Anorexia Nervousa

For Unit 2 in the Winter term of my Disease class at GCE, we investigated mental illnesses. The main disease we studied was Autism. However we also looked very in depth at schizophrenia. For our Action Project, we had to choose a disease, create a lesson plan and a simulation to give people an experience a disease, and make a fact sheet. The best part of this AP in my opinion was the simulation. It was the most engaging and fun part of this project. The hardest part in my opinion was setting up the simulation. My disease, Anorexia Nervosa, was tricky to simulate without offending anyone. To overcome this, I just made sure I asked everyone if they wanted to participate and was careful bout what I said.

GM. Lucas Presenting. (2016)

For my project, I did Anorexia Nervosa. I will provide both a personal and dictionary definition for the disease as a basis for what is is. Here is my personal definition: An eating disorder which causes the person to have an unusually large fear of weight gain. Because of this, the person feels the need to abscess about calories/exercise and intentionally lose an unhealthy amount of weight.

In the DSM-V, this is the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa:

“A. Restriction of energy intake relative to requirements, leading to a significantly low body weight in the context of age, sex, developmental trajectory, and physical health. Significantly low weight is defined as a weight that is less than minimally normal or, for children and adolescents, less than that minimally expected."

This symptom would show as a person intentionally not eating because of their body image.

"B. Intense fear of gaining weight or of becoming fat,or persistent behavior that interferes with weight gain, even though at a significantly low weight."

A person who was this symptom would almost always be thinking about their weight and relate many things to it.

"C. Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of the current low body weight.”

This symptom could be shown as a person who doesn't recognize their low body weight but instead still believes themselves to be overweight.

This is a formal definition of the disease provided by the Mayo Clinic:

“Anorexia (an-o-REK-see-uh) nervosa — often simply called anorexia — is an eating disorder characterized by an abnormally low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of body weight.”

An important mindset to have about mental illnesses is displayed by a person named Shelly in our external investigation. Shelly has a son with Autism and this was one her responses to a question "I had to accept a long time ago that even though circumstances can not be changed or controlled; my reactions to the them can be controlled."

Sources:

Mayo Clinic Staff. "Anorexia Nervosa." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia/home/ovc-20179508


American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.
Shelli. "Responses from Shelli." Message to GCE Sophomore Class. 25 Feb. 2016. E-mail.

Alexander, Achilles, and the Billboard Girl

In my Winter term for my Sophomore class at GCE, my humanities course is called Forbidden Books. For our first Action Project, we were asked to create our own Socratic dialogue. Before we started, we closely canalized both the Apology Socrates' comparison to living in a cave. One thing I struggled with in this project was timing and filming. One thing I think I was proficient at was the video editing. The Socratic method can be considered dangerous because it is a way to turn a persons belief without turning them against you.

Alexander, Achilles, and The Billboard Girl from LS on Vimeo.

Stacy and Strep

In my Winter term of my sophomore class at GCE, my STEAM course was Disease. For this course, we examined how diseases affect the body. For the Action Project, we interviewed a person we know that has a certain disease. We then created a patient profile and researched the disease to find out more information. I really enjoyed this project because of my connection to the disease I chose. I researched strep throat and I've had this disease multiple times. However, I've never really known the cause and how exactly it affects the body. I had a hard time finding multiple body systems thus drawing my illustration at first was hard, but after doing more research it was easy to make the connections to the other systems. 

Stacy

Stacy is a 15 year old student living in Chicago. She often contracts strep throat (or a streptococcal infection) and has to go see a doctor. Usually, her first symptom is a sore throat. She would often wake up and feel and intense pain in the back of her mouth. Also, she would feel very nauseous and sometimes vomit. Lastly, she would feel very tired and weak.

It is possible to have these symptoms and not have strep. However, because of her history of the disease, whenever she has these symptoms, she will go straight to the doctor to get tested. The most common way to test a patient for strep is to do a throat culture. To do this, a doctor swabs the back of the patient's throat to get a sample of the bacteria and then sends this to a lab. Many people, including Stacy, find this uncomfortable because it often will cause you to gag. The doctor test this swab for for the streptococcal bacteria and if it's positive, Stacy is provided with antibiotics to take over a certain period of time. The amount of time varies but she is commonly instructed to take the medication until she runs out. Usually, Stacy is told that after taking the medication for 24 hours, she won't be contagious and will then be allowed to attend school. However, there is a rare occasion where if the swab comes back negative, the doctor sends it to a lab for a "double check" and the lab will rarely come back and say it is positive. Thankfully this rare occurrence has never actually happened to Stacy.

Other than taking antibiotics for the disease, Stacy does a few things to help suppress the symptoms until she feels better. For her throat, Stacy usually takes pain relievers and drinks hot tea. She says that tea with honey and lemon works the best. For the nausea, Stacy says that "lying down and trying to very slowly sip hot broth can help you not want to vomit as much. But, if you move around too much or eat something too fast it can easily upset your stomach." Lastly, for her tired/weak feelings, just sleeping works the best. Sleep can be the best way to help your body fight off a disease or illness.

This disease usually affects Stacy in a very negative way. It causes her to have to be isolated until it isn't contagious any more which means she has to miss school. This sounds not so bad at first but when  it happens very often it can be no so fun to be behind on school work. Also, it makes Stacy have to stay inside and in bed with a very bad pain in her throat and the constant feeling of wanting to vomit. Because of all these things, Stacy has a very negative connotation with this disease and hopes to avoid it as much as possible.


Strep Throat

Strep throat is a bacterial infection in the tonsils and throat that causes inflammation and pain in the surrounding area. Strep is highly contagious. It can spread through airborne droplets when someone coughs or sneezes or through shared foods or drinks. You can also pick up the bacteria from a doorknob or other surface and transfer them to your nose, mouth, or eyes. Some risk factors are young age because this occurs most often in children and time of year. Strep is most commonly contracted in the spring and fall because the temperature allows bacteria to thrive and easily transfer between people. The types of people that are most susceptible are going to be social people. Since the major way to get this disease is from other people, communal locations such as public transit, offices, schools, etc. are going to be the most likely places to catch strep. Since Stacy is almost always in these public places, this is why she contracts this disease do often.

LS (2016), Full Body Sketch 

The most obvious place the infection affects is the throat, which is a part of the respiratory system and digestive system. The infection causes large amounts of inflation and pain in the back of the throat.

The tonsils also get infected and swell. The tonsils are a part of the lymphatic system. 

If untreated, a streptococcal infection can lead to many complication like inflammation of the kidneys and Rheumatic fever. The kidneys are a part of the urinary system and Rheumatic fever mainly affects the heart which is a part of the circulatory system.

References:
Mayo Clinic Staff. "Strep Throat." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education 
        and Research, 16 Dec. 2015. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. link