating a boy is no help to Aza’s mind when she starts going on dates with Davis and it soon turns very unhealthy. Aza tries to fight her inner demons and go on dates with Davis but she neglects to talk about her problems and receive help from Davis, causing them to move in two different directions at times.
Aza’s mental health is unstable and takes control of her mind even when Davis kisses her which freaks her out because she “didn’t want his microbiota near me, but I let him keep his arm there, because I didn’t want to seem like a freak” (Green 155). Aza is clearly uncomfortable but makes the relationship even more unhealthy by not confronting the problem to Davis. He tries to help her but he continues to ask “‘was it something that I did? Should I do -’ ‘No, it’s not about you.’ ‘You can tell me’ ‘It’s really not…’” (Green 155). Davis is continued to be in the dark about Aza’s mental health because she is afraid of him knowing what goes on inside her mind. She shuts people out because one of her fears is for people to know what’s in her mind, she is so afraid of dying she drinks hand sanitizer to keep C diff (a deadly illness) which she doesn’t have out of her. For Aza to have a more healthy state of mind she needs to accept help from Davis so they can work out the problem together, but she doesn’t accept his help and this creates an unhealthy relationship for them both. Problems left unsolved always take a turn for the worst and in the near future could hurt Aza and Davis. Issues always grow from seeds of secrets kept and situations not dealt
with. Any relationship can destroy something in one’s life or create something new for them. When one doesn’t have the mental stability to retain a healthy relationship they should receive aid from people close to them and not shut them down, this is seen through Aza’s pills, Aza’s quarrel with Daisy, and times spent with Davis. It is important to recognize that not everyone has the same mental health and experiences different things in their life. Always try to help someone even if they continue to push help away, no one knows the battles they are facing and one conversation could make a difference in their life. Works Cited Green, John. Turtles All the Way Down. Dutton Books, 2017.
From reading and reflecting her personal experience and journey with her sister, Pamela, I acquired a personal outlook of the deteriorating effects of mental illness as a whole, discovering how one individual’s symptoms could significantly impact others such as family and friends. From this new perspective mental health counseling provides a dominate field within not only individuals who may suffer mental illness such as Pamela, but also serve as a breaking point for family and friends who also travel through the illness, such as Carolyn.
She opens the callus, drains the ‘infection’ puts a drop of hand sanitizer on it and applies another bandaid. Her over exaggerated thought spiral has been a conflict she’s had to fight ever since she was a little girl. It’s not easy to dismiss the thoughts because “the thing about a spiral is, if you follow it inward, it never actually ends. It just keeps tightening, infinitely” (Green, p. 7). Aza’s friend, Davis—who she is slowly falling in love with—has conflict with another person. That person is his Dad. His dad “was about to be arrested for bribery… but the night before the raid he disappeared” (Green, p. 4). Davis and his father have never been close because his dad is extremely wealthy and that's all he seemed to care about. When Aza found out, she reached out to her old friend Davis to ask how he felt about it, his response was: “my dad’s a huge shitbag. He skipped town before getting arrested because he’s a coward” (Green, p.
Squidbillies is an animated cartoon show about talking squids living in a random county in the Appalachian Mountains. Dougal County, the setting of this comedy, is a dusty, distorted place in which the squids wreak havoc everywhere they go. The show follows the patriarch of the Cuyler clan; Early, the alpha squid himself, drinks heavily, chain smokes, and talks ‘shit' (in colloquial terms) to everyone he encounters.
Betrayal is being disloyal to others and even oneself, therefore betrayal can cause many emotional fallouts and baggage within relationships. In the story, The World on the Turtle's Back, betrayal is a huge factor in how the story plays out, as it is in the song The Letter by Kehlani, Genesis 4:1-16, and Matthew 26:14-16 . Three ways in which betrayal is portrayed in the story, the song, and the Bible is by the actions people take to one another, disconnections in relationships that lead to betrayal, and emotional baggage.
In the Grapes of Wrath, a novel by John Steinbeck, there are many examples of symbolism. One of the most prominent symbols found in this book is the turtle seen in chapter three. This turtle is symbolic of three things: the Joads and their journey west, Tom Joad himself, and the promise of new life. First, here’s a little background information on the turtle. This land turtle was somewhere to go. Where than is, no one knows, except perhaps John Steinbeck. To get there the turtle decides to take the perilous journey down a dusty dirt road that stretches along the quiet countryside. What could happen? A lot more than one might think. In fact, the turtle faces quite a few challenged ranging from pesky insects, to ledges, to even cars. But, the thing that makes this turtle special is that he never gives up (Pages
Everyone has some form of a relationship in their life, whether it's with friends, a significant other, parents, or something else, and we can’t deny it. Those relationships can either negative or positive. As Aza is stuck in her mental illness, she doesn’t realize that as she travels through her life, the people she’s with have both a positive and a negative effect on her.
Throughout the animal kingdom, adaptations take place continuously and even the smallest of changes can leave a significant impact. Examples can be seen within any plant or animal. One example would include sea turtles, specifically, the Loggerhead Turtles. These turtles are native to the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans as well as the Mediterranean Sea (Deurmit L 2007). They thrive in either temperate or tropical climates and can live in a myriad of biomes (Deurmit L 2007). These biomes include the pelagic, reef, coastal, and brackish water (Deurmit L 2007). Loggerhead turtles are omnivores and can eat anything from insects to aquatic crustaceans, to macro algae (Deurmit L 2007). According to Deurmit (2007) Caretta caretta is classified into Animalia Kingdom, Chordata Phylum, Vertebrata Subphylum, Reptilian Class, Testudines’ Order,
Mental illness can have a tremendous effect on not only the individual suffering, but to their family. "Mental illness often has a ‘ripple effect’ on families, creating tension, uncertainty, troubled emotions and big changes in how people live their lives" ("Families and friends"). A family member who suffers from a mental illness can have a great impact on numerous physical, psychological and social aspects of the family. Creating nursing priorities can help to create developmental and behavioral functions of a family to help the family bond and cope with a mental illness. The film “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” by Lasse Hallstrom, portrays a family who struggle to cope with the enormous impact that a mentally challenged child “Arnie” can have on a family. Although the whole family is involved in Arnie’s care, it is clear that Gilbert, Arnie’s older brother, takes on the primary giver role. Throughout the movie, many scenes tend to dramatically show the amount of stress, frustration, aggression, and separation on the family that is ultimately created from Arnies mental illness. In this paper we are going to discuss the impact of chronic illness on the grape family, two family centered priorities we have chosen using the Calgary Family Assessment Model and one nursing intervention for each priority using the Calgary Family Intervention Model.
...a and Mental Illness • Social Justice Solutions." Socialjusticesolutions.org, 2012. Web. 13 Jan 2014. .
Mental illnesses can develop through the surroundings of others with a mental illness. The fictional novel, Bad Girls Club by Judy Gregerson, depicts the story of Destiny’s perspective on her mother with schizophrenia, a mental illness, and how it affects her whole family. For the well-being of the family, Destiny has to self sacrifice. She ends up holding her family together by focusing on them rather than her health, social life and individuality. Mental illness can not only be caused hereditary, but by environmental factors, such as family, neglect, and parentification.
The discussion of mental health is slowly being brought to the social surface to create a more inclusive society for those dealing with a mental illness. However, those with a mental illness are continuously being affected by stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination by those who simply don’t comprehend the complexity of the human brain (Glaser, G.2017). As more people become mental health activist, they are exposing the plethora of issues surrounding the overall mental and physical stability of those who are negatively affected by the social construct of what it means to be normal.
Both Meg and Jim explained that when growing up, mental illness was something that was never talked about in their schools. As a result, children then and now act negatively towards the concept of mental health. Meg shared an example from her life where this was especially apparent. She explained that growing up she had a lot of friends. However, once her illness grew increasingly worse during her senior year of high school, she noticed that her friend group dwindled dramatically. Her friends did not understand what she was going through. They would tell her that they did not like to spend time with her because ‘she sucked the fun out of everything.’ At this point in time, Meg was having a very hard time with her mental illness and the loss of her friends seemed to be a tipping point for her. It pushed her further into her sad state where she started using self-harm as a way to cope. Knowledge pertaining to mental health is extremely important. Research shows that “most children around five years of age have knowledge of stereotypes related to mental illness, and report that they personally believe them. Negative attitudes towards mental illness observed tend to be consolidated during adulthood (Campos, Palha, Dias, Lima, Veiga, Costa & Duarte, 2012, p.259-260).” Stereotypes resulting in stigmas are learned at a young age. It is critical that kids start learning the
middle of paper ... ... However, there is a large portion of mental health ill people that are able to find stability and maintain stability in their illness. Many of these people overcome their illness to some extent and manage to play an important role in society. Work Cited: Claire Henderson, Sara Evans-Lacko, Clare Flach, Graham, Thornicrofi.
...erstand the importance of mental health, we would all appreciate how lucky we are to not face days where even the simplest tasks appear to be challenging, even the effort to wake up in the morning seems like a great ordeal to some sufferers of depression. It is important to let friends and family know that your support is available, just in case someone is tackling some form of mental illness. Just because someone is experiencing a hurdle in their lives, it is essential to continue to help them carry on in striving for the happiness that they deserve. We should all be aware of the effect our actions could have, to try a little bit harder to eliminate the stigma that exists within our society.
In the past, mental illness was taboo to discuss and there was fear surrounding the topic. However, remarkable strides have been made in figuring out the causes of the disease and weighing the most effective treatments specialized for each specific disease. According to the American Psychotic Association, “A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.”