Paul-Ann Whyte

Pahomov

Air

May 1, 2017

The Truth Behind K-Pop

When people think of K-Pop, many would imagine PSY. PSY was an internet sensation for his release of his song “Gangnam Style”. He introduced K-Pop to those who had never heard it before. The downside to how PSY introduced K-Pop to new audiences, is that now people believe that K-Pop is all about horny flashy men who sing catchy choruses and dance. This belief is false because there are different styles of K-Pop. Even though people believe that K-pop consists only of young women and men who are willing to flaunt their bodies for popularity, the songs that are more on the cuter side get more attention.

In 2015, VIXX, a Korean pop group, released their single ‘Chained Up.’ Known for their songs creating a story, ‘Chained Up’ tells the story of the members being ‘chained’ to a girl. This story is extremely sexual with the use of collars and ropes and involves themes of bondage and BDSM. A screenshot from the music video is shown above on the left. This screenshot shows a collar on one of the member’s neck. Another song that was released in 2015 was ‘Just Right’ by GOT7. Like VIXX, GOT7’s songs are known for creating a story. However, unlike ‘Chained Up’, ‘Just Right’ is a happier more lighthearted song about the members telling a girl that she doesn’t have to change and how the girl is perfect enough. A screenshot from the music video is shown above on the right. This screenshot show the members of the group dancing and just generally being happy.  ‘Chained Up’ has around 16 million views on their main YouTube channel music video. It was released November 2015 However, ‘Just Right’ has around 110 million views. Many may argue that it is because VIXX and GOT7 debuted in different times. However, that only proves the argument of tid essay. GOT7 debuted in 2014 yet VIXX debuted in 2012. Even though VIXX is an older group that was famous, their more sexual song lost to GOT7 simply because it was sexual.

Going back a year in 2014, another Korean pop group, named Girl’s Day released their song “Something.” This song is about a woman catching her partner cheating. She feels “something” is wrong and now addresses him about it. However, the dance to this song does not reflect this story at all. The dance is filled with sexual moves and suggestive themes. In the screenshot above, the members of the group are dressed in crop tops and very short short shorts and are doing very suggestive dances. This song had 24 million views for the music video and 10 million for their dance music video. Another song that was released in 2014 was Happiness by Red Velvet. This song was about just being happy and nothing could bring them down. This dance was very happy and full of energy. In the screenshot on the right it shows the group’s final pose for the music video. This music video had 51 million views. Although many may believe that K-Pop is all about the sexual songs, the data says otherwise. The cuter songs have more popularity

In this scene, Kim Tan and Eun Sang get to school early and are by themselves. By this point in the relationship, Eun Sang and Kim Tan have* moved back to Korea and are now, coincidentally, are living together. Trying to pretend that she is from new money while still remaining as a normal student, Eun Sang has to distance herself from Kim Tan. Kim Tan is not pleased and tries to stay as close to Eun Sang as possible. Here, Eun Sang is walking a couple of steps in front of Kim Tan, allowing him to have a view of her neck.Kim Tan catches up to Eun Sang and takes her ponytail out. He ruffles her hair and most of it covers her face before saying,“ Keep your hair down. You look prettier with more of you face covered.” This quote is significant because just as Lucentio in Taming of the Shrew, Kim Tan does the most indirect way of giving the love interest a compliment. This can be shown in the play when Lucentio accepted the proposal that Tranio made to switch clothes with him to talk to Bianca instead of talking to her directly. “ Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life, Puts my apparel and my countenance on,And I for my escape have put on his;This relates back to the thesis because this is the set up that shows how creative both men are getting. Kim Tan will be hiding his true feelings by covering them up with rude remarks while Lucentio will be pretending to be a school teacher.

In this scene Eun Sang and Young Do are at a convenience store near Kim Tan’s house. Eun Sang, who had left the house early to get to school early, goes to the store to wake up but ends up half asleep on a table that Young Do inhabits. By this time, Young Do bullies Eun Sang at school but Eun Sang still stands strong which only makes Young Do like her even more and therefore bullies her more. Young Do attempts to wake Eun Sang up by shaking the table. After about thirty seconds of just staring at her and only receiving a groan as an answer, he proceeds to admit his true feelings to her stating “Why do you always sleep here? It makes we want to protect you.” This quote is significant because just as Petruchio, Young Do hides his true intentions under crude actions and words. This can be shown in the play when Petruchio states, “She ate no meat today nor none shall eat. Last night she slept not, nor tonight she shall not.” This is Petruchio hiding his true intentions, which is just to get the dowry, behind crude words and actions. This relates back to the thesis because it shows the other two suitors being creative to get the love interest.

Everything, I believe, starts with a question. So I think it is fitting to pose a question to start. “How did I get here?” Let me rephrase that since that seems a little broad. I do know how I got into the world. I’ve had the bird and the bees talk so maybe the more fitting question/s is “How did I get here in SLA? How did I change to the point that I am comfortable here in this school that I, at first, didn’t even want to go to?” I have asked myself this question constantly. And now as I sit here with my friends in a huge circle as we trade gifts, I will finally sit down and try to answer it.  How did I get here surrounded by such wonderful people?

Walking down the halls of Wagner Middle School, I walked through the middle. There were only three types of people who walk down the middle, the trouble makers, teachers and the student government. And being in my third year of student government, I walked down the middle with all the confidence in the world . It was almost the end of my eighth grade year and it was around the time that everyone was receiving our acceptances to high schools. Finally making it to the office with my friend Kierra in tow we walked in collecting our paper that told us what schools we got into. We were hoping on going to Central together for the longest while. We took a deep breath before opening our letters. I didn’t even bother to read the letter carefully opting to look at the schools I got accepted to.

‘Palumbo-Center City- Accepted

Carver-Waitlisted

Some other school I don’t even remember- Accepted

Science Leadership Academy- Accepted

Central High School- Waitlisted’

Despite everything, I was angry. Not sad. Angry.  I felt like they should be honored that I was applying to their school. They should be saying, “She’s 12 and she’s applying to our school!? We have to let her in!” If you couldn’t guess, I had an ego and a large one at that over the fact that I was younger than everyone else. Trying to shake off my anger,  I looked over at Kierra to see if she was having a better time than me. She, however, was not. She was bawling her eyes out. I thanked the secretary and led Kierra out of the office. We went to the bathroom, cleaned her up and then went back to where our other friends were waiting. Turns out Kierra had been flat out rejected as well as everyone else. I was the only one that was waitlisted. They tried to convince me to go there held my ground saying I would rather go to Palumbo with them until our math teacher heard us. He gave the class a worksheet and called me outside and asked to see my list of schools that I  got into. I still remember the words Mr. Oh said to me to this day. ‘Paul-Ann, I know you want to be with your friends and all but you need to think about what’s best for you. Palumbo won’t show your true nature and waiting on a school that waitlisted you will not be good for you. Go to SLA. You’ll love it there.” Not even wanting to listen to him, I nodded and he let me back in the class.

I went home to my mother and told her the results of what schools I got into and my decision. She said “No.” She didn’t believe that was a good idea. “ You are going to SLA, you can make new friends.” I couldn’t believe that she was doing this to me but I nodded and accepted that I was going to SLA whether I wanted to or not.

Fast forward to August 2014, Summer Institute of SLA. I still haven’t changed my mind about not wanting to go to SLA. I still knew no one. No one except Sam and even then we weren’t close. My ego had gotten me in trouble with him already. I rather not share how but it was not fun. All I can tell you is that it was a wake up call. A wake up call thatat I’m not better than everyone. I’m not the best even if I am younger. Thankfully, this lowered my ego but it also lowered my self confidence into dangerous territory. I no longer would walk in the center of things but tend to stay closer to the walls. I wouldn’t speak up about my age in fear people would judge me rather than praise me. So going to SLA after this change while knowing no one, it was very scary. I didn’t have any confidence to make any friends and I was scared of staying alone and becoming a loner.

“Are you okay?” Meet Alexa Lahr, a sweet and model worthy girl who decided to talk to me.

“Y-Yes. Sorry.” I also had a habit of apologizing for no reason.

“No problem. You look scared, how about staying by me for today?” I nodded without hesitation. She was really nice to me and I realized that being here might not be so bad. Until the first day of school. We were shown our advisories and luckily Alexa was in mine, however, she had already formed a group and I was once again left alone. We were forced to do ice breakers and sit with people you didn’t already know, so I chose to sit with three girls. They introduced themselves as Lily, Jhazzelle and Jae. I grew closer to Jae until we were split into streams and once again I was forced away from someone I got close to. I decided from then on not to talk to anyone. In our streams, we were introduced to our Bio-Chem teacher, Ms. Sessa. She put me at a table with Sam, a  girl and a guy. The girl introduced herself as Avery, very wildly. I already liked Avery. She was everything I wanted to be. Not afraid to be who I want to be without the ego. The other person was CJ. CJ introduced himself with a joke following it. I really liked my group already. Who knew these would be the people I grew the closest with these following high school years,  

“Paul-Ann are you there?” I hear Sam’s voice ring out. I was brought out of my memories from his voice. I smile and shake my head as CJ makes a weird joke. CJ, my wonderfully weird friend. Avery proposes a game and while everyone says yes, I decide to sit out choosing to observe. Avery, the girl I like to think of as a sister. Eleanor proposes BS. Eleanor, the one I like to think of as a motherly figure, the mommy of the group. Jessica smiles deviously but we all know she sucks at lying. Jessica, another one that I like to think of as a sister. Halfway through the game, Zoe screams, a sure sign that she is losing. Zoe, although I was never close to her, I’m glad to have her as a friend. Claire tries to calm her down. Claire, a total sweetheart, a great friend. Sam just shakes his head. And then there’s Sam. My ex but we’re not those exes that hate each other. Nah we’re still friends. My friend group that I love soo much. I’m glad to have them. No matter what I went through and how much I have change, I will never regret my change and how much I left behind. If anything, I’m glad.

K-Pop is attractive to American fans but why? K-Pop refers to the pop music of Korea. It can incorporates elements of western music as well. But why is K-Pop so popular with American fans who do not understand Korean? Is it because of the dance? The music? The sheer fact that it’s in a different language? KPop is popular with American fans because it is different than what they are used to hearing, yet has key elements that remind them of home.

An element where K-Pop differs from the typical American pop group is their fashion.  In fashion, there are different types of fashion.  A particular fashion is loud fashion. This means that there is so many different styles that there is a huge selection of  colors and styles that everything becomes very profound and therefore loud. America is one of these places that has the type of fashion.  Korean fashion is more relaxed due to the lack of said mixture and due to the fact that “(Korean)  Girls tend to be shorter and Korea is more homogeneous.” This causes similar fashion styles and interests. However, as said before, K-Pop is derived from their western counterparts, therefore creating a mixture of designs and fashion, such as paring a cool colored article of clothing with a warm colored article of clothing to make it really pop.  With this mixture, Americans are drawn to the new yet familiar style of fashion. An example of this is the Kpop singer Ailee in her music video “I will show you”. In the music video, she is seen in very plain and cool colors to make her fit in with the rest but as the bridge of the song comes on, she is dressed in very bright colors along with her cool colors.

Another element where K-Pop differs from American pop is their training. According to  (Differences between K-Pop industry and the American Pop industry, 2012),  “In Korea, there are K-pop training camps that kids will go and audition for to join - and everyone knows that.”  The backgrounds of how bands came together also vary a lot. Christine Choi, a K-Pop fan explained this difference using two popular American groups. She says when the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC came out, there were great efforts to make their history together genuine instead of a group haphazardly thrown together.  Compared to Asian groups who actually knew each other from the training camps. Christine gives another example with two popular Korean groups, Dong Bang Shin Ki and Super Junior. They had met in the training camps and after a while decided to combine their talents and become one big 4 person and R&B group. A harsher training and creation of genuine friendships really boosts how effectively the group works and effectively captures the attention of their American fans.

“Your emotions are the  slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.” Elizabeth Gilbert once said. In this world that we live in, our emotions impact what we do. Whether we get married because of our love or kill because of our anger, our emotions control what we do. But there is one emotion that even controls other emotions and that emotions is fear.  We could actually be scared of losing the person so we fall in love and get married in order to not lose them. We could be scared that someone might hurt our family so we get angry in order to kill someone else. Fear is a powerful emotion. Because of how powerful fear we fear fear itself. There are many real life examples of this and they will be pointed out today. Another really good example of humans fearing fear is in a novel called the Lord of the Flies by William Golding. In this novel and in my real life examples, the readers can clearly see that because humans are scared of being scared, they will do anything to get rid of that fear.

To prove my point, there is a section in the Lord of the Flies that I would like to analyze. In this section, the children were doing a ritualistic dance around a campfire chanting “Kill the beast. Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” The beast is a creature of the night that one of the little ones claimed he saw and has taken form in many of the children’s mind. Suddenly Simon, one of the children of the camp,  runs towards the group of children. He comes bearing news of what he found while he was away. He had found out the truth of the beast. That there is no beast. It was just their fear taking over their imagination. But of course, things does not go as planned. When the children saw Simon, they didn’t recognize him, though he was the beast and attacked him. ´¨“ The beast was on it’s knees in the center, its arms folded over its face. It was crying out against the abominable noise, something about a body on the hill.“ (152) This relates back to my thesis because the children were too scared of being scared they tried to hide the fact that they were scared and instead put on a brave front. They decided to kill the beast, the epitomy of their fear. Many people would think that this would not be them running from their fear but instead just being completely crazy. It is easy to argue that case but I myself, never liked thinking of things inside the box.

The example from the book relates to the Trayvon Martin case. In the Trayvon Martin case, Trayvon Martin was walking home from the store, when he was shot and killed. George Zimmerman, the man who shot him, claimed it was out of fear. He did it because he was scared that Trayvon would kill him. “I know that if I didn't act, act the way I did, um, I wouldn't be here.” George Zimmerman says as quoted in the Tampa Daily. George Zimmerman was so convinced that Trayvon was suspicious that he acted out of fear. He tried to get rid of the object of his fear by killing the person who emitted this fear. George Zimmerman was scared to be scared so he tried to get rid of it even if it wasn’t the right thing to do.

Another example in the Lord of the Flies that proves my point is the killing of Piggy. Piggy, is a character in the book that is very underappreciated. He is a very smart fellow and knows how to keep a calm head in the face of danger. However, because he has this much knowledge, the kids don’t like him and never take him seriously. In fact they insult him even when he presents good ideas. One day, Piggy is trying to help them out but they were all scared of listening to what Piggy said because they did not want to admit that Ralph was better, they killed him. “ Which is better- to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?“ (180). By this point in this story, the readers would just think that the children of this island is crazy but in fact that they are just acting on normal human instincts. They just do not want to be scared so they are running away from that fear.  Like in this example, they are just running away from their fears and are trying to save what little of their human selves they have left.

“”Little miss perfect.” “Daddy’s favorite.” “Number one athlete.” Is there a title that you don’t hold? Hmm Alice? What do you mean where is this coming from? No YOU listen to ME. You always complain about how hard it is to be you. Do you know how hard it is to be me? Why must you never listen to me!?

It was  late October, and the air was still unnaturally warm. Myself, being only 9,  didn’t pay much attention to the weather. I was more interested about the extra recess. While I was jumping rope, someone ended up walking over to me. The question they asked me was one I could never forget.

“Can you speak Jamaican?”

Such a simple question, yet it shook me to my core. Apparently this person was one of those who’ve heard that I was from Jamaica. And just like the rest, they wanted to confirm it for themselves that I was Jamaican. Yet my response is always the same.

“Jamaican? It’s just English.”

Seemingly disappointed, he ran off. I continued to jump rope pretending not to remember that familiar disappointed face every time I told each person that fact.

I was born in Westmoreland, Jamaica where I lived for a total of nine years.  In 2010, I migrated from Greater Portmore, Jamaica along with mother. When I moved, my accent followed. It wasn’t hard for people to identify me as a Jamaican. If the question wasn’t “What did you say?” then it was always “Can you speak Jamaican?” Yet I responded with the same line each time. Eventually people gave up on the questions and I was happy.

Until people started to mock the Jamaican accent, that is.

“Hey, mon. How ya doin’ mon.”

“You hungry, mon? Thirsty, mon?”

“Wanna play with us, mon?”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I snapped.

“Not all Jamaicans say mon!!” I screamed at them. What I didn't realize was that my accent showed itself once again in that one sentence. “It speaks itself against our will, in words and thoughts, that intrude, violate even, the inner most private spaces of mind and body.” Bell Hooks once said. You can’t hide who you truly are. Instead of quieting down with the mocking like I had hoped, they laughed. They laughed. They started to mock me even more.

“What was that you said, mon? I didn’t hear you, mon.” I felt my eyes starting to sting with tears. I repeated what I said but it was barely a whisper. I ran away. I ran away from them to the other side of the field. I vowed to myself on that spot that I would hide my accent forever. That I won’t make it show it’s ugly face ever again. I vowed silently as I cried in the corner.

James Baldwin once said, “Language, incontestably, reveals the speaker.” I believe that if I had heard of this quote before I would have understood why I was so upset. Why they were making fun of my language. The reason why I was so upset. If only I had heard of this before I would have understood that because they were making fun of my language, I felt that in some way they were also making fun of me.

From that day forward, I tried to completely get rid of my accent. I tried to learn the American way to say things. I tricked my family into thinking that if I don’t say them this way no one will understand me. I believed I also tricked myself into believing this too. I spoke slower. I knew it worked. How? Well because of a certain exclamation of an old classmate of mine.

“You’re Jamaican!?” She had screamed. I couldn’t blame her. She was Jamaican herself, and didn’t see me as one of her own. I didn’t understand why I felt like a part of myself was missing. Like I had just sold my most prized possession. I didn’t understand.

It was the summer of that year. I was going to Jamaica to visit my family. It was going to be two years since I had seen my siblings. I couldn’t wait. It was only natural to be excited to see your family, I thought to myself. Yet I knew that part of me was excited to go back to the place I called home.

When we moved my mother never told me that we were moving. The entire time I thought we were just visiting my grandmother like we do every year. I didn’t know the reason she decided to move without telling me. I still don’t know. I remember my friend Alexia tried to telling me I was moving yet I didn’t believe her. I regret the day I promised her I’ll come back.

When I arrived at the airport my dad was there waiting for me. My older brother and two older sisters were also there waiting. After a round of hugs I would never forget the conversation that happened next.

“You sound so American like.” My brother had said. Only thing was I couldn’t understand him.

“What did you say?” I had asked him. Everyone looked at me a little strange but my brother shrugged it off and spoke slower as if talking to a toddler. It helped though and I was finally able to understand him.

I didn’t realize right then and there why I had the sudden urge to cry and fought back the tears. My dad however noticed them and asked me what’s wrong. I told him that I got something in my eyes and didn’t want to rub them.

I think my final straw was when we went to visit my cousin and she said the words that made me come to my senses about what I had done to myself.

“You sound so American. Are you really Jamaican?”

“People evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances, or in order not to be submerged by a reality they cannot articulate” James Baldwin once said. What I think this quote is trying to say is that people try and change their language to fit their own needs. But as Bell Hooks says it doesn’t always work. Your real language will always come back into play.

So that night as I slept in my grand-aunt’s house, I wept silently knowing that I have lost a part of me I can never get back.

And now, Reflection Time with Paul-Ann Whyte. So we are just about finished with with this year and with this Agent of Change.  I think this is an appropriate time to go back and look at everything we have done and how it could have been different. Or maybe things that we actually did right. Let’s start all the way back from blog post numero uno.

Blog Post #1, the research. The research by far was my favorite part. My Agent of Change was trying to raise awareness for Mental Illnesses. I chose this topic because I have friends who have this mental illness yet it shames me when I have to ask them “What is that”, when they tell me what the name of the illness is. Also I have a mental illness and I am also in the learning phase of what exactly is wrong with me so this was a learning experience for the both of us. The research taught me things I had completely overlooked as well as new information. I wished that I had researched more about the common mental illnesses as well. That would have been interesting that instead of focusing on a select few mental illnesses I could have branched off.

Then we move on to Blog Post #2, the original research. Easily coming in second for the things that I enjoyed with this project. The original research I believe could have went so much better. It could have been better but it was not my least liked part of this entire project. I completely ignore Ms. Gikinis’s suggestion of surveying a larger selection of people so it was much harder for me to interpret and use the results as I would have liked to. I wish that i could go back and ask a different set of questions and then send it out to a larger group of people. Not just a select few. Other than that, this section ran pretty smoothly.

Now it is time for the dreaded Agent of Change. My least favorite part of this entire thing. I believed if things had went differently that I could have easily enjoyed this part of the project but this project as life would have it, the odds were not in my favor. My Agent of Change was a walk/run to raise Awareness for Mental Illnesses which was on Saturday, May 16, 2015. The Wednesday of that week I took sick and on Thursday I went into the hospital. As life would have it, I didn’t come out until Sunday and even then I was encouraged not to do any physical activities. So no big problem right? Just think of something new. Well then that week that I came out of the hospital, I went right back in. My schedule was thrown off track with that and in the end I was not able to do anything for my Agent of Change. I was disappointed in myself because I was looking forward to actually making a change and doing something that would influence my life and the life of others. So definitely not my favorite part at all.

Blog Post #3. Wow we are already here. But since it's been a while let's just do a little review. In my first blog post, we learned why I'm here in the first place: To raise awareness for ALL Mental Illnesses. ALL meaning not just Depression, or Bipolar Disorder but also ones like Alexithymia and Hysteria. We learned that 1 in 5 Americans suffer from Mental Illnesses, I being one of them, yet Americans know so little about Mental Illnesses. That brings us to my second blog post which described the little that Americans even knew about a problem that affected around 20% of them. This blog post tried to change that by providing information about Mental Illnesses that seemed to be forgotten, exploited the lies of the myths of Mental Illnesses and all in all just tried to change a small portion of people's perspective on Mental Illnesses. But there was another change that happened that changed a larger portion of people's perspective. My Agent of Change.

My original Agent of Change, as mentioned in my previous blog post, was a walk organized by NAMI Walk. NAMI Walk is the leading Mental Illness Awareness Organization in the United States. This Walk was held on May 16, 2015 and all in all they raised over $80,000 for Mental Illnesses just through that one walk out of their many. My original plan was to be apart of this walk but as fate had it, I was in the hospital that weekend and was not able to participate. This was very unfortunate as this was my main plan for making a change but as I, sadly, cannot rewind time, I knew I just had to come up with a Plan B. My plan B consisted of a presentation to either the two counselors of my school or a class presentation. But as fate would have it, I ended up in the hospital again, the following week. So once again my entire schedule was thrown off track. Although I never got to present my presentation. I shall still link my presentation so you may view what I had tried to do.

This was one of my slides in my presentation and I felt the need to add this because it basically summarizes the main point of my presentation.

This is not the end folks. It's just the beginning. Sure this might be the third and final blog post, but it doesn't mean this cause ends here. You can still help raise awareness for mental illnesses. You can still make a change. I shall not end here. I refuse to let this be a one time thing especially when I didn't get to make a change. I refuse to let this cause end here. I shall make my return so until then, don’t forget that the person next to you may just have a mental illness so be cautious of what you say, because you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.

In my previous blog, I explained that I am here to raise awareness for ALL mental illnesses not just the common ones that everyone knows about. 1 in 5 Americans suffer from mental illnesses but not many people understand that said Americans suffer from a greater variety of mental illnesses. Not a lot of Americans understand that when it comes to Mental Illnesses there is more than just Depression and Bipolar disorder. But in this blog I will like to backtrack a little and focus on the fact that many Americans know little about Mental Illnesses period.

To get a sense of what 1 in 5 looks like, try this in class. Count off each person in class. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. (repeat) Every time you get to five, that person has a mental illness. Add up the total amount of people who ‘have a mental illness.’ Next compare that to the amount of people that are in the class.

A survey given out by the American Psychiatric Association found that 44% of Americans know little to nothing about mental illnesses. 44%. That means only a little more than half of Americans know something about mental illnesses. On top of that, one- third of Americans mistakenly think that emotional weakness is a major cause of mental illnesses. With many Americans suffering from mental illnesses, the lack of knowledge is very dangerous. Sometimes they just know the wrong information. A popular myth of Mental Illness is that children do not experience mental health problems. Due to this believe less than 20% of the children that do have a mental illness get the treatment that is needed. Another popular myth is that people can control their symptoms will sheer willpower. You cannot tell a person who is depressed to cheer up and believe that if they try very hard, they will not be depressed anymore. It just does not work like that. Another popular myth is that medication is the only solution for mental illnesses. Medication is not the only solution. The more common and helpful solution is also therapy.

I myself wanted to test what exactly do people know about mental illnesses, so I designed a survey to test just that. My results are as followed. The very first question I asked was “What is Mental Illness?” The answers were very unique but a specific answer stood out to me. The second was “When somebody is getting crazy.” This result stood out to me because this is exactly what I have personally heard people say when talking about mental illness. Crazy. That is why 31% of adults say that even if they had a mental illness they would not seek treatment. Simply because they fear what others would think of them.  My survey also tested about their knowledge of specific mental illnesses. Namely, Lycanthropy, Aboulomania and ,a familiar one, Alexithymia. 80% of my survey takers correctly answered what was Lycanthropy and Alexithymia. 60% correctly answered what was Aboulomania. Yet when I went back to ask them feedback on the quiz, the majority of them claimed they had either guesses or used context clues. Only one knew the correct answers simply because of the fact that they knew someone with those mental illnesses.

When asked “What is Mental Illness” these were the responses I received.

My final two questions, were on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being very severe “How severe is Mental Illness?” 50% said 5, 40% said 4 and the remaining 10% said 3. The other question asked on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being very important, “How important is awareness of Mental Illnesses?” 90% said 5, 10% said 4. I am glad to see that many of my survey takers understand the importance of mental illness awareness. Now I wonder if any of them will help me do anything to raise that awareness. On May 16, 2015, I am planning on doing the 5K run/walk for Mental Illness. This walk is sponsored by NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and is done to raise money and awareness for Mental Illness. I am wondering how many people would be willing to join me on this event. Registration is free but if you have any more questions, you can consult the NAMI walk page and the walk page.

Le Bibliography

Everyone has heard of mental illnesses throughout their life or maybe have experienced it. Mental Illness, or Mental Health, affects the way you think, handle stress , relate to others and make choices. Mental illnesses can be triggered by past experiences or genes. Having a mental problem is really common so treatment is easily found. Something that is not common however is some actual mental health cases. I’m sure we have heard of Depression, Anxiety or maybe Schizophrenia. But, yes there is a but, have you ever heard of Alexithymia? What about Hysteria? Or even Paranoia Schizophrenia ? I am here to raise awareness for ALL mental illnesses. I care about this topic because I not only have friends who have some of the following mental illnesses or the more common ones but I too also have a mental illness. I have Paranoid Personality Disorder. A person with paranoid personality disorder will almost always believe that others are trying to harm or kill them whether or not there is evidence to prove it.

More people suffer from mental illnesses than we think.

Hysteria is a psychological disorder that basically turns stress into symptoms. It gives the patient an unmanageable amount of emotional access, going as far as possibly numbing different body parts. People with Hysteria set aside their emotional problems from even themselves and involuntarily develop different tactics and symptoms to protect themselves from facing these problems. Originally, Hysteria used to be called “Female Hysteria” as the term hysteria was once used to describe a medical condition thought to affect only women. The term hysteria even came from the Greek word hysteria which means “uterus.” Hysteria can also give the patient very acute senses, due to a dissociation of the patient from their mind, leaving them in complete control of their body’s function and reflexes.

Sometimes patients will be asked by their doctor or therapist to describe how they feel and they can not. It’s not because they do not want to, it’s because they do not know how to. Alexithymia literal translation is the lack of words for emotions. Not many have heard of Alexithymia as it is very rare. Only 8% of males and 25 of females experience alexithymia Discovered in 1972, Alexithymia is not considered a diagnosis but a way for patients to easier describe their experiences. Alexithymia has been confused has been confused as depression, autism or even schizophrenia. Because patients with Alexithymia have a difficulty expressing their emotions to others and so are often left to leave emotions bottled up. This normally leads to depression, self harm or more common suicide.

This is a simplified version of what Alexithymia is that I felt was necessary to include.

Right now I am hoping I will raise awareness to people that mental illnesses are not just Depression and Anxiety. That there is more to the list. My only question for this entire thing is how many people will actually remember this information and keep it in their mind that mental illnesses are more complicated that they seem.

Bibliography

Conoce Senorita .Sessa! Una diversión, saliente, profesora Bio-Chem. Sra Sessa ha sido profesor en SLA sólo por un embargo, ella ha sabido trabajar su camino en nuestros corazones. Sra Sessa nació el primero de noviembre 1986 haciendo su ... ... así se hacen las cuentas. Sugerencia es veintiocho. Ella es una maestra muy joven y sorprendente. Toda su vida es muy interesante. Sra Sessa vivió en Alemania durante cuatro años. En esos cuatro años, se las arregló para aprender alemán y ahora lo habla muy bien. Este hecho hace que su bilinguee. ¿No te gustaría poder ser bilingüe? Bien lo hizo la Sra Sessa. Sra Sessa también estudió italiano junto a su alemán. Sin embargo, ella es terrible en español. A ella le encanta aprender idiomas y desea que ella puede aprender tanto como sea posible. Me pregunto cuál es el siguiente idioma en la lista es. Pero eso no es todo. Sra Sessa también es muy atlético. En su tiempo libre ella juega Ultimate Frisbee. Ella también sólo para pasar a ser un sofá para el equipo de Ultimate Frisbee aquí en SLA. Ella es también talento musical. Ella toca el bajo y es muy bueno en eso. Le encanta leer libros y es incluso también a cargo del club de lectura que ocurre durante el almuerzo en la escuela. Ella también es muy compasivo y es muy infantil en el interior también. A ella le gusta los gatos y tiene dos gatos de la suya propia. Una de nombre de su gato es Max y él es la cosa más adorable nunca. El otro nombre de uno es Pika. ¿Suena familiar? Bueno, eso es porque Pika fue nombrado después de Pikachu. Cuando compró este gato que originalmente quería un gato amarillo, pero no pudo encontrar uno así que se conformó con un una naranja. No está convencido Sra Sessa es impresionante todavía? Pues bien, amigo mío, no sabe el significado de impresionante.

SLA-SEMPAI

Hola, nuestros nombres es Cindy, Paul-ann y Elías. Bienvenidos a nuestra escuela, el Science Leadership Academy.  El Science Leadership Academy es una buena escuela. Nuestra escuela es un poco loca y chévere. Hay cinco pisos pero nosotros sólo usó cuatro. Ofrecemos béisbol y robótica y fútbol y música y disco volador. Yo participo en béisbol y disco volador. Porque son divertida y deportista. En la SLA nuestros leemos y aprendemos y escribimos y discutimos y hablamos y escuchamos.

Las clase tenemos es informática, bioquímica, historia, literature, español, consejería, álgebra, almuerzo, teatro, y ingeniería. Nuestros favorita clase es inglés historia y teatro. Su clases es mucho divertida. En inglés clase leemos y en teatro nosotros acto. En inglés clase necesito una lápiz y computadora. En historia necesito una computadora y en el teatro tú necesito tú. Para tener éxito en esta clase, necesita más prestamos atención, trabajamos duro, participamos, y estar preparado.

El Science Leadership Academy tengo buen professors. Pero los encanta los inglés drama y historia professors. Señorita Giknis enseña la inglés. Su clase es mucho divertida. Leemos mucho interesante libros. Senorita es muy cómica y sarcástica. Senor Kay ensena drama y poetry. Su clase es mucho mucho exceptional. Señor es Señor Todd enseña historia. Escribimos mucho. Su clase es mucho interesante. Señor es muy cómico y  simpatica.