Alzheimer’s

“When is your mother coming home?”

“She will be back by 5.”

*after 5 minutes*

“When is your mother coming home? Why is she not back yet?”

*Sighs*

99.9% of us are guilty of getting annoyed at this kind of situation, if not 100%.

Alzheimer’s, accounts for 60% to 70% of cases of dementia. It is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and gets worse over time.

Unfortunately its very common and over 3M people suffer from it in US.

AD usually occurs in old age, and is marked by a decline in cognitive functions such as remembering, reasoning, and planning.

Imagine waking up one morning and you cannot remember where you are or your own child’s name. This is how severe it can be.

The disease triggers as two abnormal protein fragments called plaques and tangles accumulation hippocampus the part of the brain where memory first formed and destroy brain cells. Eventually,after the plaques and tangles completely kill the hippocampus, it spread inside the brain keeping a particular sequence of ‘victims’. During the process of the disease moving around person’s morality is being vanished. Abilities, like speaking and processing language, solving problems, grasping concepts, keeping controls over moods and feelings, and the most precious memories are forgotten, while, hallucinations, …

There is no immediate cure for it however, one shouldn’t lose hope.

People can try to get rid of this by:

• Medications for Memory Loss.
• Treatments for Behavioral Changes of Alzheimer’s.
• Treatments for Sleep Changes.
• Alternative Treatments for Alzheimer’s.

We can experience deeply conflicting moral impulses

A famous 1961 study by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram tested (rather alarmingly) how far people would go to obey authority figures when asked to harm others, and the intense internal conflict between personal morals and the obligation to obey authority figures.

Milgram wanted to conduct the experiment to provide insight into how Nazi war criminals could have perpetuated unspeakable acts during the Holocaust. To do so, he tested a pair of participants, one deemed the “teacher” and the other deemed the “learner.” The teacher was instructed to administer electric shocks to the learner (who was supposedly sitting in another room, but in reality was not being shocked) each time they got questions wrong. Milgram instead played recordings which made it sound like the learner was in pain, and if the “teacher” subject expressed a desire to stop, the experimenter prodded him to go on. During the first experiment, 65 percent of participants administered a painful, final 450-volt shock (labeled “XXX”), although many were visibly stressed and uncomfortable about doing so.

While the study has commonly been seen as a warning of blind obedience to authority, Scientific American recently revisited it, arguing that the results were more suggestive of deep moral conflict.

“Human moral nature includes a propensity to be empathetic, kind and good to our fellow kin and group members, plus an inclination to be xenophobic, cruel and evil to tribal others,” journalist Michael Shermer wrote. “The shock experiments reveal not blind obedience but conflicting moral tendencies that lie deep within.”

Recently, some commenters have called Milgram’s methodology into question, and one critic noted that records of the experiment performed at Yale suggested that 60 percent of participants actually disobeyed orders to administer the highest-dosage shock.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder often characterized by abnormal social behavior and failure to recognize what is real. It causes hallucinations, delusions, bipolar behavior and a lot of maladaptive behaviors. 

Causes could be either genetic or psychological and social factors.

In spite of successful antipsychotic drug treatment, many people with schizophrenia have difficulty with thinking, motivation, activities of daily living, relationships and communication.

Also, since the illness typically begins during the years critical to education and professional training, people with schizophrenia often lack social and work skills and experience. In these cases, the psychosocial treatments can be especially important. Many useful therapies have been developed to assist people suffering from schizophrenia and include:

• Individual psychotherapy- This involves regular sessions between the patient and a therapist focused on past or current problems, thoughts, feelings, or relationships.
• Rehabilitation- Rehabilitation may include job and vocational counseling, problem solving support, social skills training, and education in money management.
• Cognitive remediation- This is a form of behavioral treatment often using paper-and-pencil exercises and drills or a computer-based series of exercises that aims to help people with schizophrenia strengthen and develop existing cognitive skills and develop new, more effective strategies for managing problems with attention, memory, planning, and organization.
• Family education- Research has consistently shown that people with schizophrenia who have involved families fare better than those who battle the condition alone. Insofar as possible, all family members should be involved in the care of a loved one. with schizophrenia.
• Self-help groups- Community care and outreach programs are very helpful in avoiding relapse, non-compliance, legal problems, and repeat hospitalizations.The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is an outreach organization that offers information on treatments and support for people with schizophrenia and their families.

Placebo (my favorite)

Its true when people say that don’t keep telling a sick person that he is sick. Believe it or not it does make them feel more sick. However if you try and convince them that they are better they WILL feel better.

Definition: A remarkable phenomenon in which a placebo — a fake treatment, an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water, or saline solution — can sometimes improve a patient’s condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful.

Scenario: Lila suffers from a headache. Joe gives her a sugar pill saying its a really effective pain killer. It works quicker than any other pain killer. Lila takes the pill and she starts feeling better just because her brain was convinced that she is supposed to get better after taking the pill. Even though the cause of headache might still be there.

Now not to be confused, a placebo DOES NOT cure the problem.

My Passion

Okay so coming to the main point of the blog. I LOVE PSYCHOLOGY. I can say this all day long to tell the world of my love for psychology. As every one knows what psychology is, its the study of brain emphasizing on its impact on human behavior. Why do certain people behave the way they do or why are people different or alike. All of these questions are covered in psychology.

I always wanted to be a doctor. Specifically a child specialist because I am obsessed with children. However, after I discovered that I despise chemistry and considering that medical is all about chemistry for the most part I was troubled in head. I had no idea what to do. Until one day I realized there is something that I CAN do.

‘Child counselor or therapist’ it was. I am still going to work with children but instead of medication I am going to be providing talking therapies.

In my society specially, no one ever considers this career option because no one is really fond of psychology for whatever reason. But I have chosen my path.

I have found my passion!

Hijab, my strength!

…وَ لاَ يُبْدِيْنَ زِيْنَتَهُنَّ إِلاَّ مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْهَا وَ لْيَضْرِبْنَ بِخُمُرِهِنَّ عَلىَ جُيُوْبِهِنَّ

“…and not display their beauty except what is apparent, and they should place their khumur over their bosoms…”

A Hijab doesn’t cover up a girl’s weaknesses, but in fact displays their strength, commitment and her confidence, which is built out of love for Allah and not for the love of this dunya…

My Hijab story

“Why do you wear a Hijab?”

I frequently come across this question. Every time some one asks me this question I feel happy about it instead of getting annoyed because I have experienced not wearing hijab as well. I can absolutely say that yes! It does make a difference! Believe it or not.

I stopped wearing hijab as soon as I came to America. Its because I was never too serious about it. So I didn’t really care. Also no one else in my family does it except my mom. In Pakistan it was kind of obvious that I had to cover my head because of the environment.

I was never satisfied though. I always had a feeling that something was missing. Something. What was it I couldn’t guess.  I had lost my identity. Who was I. No one. Just another girl trying to find something that she feels is missing from her life.

One morning however, brought the real ‘sunshine’ in my life. I decided to wear hijab just like I used to but this time, I was gonna wear it like it was the permanent part of my identity. It made me feel complete. I felt like everything was just in the right place. Now every one knows I am a Muslim. Now I have an identity. NOW I AM WHO I AM.

Late but Happy Woman’s day :)

I had this conversation with a guy a few days ago.

Me: “I hate being a girl!”

Him: “Oh okay but why?”

Me: “We can’t do anything. We can’t even leave the house to get away from whatever stress we maybe going through. Unlike guys, we can’t just get up and walk away from stress and go spend time with friends or even alone. Because we are expected to stay home and deal with everything patiently!”

Him: “And? what else?”

Me: “And we are born to meet everyone’s expectations. If we don’t we are judged as “bad girls” right away by the ‘Society’.”

Him: “And?”

Me: “And the worst part is… No one appreciates us for this! We have to meet our parents expectations first as a daughter, as a sister we have to try to be a perfect person so we can be the role model for our younger siblings, as a wife we need to make sure our husbands are happy and satisfied, as a mother we need to go through every stress our kids put us in… Yet, no appreciation!”

Him: “Okay now look at it this way. Why does Allah only bless those people with girls that he loves? Why does a woman have heavens underneath her feet? Women go through everything because they can, and because a man can never handle such pain. Women are made to be a blessing. They are far superior than men. They just don’t realize…

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