How young is too young???

                So you have a child that has multiple imaginary friends, and the more she talks about them the more you get to know them, the more you get to know them you notice things that make you wonder if what she is seeing something else. 

                At what point would it occur to you that maybe these “imaginary friend s” are something else and at what age? How would you know if the child is faking in order to get attention to the point where the child gets violet with their siblings or other kids or if the child is actually seeing things?

                And what if it turns out that your child has some form of schizophrenia, what then? In the video the little girl says 400 the cat is telling her to hurt her new baby brother so the parents decide to live in separate apartments in order to keep the peace between their children. Wouldn’t it be easier to simply hospitalized the child or put her on medication? As a parent how would this decision be based on, the good it will do for the child or the easier it would make life for the parent? And if, for arguments sake, the child is hospitalized, does that help or hinder her condition? Rebecca says she hates people because they do not understand her, her condition or her issues and has already attempted suicide before the age of 10. Was her hatred and suicide attempt are because she was institutionalized or were the voices telling her?

                She does have a point I think, not many people understand what children with schizophrenia are going through. Especially because of their age, many pass it off as attention tantrums and think nothing of it. But what if we are wrong a child may be ingenious and manipulative but at the end of the day they are still children.

Accidental Discoveries

When you hear about a new pill or medication, what do you assume? That the medication is tested thoroughly and its intended effects and side effects are known, well think again.  Pills are made pretty much by trial and error; it looks like it might work so let’s try it out.

                Now don’t get the wrong idea either, scientists aren’t just mixing stuff and selling it, medications have some form of intended purpose. The curious thing is though that these medications serve multiple illnesses. For example, bromides were supposed to reduce the sexual impulse because it was believed that masturbation produced epileptic attacks thus bromides were supposed to reduce epileptic attacks. Although bromide did decrease epileptic attacks as well as cause impotence in men, it wasn’t because these two factors were related.

                Another accidental discovery was latisse originally derived from Lumigan a glaucoma treatment. Latisse is a wonder drug used to grow longer, thicker or darker lashes. Who would’ve guessed it right? Among others are Viagra, originally meant as a vasodilator, iproniazid the first antidepressant meant to treat tuberculosis and most famous of all is Penicillin. Discovered in 1928 penicillin was a mold growing in a petri dish, penicillin lead to cures to diseases such as syphilis, gangrene and tuberculosis.

                It’s crazy how some of the greatest moments in medicine occurred through by a stroke of chance. I think we got the right idea it’s just that sometimes it’s the obvious that evades us that the answers emerge on their own.

Insomiacs

Insomnia; sleeplessness caused by not being able to sleep or not sleeping enough. As college students we all know how that feels to some degree. It's just that there never seems to be enough hours in the day to sleep enough to satisfy.
I know it is a common belief that some people use alcohol to help them sleep but for those that don't know, this method has a short-term effect. After frequent use of this method the individual builds a tolerance which end up reversing the effects in some making alcohol the cause for insomnia.
As college students the most likely cause for lack of sleep is stress. Pulling all nighters the day before and exam or overstressing about how hard an upcoming test will be can take it's toll on the body and mind.
Eventually the fact that you have trouble sleeping becomes such a routine thing that you start to expect it and end up "learning" to be an insomniac.Crazy right, that fact that it's self-induced is not easy to take in. But just as it is conditioned, it can also be unconditioned.

Stress and the Immune System

Stress, it is a killer. We’ve all felt its effects; the fatigue, the fever, the loss of appetite, and in my case acid reflux. We often overlook these things thinking they’ll go away on its own as if they were symptoms to a common cold.

                Although chances are that the symptoms are, considering the strain your immune system is under, that of a cold other roles can also influence stress therefore your health. Many studies have shown that continued stress creates havoc on your health however studies have also shown that short terms of stress improve performance.

                For example, someone who lives in a stressful environment say a demanding job, unappreciative spouse, troublesome kids, etc. is more likely to decline in his performance of his day to day activities, his health would also start to decline and would only lead to depression, aches and pains fatigue, and concentration difficulties. Also, if a person who is already sick stressing out would only prolong the duration of the illness. Studies show that patients who are stressed take longer to recuperate than those without stress.

                There are ways in which a person can reduce the stress in their lives. Meditation and yoga are great examples of relaxation as well as exercise; exercise is a great way to reduce stress because it helps reduce anxiety and improves health. A way to look for stress reducers is by seeing stress as a mind and body problem rather than just the mind or the body separately.

Intersex

  Imagine living a life as lie. Always feeling as if there was something wrong with you, feelings of not belonging. Then you find  out that as a child your parents were forced to make the decision of raising you as either a boy or a girl. Cases like these are not too rare and occurs only in 1 in 2000 people in the United States. It's called intersex, when sexual development is intermediate enough that it is uncertain whether the sex of the person is male or female. In the case of Debbie, formally Andrew, she felt uncomfortable with who she thought she was. Even though Andrew had a family and kids, it did not feel right.

       Gender identity is more than just physiological and rearing factors, there has to be something else that makes us feel comfortable with the role we've been placed in.

Animal Attraction

     The rules of attraction, a topic found in different branches of psychology. In physiological psychology attraction is all about survival of the fittest ;D.

    Pheromones are the chemicals that attract men and women to each other. Excreted through the skin, sweat glands, saliva and urine; these are the biological reasons for how and why we choose a potential mate. Disgusting right, its not like we go around smelling other people to see if they are our soul mates. However, these pheromones are what elicit sexual desires, hormone levels and sexual readiness.
       Obviously nobody consciously smells them when meeting someone. Pheromones work subconsciously to choose a genetically compatible mate. People who are genetically incompatible are actually turned off by each others smell. For example, you tend to avoid people who smell like your siblings; the reason is not because you don't like how your siblings smell but because by avoiding similarities in gene compatibility you avoid probability of incest and genetic mutations.
       Ever wonder why certain few lucky men always seem to be surrounded by women even if these men are not even handsome? Well the explanation for this lies in pheromones. About 10% of  men secrete significant amounts of a specific pheromone called androsterone, this gives him what we call "sex appeal". Hard to believe right, you want him because he smells "right", in an evolutionary sense, not because he looks good.
       Pheromones are also used in the perfume industry as the "seductive" ingredient

Alzheimer's

Everyone forgets things. We forget where we put our keys, if we fed the dog, did I lock my car, you know little things like that. But what if you were to forget where you were or how you got there; if one day your children went to see you and you didn’t recognize them? What if it got to the point that every time you would wake up it would be a whole new world? I suppose from the perspective of the patient they probably wouldn’t notice, but for a loved one of that person it can be pretty frustrating and sad. 
Alzheimer’s has no cure, it worsens as it progresses and eventually leads to death. It tends to happen with age, in people over 65 yrs of age. As it develops it’s symptoms are usually mistaken by stress or “age related concerns”. Some of the symptoms include:

·         Confusion

·         Irritability and aggression

·         Mood swings

·         Trouble with language

·         And long-term memory loss

    It is not easy predicting the outcome for this disease because it affects everyone differently. The progress isn’t well understood which makes it difficult for a cure to be found. People diagnosed usually live an average of seven years after  their diagnosis.

Agenisis of the corpus collossum

The corpus collossum is a bundle of nerve fibers that connect both sides of the brain. Obviously this is important if you want to use more than just one side of your brain.  Now imagine this very important connection is severed, what then? Well fortunately although the biggest and most used it is not the only connection of its kind. These smaller commissures allow the brain to rewire itself so that information can continue to flow as best as possible and one can continue to live a seemingly normal life with a few drawbacks.

                However, what if this connection never developed, is it better or worse in the sense of the brain being able to adapt? When the corpus collossum is absent it is known as agenesis. This condition is rare and is usually diagnosed by the age of two. Symptoms of ACC include seizures, feeding problems, problems holding the head erect, sitting, standing, and walking. Although ACC has many impairments it is non-fatal. Since an infant is born without the corpus collossum and the brain is still under relative development throughout their life, their brain can adapt around this disorder. For example, the other smaller commissures will grow larger than normal in order to compensate for the lack of the main connection. In fact studies have shown that people born with ACC lead normal lives and have an average intelligence if any there are some subtle differences in cortical function. Also revealed in recent studies is the correlation between corpus collassum malformation and autism spectrum disorders.

Mammalian Brain Development

 

The embryonic fetal brains of all mammals develop in the same way. In humans and many other mammals, new neurons are created mainly before birth, and the infant brain contains more neurons than the adult brain. This is mentioned in the book as Neural Darwinism, the strongest neurons survive ans the weak deteriorate and die. There are, however, a few areas where new neurons continue to be generated throughout life. The two areas that are well established are the olfactory bulb, which is involved in the sense of smell, research shows that one of the first signs of mammalian brain evolution begun with the sense of smell, and the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus where there is evidence that the new neurons play a role in storing newly acquired memories. With these exceptions, however, the set of neurons that is present in early childhood is the set that is present for life. Glial cells are different: as with most types of cells in the body, they are generated throughout the lifespan. 

     All vertebrate brains share a common underlying form, which appears most clearly during early stages of embryonic development. In its earliest form, the brain appears as three swellings at the front end of the neural tube; these swellings eventually become the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain (the prosencephalon, mesencephalon, and rhombencephalon, respectively). At the earliest stages of brain development, the three areas are roughly equal in size. In many classes of vertebrates, such as fish and amphibians, the three parts remain similar in size in the adult, but in mammals the forebrain becomes much larger than the other parts, and the midbrain becomes very small.

    

     ^{Normally brain is compared in terms of its size. The larger the brain is compared to its body mass the higher the mental faculties of that animal is. However that is not the case in all species therefore it is not a very valid equation.}

     ^{Although the same basic components are present in all vertebrate brains, some branches of vertebrate evolution have led to substantial distortions of brain geometry, especially in the forebrain area. These distortions can make it difficult to match brain components from one species with those of another species.}

     ^{On a different note concerning brain size, research done on 500 different types of mammal species throughout their lifespan showed a correlation with brain size and their longevity. The article basically says that the larger the body brain size ration the longer the lifespan.}

      

Cocaine

   Commonly known as crack, cocaine is a highly addictive drug and exceedingly dangerous. What it does is block the re-uptake receptors for dopamine causing the euphoric feeling, noradrenoline which is responsible for the increased feelings of energy, and seratonin. By inhibiting the re-uptake the neurotransmitters cannot be recycled for later use and the CNS is left active until the neurotransmitters are degenerated causing the "crash" that comes after the "high"
    On average a high only last from 5-30 minutes, that is why the drug is so addictive. The user wants a prolonged effect so they will use dose after dose.What tends to happen is that the druggie develops an immunity to the effects of cocaine causing the struggle to obtain the same level of euphoria extremely life threatening. Some symptoms of an overdose include nausea, chills, paranoia, insomnia, and psychological breakdowns. Aside from these short term effects, long term effects are even more unpleasant.
   Psychosis, change in personality, paranoia, anxiety, various heart problems ranging from raised blood pressure to strokes and heart failure. If cocaine is "snorted" the nasal septum degenerates or disappears completely

  So yes, cocaine can really mess you up.