Analysis Of A Plague Of Tics By David Sedaris

Rosa’s condition has not only affected her life physically but also psychologically. Over time she has become depressed as she feels ‘stuck in hospital all day and a burden on family and staff’. Psychological theories provide evidence-based explanations for why people think, behave, and feel the way they do. The cognitive explanation of depression originated with Seligman, he developed the theory of learned helplessness and attributions. The impact of learned helplessness has been demonstrated in a number of different animal species, but

and having carefully analyzed the text, I am leaning towards a diagnosis of, major depressive disorder. The observed symptoms, which the protagonist seems to line up with the following symptoms listed in for Major depressive disorder in the DSM-5 checklist provided in the book (Comer, 2014). In the short story, the protagonist has mentioned and expressed with her actions feeling: in a depressed mood for most of the day, Daily diminished interest or pleasure in almost all activates for most of the day, Decrease in daily appetite, experiencing hypersomnia, daily fatigue or loss of energy (Comer, 2014). These things mentioned are symptoms that are categorized as being

In the short story, “What I learned” by David Sedaris, Sedaris takes a comical approach as he writes about his journey through college as a freshmen at Princeton university. He speaks about his experiences, from his acceptance to graduation and about his parents and their reaction to him going to college. Sedaris starts by highlighting how the university was today in comparison to how it had been in his day when he was a student. He goes on to explain his point of view of the colleges grading system, a pass-fail system that allowed you to live if you passed or die in a fiery death in the event of failure. Sedaris goes into detail explaining how during the first period of grading the campus had been filled with smoke and the smell of burning

Have you ever experienced that moment in your life when you are at an all time low? When nothing goes your way or your friends are mad at you? Well, what you have just experienced is depression. Depression is a phenomenon that can shatter your insides, give you a heart-throbbing experience or test your resilience. These experiences are what Craig Silvey willed upon us the audience in his novel Jasper Jones. Like giving us, the readers a panic attack in chapter 1 or making us give up during Charlie’s library experience.

A book of horrors, fear and death. “The Plague” is a book by Albert Camus which weaves these emotions and events into one suspenseful tale. Each paragraph and section is written and structured in such a way as to give the reader insight into the feelings of the victims of the plague, and to show somewhat of a theme. The passage from section 4, part 4, line number 1 to line number 35 gives us a glimpse of the melancholy of the people of Oran to their dead loved ones to the extent that they do not attend All Souls' Day, for they were thinking of them too much as it was. Albert Camus fills this passage with figurative devices, including, diction, personification, pathetic fallacy, metaphors, irony and a turning point. The first two paragraphs

David Sedaris’s Tasteless is an essay filled with imagery and humor. His sarcasm and language really captures the reader’s mind. He takes you through his journey of his eating habits from a boy to an adult. He begins his story with discussing how cigarettes can affect one’s senses, blaming his lack of taste on his smoking fixation. He proceeds to describe his eating habits with elaborate details and analogies, poking fun at himself numerous times. Sedaris tells of a time where he tried to bribe his sister for part of her meal. Then he talks about a cookbook he received from his mother and how by high school he began making pizzas. Although he would be creative with his meals, he never applauded himself once on his abilities to create something

In the essay "Twelve Moments in the Life of the Artist," Sedaris desperately wants to become an artist but always feels inferior compared to his younger sister. He makes fun of his lackluster skills by stating that “I had to wrestle daily with both my inadequacy and my uncontrollable jealousy. I didn’t want to kill her, but hoped someone else might do the

This essay will introduce some similarities and differences between both symptoms and experiences of six different authors who have been personally affected by obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).  Since OCD is not very well understood by many members of the public ("Escape"), I hope that the experiences of the authors that I researched will be able to paint a vivid picture of what life with OCD is like.

The memoir consists of a period of time after his high school years when he is in college, but goes deep into the background of his previous school years as well. Many times over, he reiterates that living with obsessive compulsive disorder is not a choice and that any mental disorder can drastically affect a person’s life. Throughout his years of school, he explains the predicaments the disorder had gotten him into and how most of the time he had overcome them. Eventually problems began to pile on and he had to get treatment, which became a turning point in his

Depression is something serious that ruins the lives of many. In “The Depressed Person” by David Foster Wallace, he introduces the reader to a person who suffers from depression but also is narcissistic; someone who hungers for attention and makes and situation about them. There’s a difference in depression alone and depression that is accompanied by narcissism. Being sad and keeping to yourself is symptomatic of depression, but being sad accompanied by the need to blame others as well as having a grandiose view of one’s self would be more representative of depression with narcissism. This combination brings an unhealthy lifestyle and burdens ones around the sufferer. The Depressed Person may not reach out

Is this the narrator's attempt to understand the self or soul? To regain an essence of power and understanding of who she is becoming or has become? Is there a larger question here which the reader, through the narrator, must ask? Does not the narrator's disintegration or depression become but a symbol of her search for self? There is a belief, one I personally share, that depression is part of the soul's cycles--a place or time where opposing forces struggle with reason.

I have always been fascinated with behavioral disorders, especially OCD. I learned about OCD a few years ago when I was reading a medical journal. At first, it seemed like something very odd. The idea that otherwise normal people can do such strange things, and not be able to control themselves was fascinating. I wanted to know more about this topic, which is why I chose to write my paper on it. I thought that by knowing more about the subject, I will be able to better understand how these people’s lives can be literally taken over by their constant worries and anxiety. Also, I think a lot of people exhibit these behaviors and aren’t even aware that they may have a severe problem, and more importantly, that they can be getting help to

Early last year in 2010, due to his frustration in trying to overcome those panic attacks, he fell into depression. At the same time, he said that he was also having problem at work with one of his colleagues who seemed to be jealous of him and tried to damage his reputation. She would often try to monitor his whereabouts and make it known to his superior whenever he was absent from his office. To add to the stress at work, his wife was also constantly nagging him at home.

When we break our arm everyone runs forward to sign the cast but when we say we have depression everyone turns and runs the other way. This author shows how severe depression can form and issues that can be associated with severe depression. The way Elizabeth Wurtzel depicts depression and the substance abuse that can be related to severe depression is  impeccable in her non-fiction novel Prozac Nation. Depression affects more than 350 million people worldwide and is the most common of all the mental illnesses, it doesn’t have a cure but it is manageable with proper medication. Elizabeth Wurtzel has said “ I made ‘Prozac Nation’  a necessary reading because I write necessarily.  I tell my story because it is about everyone else: in 1993, people took pills to relieve the pain just like they do now, but it scared them; it doesn’t anymore, because talk is not cheap at all -- it is tender”i think this is very important  because it shows how hushed the talk about the facts on mental illness are. Although depression is shown to be an individual illness, the author effectively demonstrates the massive toll depression takes on family and friends. For example, depression takes a toll on your family and friends by having to watch you suffer and be in pain and not be able to do anything about it. Secondly, your family and friends are stuck watching as depression takes you

In Grant Haake’s essay Abduction, he has spontaneous seizures which results in a loss of time. He claims that the seizures abduct him from his life and family, and that he cannot do anything to help prevent the seizures from happening. Haake then goes to describe his experiences of seizures by describing his feelings and emotions, expressing his essay through the rhetorical appeal of pathos. From his descriptions of his loss of time, I feel like the author is describing how he feels alienated in his own life from his illness.