Final Tour Of Duty - Free Essay Example

â€Å"After my final tour of duty in the military, I came home in 1993 feeling like my whole life had changed and that my attitude to my friends and life in general had changed. I had flashbacks, problems sleeping, was absolutely terrified of bangs and fireworks, and felt guilty and ashamed that I was the only one who seemed to be affected. My self-confidence had gone, I struggled with mood swings and had difficulty socialising† (Personal Testimonies From). This is just one example of what people go through from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. An estimated 5% of Americans have PTSD at any given time. Almost 13 million people, or in other words, 1 out of every 13 people, will get diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetime, and that is just the beginning (Post-Traumatic Stress). Treating PTSD can be a lengthy and strenuous journey within itself. When choosing between a modern medical treatment or a natural alternative, it is critical to weigh out the costs and benefits from each. For example, modern medical treatments have a big risk of addiction to prescribed medications. Whereas alternative treatments, such as meditation, yoga, and acupuncture, have no risk of addiction because there is nothing to get addicted to. Choosing a treatment route can be a confusing and difficult decision to make. The most common treatment route, that is usually pushed for by doctors, may not be the best option. When choosing a plan, it is very important to learn about all the options and really consider the advantages and disadvantages. Clinical treatments raise the risk of possible medication addiction, medication abuse, inadequate therapy, the possibility of the medications not working, along with all the symptoms that come with the medications prescribed. Medications prescribed for PTSD can be easy to develop an dependence to. These drugs can â€Å"increase pleasure, decrease anxiety, and provide a distraction from difficult emotions† (The Link Between). Therefore, â€Å"when someone feels stressed, levels of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) are lowered, and adrenaline is increased. GABA is a kind of natural tranquilizer produced by the brain that can also be stimulated by drugs that suppress the central nervous system, like opioids, marijuana, alcohol, and benzodiazepines†¦ with repeated drug use, it will become harder for the brain to keep regulating amounts of neurotransmitters and GABA normally† (The Link Between). Generally these patients are prescribed an anti-anxiety medication, antidepressant, or a mood stabilizer. The most addictive being anti-anxiety medications such as Xanax or Valium. These drugs have many other serious symptoms, other than being addictive. These symptoms include: drowsiness, nausea, insomnia, blurred vision, anxiety, dizziness, agitation, and headaches (Tull). Referencing back to the first story: I had my first breakdown in 1995, which resulted in my general practitioner prescribing Seroxat (paroxetine), that made me act in a frenzied and uncontrollable way when I had either forgotten to take it or tried to come off it. I was not offered any counselling or a referral to a psychiatrist and no investigations were conducted to find the cause of my problems. I had a second major breakdown in 1999. I could no longer cope with my job because I couldn’t deal with any confrontational issues, and was desperate to commit suicide. My life consisted of these spiraling periods of self-doubt, self-hate and worthlessness. I had no idea what was wrong, only that I felt I was going mad. I had many other problems, including anxiety, hyperventilating, sweating and social phobia, to name just a few. There were no clinics I could go to and no support groups. All I wanted to do was talk to someone and tell them how I felt and what I was going through, and how I could not cope. I finally went to my general practitioner after I admitted to my wife that I wanted to kill myself (Personal Testimonies From). This shows just how real the effects of medications to help treat PTSD are, along with how bad doctor or therapy visits can go. Therapy can be a great asset in the treatment of PTSD, but also run the risk of wasting time with inadequate therapy sessions. For instance, continuing into this man’s story: I went to a critical incident debriefing for 10 sessions, who eventually diagnosed me with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in 1999. I cried for hours because for the first time in 6 years someone had told me I was ill. When PTSD was explained to me, I fitted every criterion. I knew then that I was not going mad, that I was not the only one who felt this way, and that my problems were normal responses to abnormal occurrences. I was prescribed more drugs that were steadily increased until I reached the maximum limit, but they turned me into a zombie. Again no psychological intervention was offered. When I was first referred to a community mental health team in 1999, the community psychiatric nurse (CPN) would stare at the ceiling and fidget while I tried to explain to him what happened and how I felt. I didn’t feel that I could build up any trust with him and he admitted that he did not have the skills or understanding to help me. On one occasion I explained that I had had a problem with Seroxat (an antidepressant) and as a result was scared to go back to the general practitioner who had prescribed it. It seemed that the CPN did not at first believe me when I said that I found Seroxat to be addictive because he had to ask his colleague to confirm what I had told him. Imagine how I felt when he said this, implying that he did not believe a thing I said? I refused to go back after that and was sent a letter saying that because I had not attended my last appointment they considered me fully recovered and were not going to send me any more appointments (Personal Testimonies From). When people who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder don’t receive proper treatment, they can begin to affect the lives of the people around them. As written by the National Center for PTSD, â€Å"traumatic experiences that happen to one member of a family can affect everyone else in the family. Trauma symptoms can make individuals hard to get along with or cause them to withdraw from the rest of the family. When trauma reactions are severe and go on for awhile without treatment, they can cause major problems in a family. Family members coping with a loved one with PTSD may find themselves reacting in many ways.† For instance, someone who has PTSD can begin to distance themselves from their loved ones, creating feelings of sadness and even anger from loved ones. As well as bringing â€Å"a detrimental cost to society with high financial and social consequences from the significantly elevated rates of hospitalization, suicide attempts and alcohol abuse† (Dav idson JR). This disorder can also potentially lower societies quality of living, just by not being treated or not being treated correctly. By definition ‘Integrative Medicine’ is â€Å"healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person, including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship between practitioner and patient, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapies† (What is IM?). Treating anything integratively is not as well known or as widely accepted as treating through modern medicine, just due to the fact they are far more natural. Just a few alternate treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are, meditation, yoga, acupuncture, hypnosis, and improving endocrine and gut health. These techniques are not only non addictive, but provide a safe and healthy alternative for improving PTSD symptoms. Meditation, acupuncture, massage, and yoga provide a calming state of mind that helps with emotional stability and decreases anxiety in patients (How to Treat..). Treating gut health and the endocrine system also help with balancing mood, by allowing neurotransmitters to be absorbed and used properly. Hypnosis is even more peculiar than all the other alternative routes. Many people don’t even believe that hypnosis is real, let alone can help in the treatment with something as serious as PTSD, but it certainly can. While under hypnosis, the hypnotherapy cannot erase the traumatic event from the patient’s memory, but it can directly address the event along with the event’s effects. The memories stored in their subconscious mind can potentially be released and then transformed. Yes, medications are probably more likely to being treating the symptoms faster. But is it worth it to risk becoming addicted to those medications? What about having to deal with all the symptoms those medications come with? What about therapy? Sure it can be a great option, but theres always the possibility of having therapy sessions such as the following: ..I saw this therapist for months, but after making no progress I saw the other therapist who had previously been interested. When her interventions also failed, she wrote in my notes ‘Patient is not responding, or is unwilling to respond to treatment’! I also felt that the General Practitioners were also clearly out of their depth. They were not willing in many cases to refer on to others as they believed that no treatment should be offered for PTSD for at least 3 months as most people would get better with no intervention. However, I felt that I desperately needed help in the days following the disaster. I feel I irritated all the professionals that I contacted because I openly admitted the problem, cried for help, admitted that I was sleepless and drinking too much. But I had no help of any kind from them†¦ (Personal Testimonies From). At times when patients needed it most, modern medicine wasn’t there for them, and when alternative medicine is, that’s where the real healing comes into play. Treating any disease, disorder, or condition has to initially start with the patient itself wanting it, and no medicine can control that. When I needed help the most, I was let down. I was taken off the psychiatrist’s books but was not told that I was no longer going to be getting any appointments. When I phoned 4 weeks later needing to see a psychiatrist I was told that I had to be re-referred via my General Practitioner. I went to him and was re-referred only to a psychiatric nurse, who had clearly not read my notes. I was then informed that this was an initial appointment and that because his books were full they could not see me for another 2 to 3 months, I never got an appointment. At that moment I lost all hope in the National Health Service. I reduced my own medication and using some of my war pension I made a website about PTSD which explained about the different ways people can help themselves with techniques I had been taught and learnt myself. It revived very upsetting memories but my whole motive was to provide information and support to fellow PTSD sufferers so that they did not have to go through the hell that I had to endure. I thought that if I could prevent just one person from committing suicide, then it was all worth while. My website is now the number one PTSD self-help/information (non-medical) website in the world. And after another year of being unemployable, I slowly managed to begin a new, ‘drug free’, life, and with the support of my family I started a new job (Personal Testimonies From). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder isnt just â€Å"combat stress† or â€Å"battle fatigue†, it can happen to anyone, at anytime. Being diagnosed is just the start, treating PTSD is a rough journey in itself. Going through intense flashbacks, emotional numbness, difficulty sleeping, and high stress are just a few examples. When choosing how to treat PTSD, it is important to decide if the benefits of alternative medicine outway the risks of modern medicine. Modern medicine’s biggest downfall is the risk of addiction to medications. Whereas alternative medicine has no risk of addiction whatsoever and no unpleasant side effects. 1 out of every 13 people are diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetime. So make sure that one is treated the right way, integratively.

Road Trips in Literature Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas...

Road trips are known to be fun adventures. When someone says they are going on a road trip people expect them to go and see amazing places and then come back. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck and On the Road by Jack Kerouac are about road trips but these trips are not about the adventure. Duke from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sal from On the Road and Steinbeck from Travels with Charley all go on road trips because of the American drive. I am also on the road and even thought it is not road trips I am moving around and it is because of the American drive. The American drive is the need to go and to be on the move and it started because people were not happy about their current†¦show more content†¦He sees Dean as a brother and that is one of the reasons why he went on the journey. He wanted to be by Dean because he thought Dean could give him new experiences he couldn’t get in New Jersey. He knew that he had to leave Jersey because he wanted to be happy and do more. Sal believed that â€Å"somewhere along the line I knew there’d be girls, visions, everything; somewhere along the line the pearl would be handed to me†(7). The road trip would bring vision and success to Sal’s life and it did just not the way he thought it would. He thought he would be best friends with Dean for the rest of his life and he would be successful and happy somewhere else other than New Jersey. He went on the journey and he realized he should not associate himself with Dean and that he was okay with his aunt. He needed to experience different things so he could understand how good it was before. The American drive is something that is in everyone including me. I understand Steinbeck, Duke’s and Sal’s viewpoint. They want to be in a different place and in a different situation because they are not happy where they are. The American drive for me is about success. I want to mo ve fromShow MoreRelated Art, Literature And Society From 1955-1970 Essay examples5829 Words   |  24 Pages Fear and Loathing in a Clockwork AgeAh! The noble search for identity. That intangible achievement that all artists lust after and lay in torment over. And during the post war era that struggle reached incredible magnitudes. The world cried out for legions of anti-heroes, who were only virtuous in their unapologetic and brutally honest lack of virtue. And the art world provided as many counter culture messiahs as was needed to quot;Damn the Manquot;. The Beats, hippies, and punks are evidence

Cellular respiration and fermentation free essay sample

In this experiment, the subjects of study were fermentation, mitochondrial respiration, and redox reactions. In the first experiment, yeast was grown in various carbohydrate solutions at various temperatures. In the second experiment, succinate was added to various samples of a mitchondrial suspension, DPIP, and a buffer. Then after two blanks were used, the samples were placed into the spectrophotometer for transmittance testing. Introduction Cellular respiration is a group of reactions that occur when a cell turns the energy from food and nutrient sources into ATP, releasing the rest of the products as waste. It is a catabolic set oreactions and they are defined as being exothermic redox reactions, meaning that energy is released and electrons are transferred. It takes place in the mitochondrial matrix within the cells. [3] Fermentation is an anaerobic, or lacking oxygen, reaction in which pyruvate is metabolized, NADH is oxidized to NAD+, and waste products are taken out so glycolysis can reoccur. Both of these processes are very significant for organisms because they are how organisms create their energy. Without these pathways, nutrients would not be converted to energy and the organism would be unable to do much of anything. Plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, and algae all use cellular repiration while fermentation is mostly used by plants and fungi, though lactic acid fermentation does occur in animals and in bacteria. In cellular respiration, glucose is the starting molecule which then undergoes glycolysis and is split into 2 pyruvate molecules. Oxygen is the final electron acceptor in the electron transport chain, meaning the ETC couldn’t occur without oxygen and cellular respiration could not be completed. Carbon dioxide is a product of cellular respiration and is released by the organism. In fermentation, glucose is again the initial molecule before glycolysis is performed, breaking the glucose down into pyruvic acid. But then, without any oxygen to use for cellular respiration, fermentation begins and pyruvate is converted to either lactic acid or alcohol. So oxygen doesn’t have a role in fermentation. Carbon dioxide however, is a product of fermentation, along with alcohol, when pyruvate becomes unstable and splits. Carbohydrates are split into 3 main categories: monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides. Monosaccharides are known as simple sugars, because of their simplicity in structure as opposed to its di- and poly- counterparts. Monosaccharides serve primarily as energy for organisms, as it can be broken down into carbon dioxide and water when in the presence of oxygen and energy is released. They also serve as â€Å"building blocks† for forming di- and polysaccharides. [1] Disaccharides are two monosaccharides that are bonded covalently. They serve primarily as a food source for monosaccharides and are in most food items that contain sugar. Polysaccharides are polymers of glucose (monosaccharide) and function primarily as an easy to access source of energy for an organism. The two major polysaccharides are starch and glycogen. Glycogen is stored in an organism when excess glucose is consumed. The glycogen is kept as an energy store so that at a later time when needed, it can be easily accessed and converted to glucose. Redox reactions are reactions in which oxygen is gained (oxidation) and/or lost (reduction). Redox reactions play a critical role in the citric acid cycle because without the reduction of NAD+ to NADH, NADH couldn’t be sent to the electron transport chain, meaning the final stage of respiration couldn’t be completed and less energy would be created and made available to the organism. Also, FAD is used in the succinate/fumarate oxidation reaction as a prosthetic group in the enzyme, responsible for about 1. 5 ATP molecules’ worth of energy. [2] DPIP is used in the experiment as a visual aid to see the oxidation of succinate occuring. This is due to the fact that DPIP intercepts the hydrogen ions that succinate releases and changes from oxidized to reduced, going from blue in color to colorless in the process. The goal of this experiment is to successfully stage and observe redox reactions in mitochondrial respiration and fermentation, to better understand these processes. As for hypothesizing, prior to the lab I thought that glucose at 37 degrees would be the greatest yield of CO2 and that as time went on, the transmittance readings of the reduced DPIP would decrease. Neither was entirely correct. Sucrose at 37 degrees seemed to yield the most CO2 and the results for the transmittance readings of the reduced DPIP varied by sample. Methods and Materials Fermentation In part one of the experiment, saturated starch and 4 degrees celsius were the assigned food source and temperature respectively. .5g of yeast was added to 15 mL of the solution, which was immediately transferred into a fermentation tube and stored in the refrigerator with the rest of the 4 degrees samples. Fermentation was then allowed to occur for 40 minutes, with the amount of CO2 produced recorded every 5 minutes. CO2 was measured by reading the level as compared to the markings on the fermentation tube. Mitochondrial respiration/Citric acid cycle In part two of the experiment, the spectrophotometer was turned on and set to read the % transmittance of 600 nm wavelength light. 6 cuvettes were then obtained and labeled B-1 and B-2 (to be used as blanks) as well as 1, 2, 3, and 4 for the four samples. Parafilm was then cut out to cover the tops of the cuvettes. The blanks and samples were set up according to Table 9. 1, which is included at the end of this section. Blank 1 was then used for the first three samples containing mitochondria while Blank 2 was used for sample 4 which did not have mitochondria. The cuvettes were then given the proper amount of succinate and then shaken with parafilm over the top to mix the components. The spectrophotometer was then blanked by B-1 and the readings for samples 1, 2, and 3 were successively recorded at 5 minute intervals. Shortly thereafter the spectrophotometer was then blanked by B-2 for sample 4 which also had its readings recorded at 5 minute intervals. Results The results of the first part of the experiment, the fermentation section, show that sucrose was the most efficient food source in terms of CO2 production. The results also show that as the temperature is raised, to 37 degrees, for example, CO2 production increases. So of the food sources: glucose, sucrose, and starch and the testing temperatures: 4, 25, and 37 degrees, the results show that at 37 degrees with sucrose the msot CO2 was produced. This data can be found in Table 1. In part two of the experiment, samples 2 and 3 had steadily increasing transmittance readings of reduced DPIP while sample 1 slightly decreased and sample 4 essentially stayed constand with a slight decrease. This data can be found in Table 2. Table 1: mL of CO2 produced with varying food sources and temperatures Table 2: % transmittance readings of reduced DPIP samples over time Table 3: Reaction rate with varying succinate concentrations Graph 1: % transmittance readings of reduced DPIP over time Discussion The findings of this experiment confirm that in the case of fermentation, sucrose and glucose were better food sources in terms of CO2 production, while in the mitochondrial respiration portion, DPIP was found to be reduced and when the succinate was added, it was oxidized and fumarate was formed. This of course in turn reduced the DPIP which allowed for a visual aid to show the oxidation of succinate. As for concluding each portion, the major conclusion of part one was stated above, that sucrose and glucose are better food sources than starch, and the only source for which 37 degrees didn’t yield the most CO2 was starch. Part two can be concluded by stating that the experiment was successful as succinate was oxidized, shown visually by the DPIP’s loss of color. Potential sources for error were scarce but it’s possible that other lab members could have tampered with samples while in the refrigerator or what have you. The amount of CO2 varied quite a bite among food sources, as well as temperature. This could be due to the complexity of the carbohydrates, with sucrose being more readily available to use in fermentation etc. One control did produce CO2 which could likely be attributed to the temperature. Succinate was necessary to the reduction of DPIP, which is because succinate releases hydrogen ions that DPIP intercepts and is reduced by. The mitochondria were respiring because the reduction of DPIP and in turn the oxidation of succinate was visible. Oxidation is the gain of oxygen while reduction is the loss of it. The results may have been different with mouse muscle mitochondria as opposed to lima beans because the mitochondria in mouse muscle would be responsible for doing more work and might respire more efficiently.