Importance of Holistic Health: A Personal Story

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,” from Kaiser Permanente, is a good quote to tell us the important of mental, physical, and social well-being for our health. If a person doesn’t have all of three conditions, he/she doesn’t have a healthy body and healthy life. Tuyen, my aunt’s brother in law, is an example. He needed to work twelve hours per day without day off and health care to take care of his family. Therefore, he often feel tired, stressed and depressed about his job over twenty years. One day of five years ago, Tuyen got a terrible sick and became mental retardation after that. So, he looked like a baby boy and couldn’t make money for the family

So, they have lack of sleep, stressed, and unhappiness in their daily live. Like the patient in example, Gregor has some symptoms about depression when he wakes up with his new body as a giant bug. “Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather. Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel quite sad. "How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense", he thought...and in his present state couldn 't get into that position” (Kafka). Gregor feels sad, feels tired in his mind, and feels down, so these are some symptoms of depression. Moreover, according to the article “Depressed”, “In addition, trauma, loss of a loved one, a difficult relationship, or any stressful situation may trigger a depressive episode. Other depressive episodes may occur with or without an obvious trigger” (National Institute of Mental Health). There are some causes of depression of many people in the world, and also the causes of Gregor’s depression. Before the transformation, Gregor has a “stressful situation” in his job. Although Gregor feels sad and tired about his job as a traveling salesman, he needs to go to work every single day. Therefore, Gregor feels stressed and depressed that make a lot negative effects for his mental health in future (the day when he turn into a bug). Plus, Gregor has a “difficult relationship” with his family’s members.

First, after the transformation, Gregor lose his human voice, so both his family’s members and his manager cannot hear what Gregor said. ““Have you heard Gregor speak yet?” "That was an animal’s voice", said the manager” (Kafka 14). So, lose voice is a symptom of laryngitis that many people sometimes get in their live. According to the article “Diseases and Conditions Laryngitis,” “Laryngitis is an inflammation of your voice box (larynx) from overuse, irritation or infection.” Gregor is working hard every day, so he may get sick and easy to get laryngitis that make his voice loss and cannot talk with other person. Second, in Gregor’s transformation, we can recognize that stress makes Gregor has some negative effects in his physical health. As a result, it makes Gregor has trouble with his digestive system. After the transformation, he cannot eat like a human anymore, so he is gradually change in his appetite. According to Gregor Samsa in “The Metamorphosis”, “…but the milk did not taste at all nice. Milk like this was normally his favorite drink, and his sister had certainly left it there for him because of that, but he turned, almost against his own will, away from the dish and crawled back into the center of the room” (Kafka). Having a trouble with digestive system is a common symptom of a lot of employees who work a long time in their companies. They usually don’t have a suitable schedule for eat