Epileptic Seizures:

Epileptic Seizures:
 I can relate really well to this subject, because I have friends that deal with epilepsy. Though, I must admit when I witnessed one first hand, I really did not know what to do, so to say I panicked is an understatement, because really, I didn’t know what was going on. I’ll explain a little more on what epilepsy is, that way everyone has a clear definition. The ehealthMD website defines epilepsy as “a term used for a group of disorders that cause disturbances in electrical signaling in the brain.” You can read more about them here:EhealthMD

About two million people in the United States have epilepsy, or they experience seizures at certain points in their lives. Most of the people have epilepsy; usually experience their first seizure during some point in their childhood. What I did not know, is that there are some researchers estimate that there are about 500 different genes that could be linked to epilepsy, so I thought that was pretty interesting to note. This video discusses on what causes epilepsy,what causes Epilepsy?

I didn’t know one of my friends had epilepsy, so I naturally I didn’t know she would have an epileptic seizure. I remember we were twelve at that time, and our parents had dropped us off at the dollar theater where we were going to meet up with some of our other friends, well not to long after the movie started did my friend have the seizure.

Let me back track, because back then, yes, I did not know what a seizure was. A seizure is sometimes referred to as temporary disturbance in our brain function. Groups of nerve cells located in our brain give out abnormal signals excessively. What I did NOT know is that, they occur as rapidly as 500 per second for a short time due to that abnormality.  I should note that just because a person has a seizure, that doesn’t automatically mean they have epilepsy, something else could have triggered it. These epileptic seizures can occur during the day or night, even while asleep they can occur. When I found out that they can occur while someone is sleeping kind of frightened me, because what if your son or daughter is having a seizure during their sleep how would anyone know?  

I remember that afternoon while we were sitting in the theater, and waiting for the movie to begin. We were all sitting, talking and joking with each other when the lights suddenly began to dim down, movie commercials started playing and then my friend excused herself to go to the bathroom. At that time we went in pairs, never alone, so I was going to go with her, but I was expecting her to suddenly out of nowhere to fall to the ground in the middle of the aisle and shaking. Me, being dumb was like “Dude, get up what the heck are doing?” and when I didn’t get a response, I was going to bend down to see if she was alright when a few people ran up to me and told me not to touch her, and that she’s have a seizure, of course the ambulance came, and we called her mom. At that time, I should have been paying attention to what they were doing, because I could have helped, but I was scared, thinking that my friend was dying (not ashamed to admit that, I was a twelve year girl, who didn’t think much haha).  To make a long story short, at the hospital, that’s where I learned she had an epileptic seizure, and told us what to do next time it happens. When someone is having a seizure, be it from epilepsy or not use caution and care when you’re willing to help out!

Dr. George Morris director of the Regional Epilepsy Center at Aurora gives a short explanation of epilepsy Dr. George Morris/Epilepsy
This video describes what a person should do when someone is having a mild or severe seizure: what you need to know

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome:

From my own personal opinion, before we get started I have to say a few things. Females that are not able to put their own unborn children’s life first just shouldn’t have children at all. Those types of women really get under my skin, because it shows how irresponsible they are, selfish, inconsiderate, and they are just, I don’t know. It goes both ways though; women shouldn’t be the only ones to blame though, what about the guys? The husbands or boyfriends, they should at least care as well that their wives or girlfriends are healthy themselves, and protecting their unborn child. I don’t understand how selfish people can be in this generation, it’s almost sickening, and this generation of children has to suffer for it, because their parents aren’t mature enough to take care of themselves all because they want to “party-hardy” and look all badass drinking the night away.

God gave us brains for a reason, so we can obtain knowledge and wisdom, not waste it away on alcohol and act dumb. That’s just my opinion. The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration define fetal alcohol syndrome disorder as, an umbrella term describing the range of effects that can occur in an individual who was prenatally exposed to alcohol.

The book defines it differently though, “FAS, a condition marked by hyperactivity, impulsiveness, difficulty maintaining attention, varying degrees of mental retardation, motor  problems, heart defects, and facial abnormalities. 

It’s not surprising that the effects are permanent and leads to physical, mental, behavioral and learning disabilities.  FAS is PREVENTABLE! Guess how? It’s so easy to prevent this, real simple.

DON’T DRINK ANYTHING WITH ALCOHOL, LEST YOU RISK FAS IN UNBORN CHILD.

I’ve seen, and dealt with families that have children (or adopted) that have FAS).Some parents with child with FAS are so selfish it’s not even funny. Today (Saturday the 22^nd) I was my friend’s house and her grandmother was telling me that her friend’s daughter, has a child out of wedlock that suffers from FAS and completely disregards that child. The daughter always dumps her child on her mother so she doesn’t have to deal with her child so she can go out and have fun. It’s like really? And we wonder why children are growing up the way they are….

Families that adopt have it especially hard, and it breaks my heart to hear some of the stories that some either give them back to the orphanage or they do whatever it takes to get rid of children with FAS because they can’t handle them. It’s really heartbreaking and fires up more of the reason that women just shouldn’t drink while pregnant. 

Impulsiveness in children with FAS can sometimes lead to trouble:  like shop lifting, stealing, and damaging other people’s properties. Reports state that one-third of U.S prison populations contain people who have FAS, I found that shocking, but kind of interesting as well.

Some of these people with FAS end up living at a group home possibly by their early or late twenties.

People do have different signs of FAS, because some have either physical, mental or both signs. There are a lot of people actually who have FAS but don’t show it at all. 

Here are a few Signs of FAS that Mayo Clinic posted up:

• Distinctive facial features: small eyes, an exceptionally thin upper lip, a short, upturned nose, and a smooth skin surface between the nose and upper lip
• Deformities of joints, limbs and fingers
• Slow physical growth before and after birth
• Vision difficulties or hearing problems
• Small head circumference and brain size (microcephaly)
• Poor coordination
• Mental retardation and delayed development
• Learning disorders
• Abnormal behavior, such as a short attention span, hyperactivity, poor impulse control, extreme nervousness and anxiety
• Heart defects

They have a lot more information if you want to check them out here is the link: Mayo Clinic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO-AKRR7Yuc&feature=relatedparents give away child with FAS

This film will direct you to a documentary of a couple that was interviewed. They gave away their adopted child that had FAS because they just couldn’t handle the child to the point where it just became too much of them.

Drug addictions:

 Drug Abuse:

I think many people can relate to this section. Many kids, teenagers, early adults have their first encounter with drugs and alcohol through someone in their family or a close friend. Me personally, I have never done drugs, and I’m not planning to either. I don’t know the effects they have on the body, unless the drugs we talk about are the ones doctors prescribe to help me get better from an illness, and even then I sometimes don’t take all the medication. I won’t lower myself to be pressured by peers, though on some accounts I have, but never with any kind of substances. However, this area really hit me at home, because I have friends, and I have members in my family that got sucked into the life of such substances. One story I’ll tell you about, happened a couple of years ago when I was still in high school. My close friend, her name I won’t mention, but she was high on my list of special friends. She was the innocent type, but she also wanted the popularity, she wanted to fit in with the cool crowd come our freshman year of high school. Instead of sticking with her old friends, she left our friendship for one that changed her life. She wanted to be cool, so she changed her entire life style. 

*let me pause here* we all know what the basic top common substances are: Marijuana, cocaine, Heroin and alcohol are, well we should, but anyway I’ll explain what they are in my own terms.

Marijuana, in short to be blunt is a plant. (You can say its weed, grass or herbs, point is, it’s still a plant.)

 Cocaine: believe it or not, well you should believe it anyway, but cocaine is nothing but leaves extracted from a coca plant. You sniff it, or inject it some people I use to know use to put in their brownies to make them “special.”


Heroin: Dun-Dun-Dun! This one is the most highly addictive drug! It’s Illegal, and it’s illegal for a reason people! It’s made from morphine, and other things from poppy plants. (Something around there, but it’s very bad, and I think you can die if you take too much of it?)

Alcohol: this one is pretty easy. There are different types of drinks that have alcohol. It’s a depressant, in other words it SLOWS DOWN VITAL FUNCTIONS! That’s why when people get wasted; they can’t talk right because their speech is slurred. They can’t walk right, and some walk as if they are on a boat in the middle of a storm. It has different effects on certain people, some can’t react quickly, and some lose self control. For every alcohol beverage a person consumes I think it kills a million or so brain cells.

Note* these are my own words, from what I remember in classes, and just what I kinda learned personally. Feel free to add on or correct me if I'm wrong*

*End of pause back to the story*

So like I was saying, my friend got involved in the wrong crowd, things happened and the next thing she knew, she got hooked on marijuana, cocaine, alcohol and other substances. Every now and then we would run into each other, she would talk about how she couldn’t go a morning without smoking pot, couldn’t go to sleep if she didn’t have some sort of substance to calm her down. 



She used to smile, smile! When she talked about her boyfriend at the time (husband now) learned how to grow marijuana, had recipes for LSD, and other bad stuff for the human body. I would never forget what she told one day though. Three years ago, year 2009, I randomly bumped into her at a church gathering in mission. We talked for a while, and all seemed fine until she told me, if I had been smart for just one second, and not get high off my ass I probably wouldn’t have trouble falling asleep at night, struggling to keep myself together, or worry about when I run out of something and if I had enough money to get some more. It will probably never stop.
Today, I'm not sure if she's still taking drugs, and drinking, but from what I can tell on her facebook...she hasn't stopped.

 Another one of female friends had gotten herself her first boyfriend, couple of years back. He was the typically bad boy type. Though, I didn’t want to associate myself with him, I didn’t want to lose my friend so I put up with his company. Man, I tell you I never would have though someone could go as many days and night without sleep while continuously drinking like that guy could. During those times, everyone stayed away from him, because the guy would destroy every little thing in his way, nearly burned his house down one time because he drank till he lost control. Eventually, he got a court order to get help with his addiction. That in and of itself ended horribly. He would sweat a lot, skin started paling, his body would shake, his mood worsened. He rarely slept, and when he did he would wake up screaming for a drug or begging for alcohol anything to help calm him down. My friend eventually left him, because I guess it was too much for her to handle, but since I befriended his cousin, I checked in some times to see how he was doing.


I found out that he had to get mental help and I also learned some heartbreaking things from his cousin. He didn't have a good childhood. Well, let me put it this way, the types of things he experienced as a child were so horrendous that I understood why he took so many things that he knew would be harmful for him rather than going to someone for help.


It’s so easy to get addicted to something, but it’s so hard to stop it once it starts.

My definition of an addiction is this: An addiction is something! It could be ANYTHING that a person CANNOT live without for a single second, and will do WHATEVER it takes to get their hands on it, even if it meant sacrificing something.


My own definition of a drug is this: A drug is something that has a serious impact on any part of the body, be it mentally or physically. 

If it affects you in some way that you find yourself wanting more, more, more, and more! congratulations you just got yourself hooked on a drug.

I learned many things when talking about drugs and addictions through family, friends, my internships at mental facilities, working with Psychologist Able Ortega. Sometimes, drug addictions don’t just happen because of peer pressure, sometimes they happen because of a serious trauma that occurred in their lives, either young or old. They will take a drug to forget for just a moment the pain of reality. People would drink themselves stupid just for a day or night of freedom of whatever is weighing them down. The misery, pain, guilt, angry, depression, any experience a person has gone through that caused a serious void to form in them they turn to things like drugs or alcohol because they have the mental thought that no one can help me, because they don’t know what it feels like. When in reality, someone out there knows what it’s like, they can relate, and yet several, not all, but a good amount of people foolishly believe the voices they hear, that no, no one will ever know. So some won’t seek help, until well, something really seriously bad happens.


Drugs, Alcohol, pharmaceutical drugs they kill people. One time overdosing can do serious damage to your brain, and body, and some people don’t get so lucky. They either take too much where it kills them, permanently damages themselves, or they can kill someone else by accident and not even know it.  

This video clip: is a testimony from Jacob Huffman, he got addicted to several things after being invited to a party. Lisi Sanchez, got addicted to smoking, prescribed drugs, and other substances after being introduced to drugs and Alcohol by her father.
Testimonies  

 This video: is to help understand addiction and the brain. Addiction and the brain

This video: talks about different types of addictions: The Science of Addiction

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, feel free to post your opinions, views, anything else you guys found interesting that you have learned about drug addictions. Sharing your own personal views, or just sharing your thoughts. Remember that the comment button is at the top of the page!