50 First dates

Henry( Adam Sandler) is a veterinarian who cares for animals in an aquatic amusement park in Hawaii . One morning, Henry meets Lucy (Drew Barrymore), an art teacher. They met in a cafe and really liked each other, so they agreed to meet the next day, but when Henry returns, Lucy has no memory of him or their previous meeting. The café owner explains to Henry that, as a result of a car accident a year earlier, Lucy suffers from Goldfield Syndrome, a fictional form of anterograde amnesia in which each day's events disappear from her memory overnight. her father to protect her from the pain of repeatedly learning about the accident, Marlin and Lucy's brother, Doug re-enact the same activities every day.
Henry realizing that he is falling in love with Lucy plans new ways to meet her again every day, hoping that one day she will remember him. He eventually convinces Marlin her father that hiding the truth from Lucy is worse than explaining it to her each day, so they begin to leave video tapes for her to watch each morning, explaining her situation and her relationship with Henry. Lucy also writes notes to herself in a diary. Over time, she begins to fall in love with Henry, accepting his marriage proposal.

We talked about Memory in Chapter 6 Amnesia is a profound memory loss which is usually caused either by physical injury to the brain, by the ingestion of a toxic substance which affects the brain also an emotional event can cause memory loss. In the movie they talked about Anterograde amnesia which in result of an accident Lucy had a brain injury in which she was severely impaired in learning new information, the memories she had before the accident were intact, but, events that occurred since the injury were lost she was not able to keep any of her new memories.

Snapshots from a serial killer

Dr. Phil the show Wednesday March 17, 2010 at 10:00am
Dr. Phil talks about the cases of convicted rapist and serial killer Rodney Alcala. Although the 66-year-old photographer recently received a death sentence for the murder of four women and a child in the 1970s, he was able to successfully overturn two previous death sentences through court appeals. According to investigators. Rodney Alcala, a photographer with a genius IQ, may be the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history. The 66-year-old was recently found guilty. Some investigators fear the number of victims could be as high as 30 to 50. Detectives are now trying to identify women and girls who appear in more than 100 photos found in Alcala's storage unit. photos of the women taken by Alcala show he had "sadistic sexual motives" and that "some of the victims were posed after death." The judge said Alcala had an "abnormal interest in young girls."
family members expresses their frustration with the justice system that allowed that killer to slip through the cracks.

In Chapter 14 we talked about psychological disorders. To discover what makes a serial killer function, it is necessary to look back into their past, particularly their adolescent life. By looking at many and varied cases, it is evident that all serial killers come from dysfunctional backgrounds involving sexual or physical abuse, drugs or alcoholism and their related problems. Many traits that seem to be universal in all these serial killers, though in varied amounts, include disorganized thinking, bipolar mode disorders, a feeling of resentment towards society brought on by their own failings, sexual frustrations, an inability to be social or socially accepted, over bearing parents and a wild imagination that tends to drag them into a fantasy world. A serial killer suffers from a series of personality disorders: People with Antisocial Personality Disorder are literally "against society" the antisocial person, sometimes called a sociopath, habitually breaks the law, doesn't obey rules, tells lies, and uses other people without worrying about feeling. People with this disorder typically don't feel any remorse or guilt at lying, cheating, stealing, or even more serious crimes such as murder.

CANDY

Candy (2006) Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush
Director Neil Armfield writer Luke Davies
A poet (Dan) who is a heroin addict falls in love with an art student (Candy). They both got trapped in the world of addiction hooked as much on one another as they are on Heroin. Their relationship faced different states of self-destruction Heaven, Earth and Hell. In Heaven sex and drugs are experienced by the young lovers. They sell things, steal, prostitute to seek money to buy drugs. In Earth they get married constantly struggling for money living in poor conditions because all the money that they make is going to drugs. Candy becomes a prostitute; Dan purchases the drugs and steals . Candy mistakenly becomes pregnant but, the baby is delivered still born around 23 weeks into the pregnancy. After all what the couple has been through They finally stop taking drugs with huge effort, going through painful withdraws symptoms. In Hell they experience the separation of their relationship and recovery. Dan and Candy choose to try methadone as a way to ease into a more normal life. Candy has a complete mental breakdown and was taken to a clinic to recover while Dan has some time to reflect about his life getting clean and holding a job as a dishwasher. When Candy returns to Dan he recognizes that their relationship is based on heroin, Dan for the love that he felt for Candy decides to end the relationship for good rather than risk dragging Candy back into addiction.

The movie talked about addiction and love. Two of the drugs that the movie talked about was Heroin and Methadone. In Chapter 4 we talked about these two drugs. Heroin is a derivative of morphine but without many of the side effects, it is a very addictive drug that can be injected, snorted, or smoked. It duplicates the action of endorphins so well that the nervous system slows or stops its production of neurotransmitters. So when the drug is stopped there is no protection against any kind of pain, causing the severe symptoms of withdrawals associated with these drugs. The withdrawal symptoms are so painful that it is very hard for the addict to quit. That is when Methadone is used, it is a derivative of opium but does not produce the euphoric "high" of heroin. So, it is used to control the withdrawal symptoms. Heroin abuse is associated with serious health conditions, including fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion, and particularly in users who inject the drug,infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, and liver or kidney disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the poor health of the abuser as well as from heroin’s depressing effects on respiration.

Kidnapped For 18 Years

November 9, 2009 at 9:00pm On TLC. 'The Jaycee Lee Dugard Story'
A story about the California woman who was kidnapped when she was 11 years old and held captive for 18 years before being discovered. Jaycee Lee Dugard was taken by strangers into their car in June 1991 while waiting for her school bus. She was found in August 2009 being kept in a backyard barn with her two children by her kidnapper Phillip Craig Garrido. Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy Garrido, 54 were arrested for kidnapping and other charges. During her time in captivity Dugard bore two daughters. Dugard never attended school or saw a doctor while in captivity. Investigators say she was renamed "Alyssa" and repeatedly raped. The sexual assaults produced two daughters. Since last summer the family have been living in a secret location in California receiving horse therapy technique. Many may wonder why Jaycee reportedly never tried to escape Garrido, despite his horrible acts towards her. One reason could be Stockholm Syndrome. Abductees like Jaycee might become emotionally attached to someone like Garrido, who happens to be her sole source of life while kidnapped. He was the sole provider of food, shelter and clothing. This is a very dangerous period for her and hopefully she and her family with the help of experts and intensive therapy they will be able to live a happy life.

Jaycee was terribly traumatized. She easily could spiral down into Depressive and Anxiety disorders as discussed in chapter 14. She could suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) A disorder resulting from exposure to a major stressor, with symptoms of anxiety, nightmares, poor sleep, reliving the event, and concentration problems, lasting for more than one month. Also, after being so long in captivity without any social interaction she could suffer from Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) Assessment that measures the amount of stress in a person's life over-year period resulting from major life events. Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder) A fear of interacting with others, Generalized anxiety disorder. Panic Disorder.

A&E TV Intervention 4/19/2010 at 9:00pm Documentary.

Amy and her family escaped the violence era in South Africa and immigrated to Canada 22 years ago. it is a family of four two daughters and one son, Amy is the youngest one, Amy suffers from anxiety and low self-esteem, she became anorexic and soon after bulimic. She has been bulimic for 4 years, she binges and purges up to four times a day. She eats up to 24000 calories per day while she is supposed to eat 2400 per day. Amy talks about the euphoria she feels when she eats but after she feels full she starts to feel guilty making herself throw up. She is only 92 lbs and her normal weight for a person her height is 115lbs. Long-term purging can lead to irregular heartbeat, cardiac arrest, and death. Amy was a very anxious child with a low self esteem that led to obsession over her appearance, her anorexia began in high school after high school she tried college but her anxiety pushed her to dropped out of college. At 20 years old she started binging and purging. Her family looked for help and where participants in a documentary call intervention that helps people get the help they need. In the documentary Amy decided that she wanted to get help so she was send to a treatment center where she completed 3 month of treatment then she was transferred to a life extended living facility she still continues binging and purging.
We talked about eating disorders in chapter 9 motivation and Emotion. The victims of eating disorders like Anorexia or Bulimia are people that are obsessed with their appearance, diet excessively and believe themselves to be fat even when they are quite obviously not fat. Biological evidence suggests that brain chemistry and in particular the neurotransmitter serotonin is involved in both bulimia and anorexia.
Anorexia nervosa is a condition in which a person stops eating or minimize the amount of eating to the point that a weight loss of 15 percent below the ideal body weight or more occurs. Hormone secretion becomes abnormal, especially in the thyroid and adrenal glands. The heart muscles become weak, loss of muscle tissue, loss of sleep, low blood pressure are few of the symptoms from Anorexia.
Bulimia is a condition in which a person eats enormous amounts of food much larger amount of food than most people would in a similar situation and after the person finishes eating feels very guilty and makes themselves purge. Dental cavities, Stomach Ulcers, Ruptures of the stomach and the esophagus are just a few of the complications that a person could have.