Blog #12 Be strong!

         Any woman who can step up and say she has a substance abuse problem in today’s society is a very strong person!  That is the first step to recovery, admitting there is a problem and that has to be the hardest.  By admitting the problem of addiction it shows you are ready to face your fears, instead of hiding from them with alcohol or drugs.  A female is already looked at being the weaker gender and is sometimes ridiculed for drinking.

          I did not believe there was difference in today’s society, until I started thinking about it. This stigma is in my own family.  I am at high risk for alcoholism because I like to drink and alcoholism runs on both sides of my family.  I don’t consider myself as a heavy drinker, but I will have more than two drinks during social events.  I feel I am a responsible social drinker and have never endangered my children or myself and it has not affected my life in anyway.   My brother drinks more than I do but my mother does not say anything to him about his drinking.  Even today there is a social stigma with it being acceptable for men to drink but not women because it makes them look weak and vulnerable.  So to admit of having a substance abuse problem could only make a woman feel weaker, but it should make them feel strong!

Blog # 12 Depression

After reading this article, Improving services for women with depression in primary care settings by Wade Katon and Evette Ludman, I realized how backward our country can be and how cycles of poverty and depression are hard to be broken.  This article discusses the risk factors and why women have a higher prevalence rate of depression and the barrier to proper access to mental health services.  Especially women with a lower socioeconomically status which has been shown to have a higher risk for depression.  Also the most common age for the early onset of major depression is during the years that a teenager or young adult is making important decisions like education (15-24), which 12-18% earned less compared to those which the onset of major depression occurred after the age of 21.  These women also have the hardest time to get proper treatment and many go to a primary care physician because of either lack of support or insurance not covering help for mental illnesses.  But many primary care providers cannot properly care for major depression due to barriers in the health field.  Recently studies have come up with a cost effective approach for primary caregivers that help patients with a mental disorder including depression, using stepped care principles.  This is an integrative approach between psychologists and other health professions, including nurses.  This approach is proven to work in large clinics, but not with smaller, rural or inner city clinics because of lack of mental health professions.  And these are the places that have the highest levels of poverty and need it the most, so the cycle continues (2003)!  How can we help break this cycle?

Reference

Katon, W. & Ludwin, E. (2003). Improving services for women in primary care settings. Psychology of Women Quarterly,  27, 114-120.

Blog # 11 "Thinking about the future"

                The question, “If everyone lived “with our future in mind,” do you think that we would live different?” is a tricky one.  I feel that the answer may be different in each age group, ethnic group, and social class. But as a white, middle class adult I would say “no”.   I feel many Americans, like myself, are already focused on the future, maybe too much!

 Many of us are always striving for that American dream and trying to make our lives better.  So I do not think our habits or behaviors would change, unless something drastic happens to our health.  Most Americans adults already know what are healthy habits and behaviors, but they are too busy chasing the dream to make a change.  If Americans could just slow down and enjoy what we have now, and not worry about the future, then maybe we could focus on what is important like our health, mental and physical. 

                As a teenager and young adult I wish I would have had the ability to focus on the reality of the future instead of the dream of “happily ever after”.  I think if many adults could go back with the knowledge and experience from life, they would go back and change how they lived.  I know I would!  But without that, many young Americans are thinking about the social aspect of the future instead of their health.  They believe they are invincible and it won’t happen to them!  So without the knowledge and experiences gained from life, I don’t think young Americans would change their habits or behaviors either!

Blog # 10 The Hidden Epidemic

According to the PBS document, The Hidden Epidemic: Heart disease in America, heart disease is known as the “silent killer”. It is the number one cause of death in men and women and 1 out 2 men and 2 out of 3 women will develop heart disease.  The documentary made me really start thinking about my own family and our health.  The beginning was about a young family who lost the Dad just two weeks after his baby daughter was born.  The father was young, only 44 years old and had no previous health conditions or signs of heart disease.  He died of a massive heart attack in his sleep.  That is scary!  That could happen to anyone especially if you do not know your heart health scores (cholesterol and blood pressure) and especially if you smoke.   My husband and I do not smoke and do not have high blood pressure, but we have never had our cholesterol checked.  We are not obese but each of us could lose a few pounds and there is some family history of heart disease.  So we really need to have blood test to check our cholesterol levels.  I wish they would make it part of the well checkups or physicals, but it is not.  Why don’t they?  I would think it would save money in the long run!

The documentary discussed how the United States has been researching heart disease for 60 years, which I thought was interesting.  The US Public Health service started studying a group of 5,209 healthy, middle class people in a small town in Framingham, Massachusetts.  They studied their health history, diet, exercise, blood pressure, and took some initial blood test.  Researches followed them for 20 years and watched how the sedentary life style changes affected the heart and discovered several risk factors of heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking. 

This made me think of how much more our life styles have changed from this study. How our lives have become less physically demanding and more stressful on our bodies!  It is very scary, especially not knowing about our own heart, because we could be next!

Reference

Elizabeth Arledge. (2007). WGBH Boston for PBS. The Hidden Epidemic: Heart Disease in America.