Depressed!!

Once in a while we may feel down in the dumps due to a personal crisis, let down, or just feeling overwhelmed about certain things in our lives that can make us stress out and sometimes make us feel sad because there are times when we can't do much about it. So, when people ask us what is wrong, sometimes we happen to over exaggerate and say that we are feeling depressed! (I am guilty of saying this) But the truth I'm not really depressed just feeling gloomy, being depressed is more severe, when a person feels sad and helpless for weeks at a time and they don't have the motivation to do anything at all. I've never experienced this disorder or have I ever witnessed it on someone but it doesn't sound like something I would want to go through. I would think it feels like your trapped within your body/mind and don't have the strength to go about your business. 

There are so many methods of treating a person going through depression such as antidepressant drugs, electroconvulsive therapy, altered sleep patterns and even psycho therapy. Some are more popular than others depending on how mild to severe the depression is.

I was able to find statistics on how often this illness occurs among adults, and even though the information is not recent, it can still give us an idea of how many people it affects. Women are more likely to have a major depressive disorder than males, and 30% of the depression cases are known to be as "severe". It may not seem like an illness many people go through but the truth is is does affect plenty of people throughout the country. 

The chart below shows a percentage of adults dealing with depression, it had declined since 2004 and I'm wondering now if its as declined even more since 2008 at a 6.4% or if it has stabilized or increased since then.  

Insomnia!

Sleep disorders such as insomnia, is where the individual does not have the adequate amount of sleep one is 

supposed to have, (7.5 to 8 hrs) in fact they do even sleep at all. The causes for insomnia can be due to 

anxiety, stress, pain, diet or even medication or even external factors, such as street noises. The experience 

of having insomnia is not fun, I've experienced it for a couple of weeks in the summer and had insufficient amounts of sleep. Days were a drag and I never had much energy, and when the night time arrived I suppose I stressed myself by already worrying that I would not fall asleep. It took me a while to get back into my normal sleep cycle and I'm glad I was able to sleep like a normal person again. 

Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows interesting statistics on how many people are actually affected by the amount of sleep an individual does or does not get.  Additional information is presented on how age, gender, employment and even economic social status does to our sleeping habits.  

Intersexes / Sexual Orientation

Gender identity is how we define ourselves sexually  and what we call ourselves, either as a female or male & with our sexual orientation whether we are heterosexual, homosexual, or even bisexual. Everyone will eventually come to understand themselves and how they want to be sexually with either the opposite or same sexes. 

Unfortunately not every person as it as simple to figure our their own gender identity. Some people have both female and male body parts and find it difficult to how they identity themselves at. An estimation of 1 in 100 children are born intersex in the United States. When these children are born it would be easier to do surgery and rear the child as a girl.  These people would be called hermaphrodites.

I was able to find this video from 20/20 that documents an intersex female and talks about her experiences while growing up. She also speaks up about whether surgery should be done on babies to remove or reduce the genital ambiguity. 

Pain

Pain is never a feeling people want to experience but it makes us aware of what is harming our body or not.  The most excruciating pain I've ever experienced was during my junior year in high school when I was in a basketball gain & I sprained my ankle. I felt this intense sharp pain and heard a loud pop, it hurt like hell and quickly started swelling. While reading the material in the text I replayed this experience in my head as how the pain travels. If I felt a sharp pain , I know that thick and faster axons were conveying this pain along with neurotransmitters such as glutamate and substance.. Even after about an hour after my incident even the slightest touch would hurt my ankle and foot, I didnt even want to move it. I felt sharp pains throughout the whole night on  my ankle that it felt like little needles were poking at me . I felt like my endorphins never kicked in because it felt as if the pain never went away, not even for a bit.

Memory and Amnesia

It definitely is a gift to have the memory that most of us have, from our short term, long term to our working memory. Short term of course being something that includes what we have just learned and once it has been interrupted it and not rehearsed as much it can be lost forever. Long term has a lot of capacity to retain material even if it has been years. and has been rehearsed or heard of many times.

It really amazes me how far back our long term memory can remember things we are given a hint about something or shown pictures of our childhood. I experienced this a couple weeks ago actually as I was looking through some childhood pictures when I was about 4 yrs old and the things that I was doing in the picture took me back to that day. It's a crazy feeling when you actually think about it. It would be even better if we could actually develop memories from when we are in the womb or even as infants. Now that would really be something.

Its definitely a disappointment when we know that our  working memory will disintegrate as we approach old age, because our prefrontal cortex will have declining activity as it changes.

Split Brain Studies

Split brain means that when the corpus callosum is damaged it does not allow the right and left hemisphere to exchange information. Even though the corpus callosum is damaged small amounts of information still travel between the hemispheres thru several smaller commissures.

 For people who do have sever epilepsies having a brain split procedure done will help prevent the epilepsies because the right and left hemispheres would not be crossing information that may cause the epilepsy from happening.

If patients with split brains' are shown a picture to his/her left visual field will be unable to say what they see but would be able to draw it out, as shown in the picture below.  And if shown to his/her right visual field the patient would be able to announce what he says, particularly because for most people the left hemisphere is language dominance.  

Michael Gazzaniga  has conducted experiments and studies for more than 50 yrs with patients who have  split-brain. Heres a video from early research on animals with split brain and how the brain works. 

On a final note, its still incredible how the brain works and is still able to change in a few ways to make life easier for us, even after people with epilepsy have had split brain surgery,  and there are not large amounts of  information exchanging, other forms of axons adapt to ways to send smaller messages through the brain and to the rest of our body.  

Phantom Limbs

I have a friend who happens to be in the military and has come to know some friends who have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with the war in the Middle East. Yes, they have seen the worse and also have experienced the worse especially if they have had an arm or leg amputated due to gun shots or explosive devices. I've heard him tell me on different occasions how his friends experience the phantom limb pain.

The phantom limb is a continuing sensation of an amputated body part. These sensations may only occur if the relevant portion of the somatosensory cortex recognizes and is responsive to alternative inputs. The mirror therapy can apparently used to relieve the pain that people experience because it tricks their brain into thinking that the amputated leg or arm is actually the one doing the movements as well. I would think it would be because of the current sensations are binding with the memories of previous experiences. The synapse that used to receive input from the new amputated part become vacant is what makes the phantom limb sensation. Axons representing another part of the body take over those synapses.

 I happened to find a video that demonstrated this kind of therapy that is being done on soldier who has had their leg amputated.