Blog 3

The issue I have chosen to discuss involves mental illness. I believe that it is a problem that often overlooked in our country. It seems that just so long as one is in good physical health, then they are considered "healthy". However, there are 5 other dimensions of health that are equally as important. I will be the first to say that I am generally healthy in each dimension save for mental health. But to get to the point, when one dimension of health is out of whack, then it creates a ripple effect and the others begin to falter and/or fluctuate.

I know many people who suffer from certain mental illnesses. For this topic I will choose someone and leave their name classified as Brad. Brad is probably one of my closer friends that I have and I also will not specify what exactly he suffers from. I will simply discuss his lifestyle choices, attitudes, and functionality in society.

Brad is an intelligent young man. One can have an existential conversation with him very easily. He is functioning but he does seem to go through series of rough patches. One of the many problems and struggles he is faced with is that he finds himself from job to job. It is difficult for him to hold a single job down. Due to his recent misfortunes, he has had to move out of his apartment because of his most recent job loss. Currently, he is between his friends and parents as a temporary living situation. Brad seems to suffer from the occasional depressive state but will soon come back up. He does seem to space out quite a bit and is mildly clumsy. His car is evidence of this and that he clearly struggles to pay attention at times, but he finds this humorous. Many of his friends, including myself, find it somewhat humorous as well. Brad is quite a jokster and likes to have fun with things. The biggest problem people seem to have with Brad is that they consider him "creepy". He does occasionally have the "stalker-ish" attitude that seems to displace others. This makes him and surrounding people uncomfortable. Of course, I am persistently in his defense.

Just from knowing Brad, I knew that there might be something wrong with him but never really questioned it any deeper. I would endorse that he is high functioning. He seems to take more interest in fantastical ideologies. Any video game that is highly imaginative with a profound "fantasy land", he covets and spends a lot of his time playing. Occasionally, he will cosplay (dress up as a character) a character from a movie or video game. I actually did not know that he was diagnosed with a certain mental illness until recently. When I discovered this, it became clear that his attitude and behavior suddenly had a meaningful explanation.