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I gained a greater understanding through this unit of the way that PTSD can not only affect Americans, but the awful affects that the standardization of mental illness can have on other countries and the experiences that people get from that.

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These statistics helped me to realize how damaging PTSD can be without any other people having any knowledge that someone is suffering.

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I don't know anyone personally with PTSD, but living in the US the prevalence of a sort of military industrial complex,  it really makes me think about how people are affected so severely in this country, but also the way that has so negatively affected non-Western areas, too.

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I think that it is so interesting that the doctors actually recognized the severity of the symptoms after the disaster. And that the doctors called it "Human Devastation syndrome" rather than PTSD. I am going to read more into what happened to the children in Aleppo to try and understand the situation better. Have a great day!

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As I was reading through the book I found it really helpful to mark up the pages with any thoughts, connections and questions that I had when reading. (I will upload a photo of an annotated page 66 when I come back from China as there is no access to google here) :)

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This got me thinking about the other times that America has gone into countries around the world in order to try and fix or help the country, but has actually ended up muting the original culture in that area. A lot of the time the American government is acting selflessly and in efforts to try and better the community but in effect actually damages the uniqueness of the country. One example of this is when America went to Japan and tried to dampen the customs and traditions of the country.

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While I was reading it was thinking about how different the cultures of the world are and how there has to be more than one 'correct' way of helping mental illness. I found it very interesting that the Western professionals were going in and teaching the Sri Lankan's about the western ideals of mental health. The experience of mental health is already so unique and personal that it seems strange to expand the treatment methods across such large cultural boundaries.

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Respsone to Megs Insight- Kelsey
Meg, your inside about being humbled because of reading this really brought a new idea to my head. Sometime when we read stories about outsiders whether it's related to natural disasters or cultural differences when you're an outsider as well sometimes causes us to stray away from a story since we assume we already know how that feels...if I'm making any since. Not all outsiders to Western culture have the same experience and it's something we have to keep in mind.

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When the book says "I'm worried that the more I know about it, the more likely I am to make it be the problem, subconsciously." In this part of the book it talks about how people feel like they aren't worthy of being diagnosed. This reminds me of of my friend who was diagnosed with anorexia but since she wasn't too skinny she felt like she could not accept the diagnosis.

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This picture was taken from an article I read about children in Aleppo. It was interesting to read because it said that doctors are seeing symptoms that are far worse than PTSD, and are now calling it "Human Devastation Syndrome."

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Reading about the theories Western traumatologists have developed about PTSD reminded me of the time we spent researching therapy, even though it was brief. Human connection is a vital part of overcoming any mental illness. We must make those affected by natural disasters feel like they have not been forgotten and that they are valued human beings. Unity is most important in these situations.

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I thought it was interesting that Wentz first thought of the mental health of those affected by the tsunami instead of their physical health. I know that most would say that their physical health is more important, yet it takes years to rebuilt their lives, and even then some are never the same. This makes me wonder which is more important, mental or physical health? Of course in extreme cases physical health must be prioritized, but which is truly the most important? Is one more important than the other?

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Response to Arden and Kelsey on "Major Connection" (Jade)

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Response to Arden and Kelsey on "Major Connection" (Jade)

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I was definitely thinking about the DSM-5 while reading this chapter as well. It just seems like such a clinical, almost harsh, way to deal with human emotion and struggle. It bothers me very deeply that the DSM-5 only focuses on Western beliefs and completely disregards social concepts and traditions of other cultures. This kind of treatment, while it may be effective in a scientific sense, is detrimental to unique cultures and ultimately the well-being of individuals all over the world.

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1. Observation: When Americans try to help people suffering from mental illness they generalize and assume all cases are virtually the same and can be treated in the same way. Most significantly, they take the meaning out of the experience.
2. Insight: This is like removing the human aspect of mental illness from the field altogether. It makes someone a patient and not a human being. Everything in the mental health world is about cause and effect, culture, and personal experiences. Diminishing the meaning of the experience that lead to PTSD and only addressing the illness as if it were a physical ailment (dealing with it only in the present and ignoring the past) harms the person affected more than it helps them. It can cause confusion about their situation and feelings of not being valid.
3. Personal connection: I have experienced this kind of clinical diagnosis of mental illness and it is NOT a good feeling. It's so easy to feel like you're just a sick patient and not a human being whose feelings are completely valid.

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1. Observation: Western response teams to the tsunami disregarded the Sri Lankan's ideas about mental health as being unsophisticated, so they introduced American models to "help" the survivors.
2. Insight: Just like the book title title indicates, this is an example of the globalization of the American Psyche. Mental illness is treated as an export and introducing it to a "less developed country" feeds American pride. What's more, it destroys unique and wonderful cultures, as seen in how the Sri Lankans became increasingly violent, and it homogenizes mental health.
3. Personal connection: This is exactly what Americans did in Japan. It makes me so angry that Americans feel the need to intrude on "subordinate" cultures and rearrange their delicate social structures and traditions. I have felt this generalizing effect of American psychology and believe the next generation of psychologists should work to reduce this smothering effect.

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1. Observation: the Western counselors and psychologists placed emphasis on educating the Sri Lankans about Western ideas of mental illness

2. Insight: This makes me wonder if educating survivors of the tsunami causes the Sri Lankans to become aware of PTSD and develop it as a consequence, are we justified in trying to educate them? Where do we draw the line?

3. I have seen this kind of reaction to information in many mental illnesses, including in myself. Before I knew about certain disorders I never thought about the symptoms and issues, but once I was informed of them it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. I think this is what the Sri Lankans could be experiencing as a result of so many Western Ideas being introduced to them.

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Arden's response to Kelsey's "Major Connection"

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Arden's response to Kelsey's "Major Connection"

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I think you raise a really good question, and I do not know the answers but during the reading I was wondering the same thing. This chapter obviously proved that different cultures and societies manifest and react to mental illnesses sometimes very differently (PTSD in this case) so how can we assume that one book, the DSM-5, can be applicable to the entire world? I do not think it is right to assume that the symptoms of mental illnesses are universal, as proven in this chapter and if there is only one DSM, I think that that needs to be changed.

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Below is a page that really stood out to me (pg. 92). When Fernando asked a little boy of the age of 8, what makes him feel better when he gets worried about violence in his community, his response really caught my eye. This boy relayed the comfort he felt when his mother told him if they were attacked/killed, they would all die together. This emphasizes how many Sri Lankans focus on the social aspect/effect of trauma and violence in their lives versus an interpersonal view. This also should make Westerners reconsider the treatment options and approaches to PTSD because an emphasis on healing the individual, and isolating them more from others in order to focus on themselves would only cause more problems.

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I like the way this image represents PTSD; it is a mix of a lot of emotions and stimuli, external and internal, rather than an assumption made by one nationality or country. I'm sure the Western PTSD diagnosis doesn't include all of those terms.

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The note below acts as a question rather than an observation. I want to change that.

I didn't want to blatantly assume, but now that I think of it, something like this deserves to be dissected and understood as an assumption and an observation—not just a question.

Below I talk about how there are spikes in mental illnesses when they are talked about, and researched, and on the media. This is what happened in Japan, and it seemed to happen in Sri Lanka with it's 14% - 39% rate of trauma (if I remember correctly). I might just be wondering about something that's already known, but what if it isn't?

How could we, as psychologists (maybe, in the future), decrease the impact level of a form of PTSD in an area, while also studying the way it develops. I feel like the way these foreigners interacted with the Sri Lankans kind of induced even more stress. How could that be avoided?

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Before reading my brief post, check out my note below. I say most of what I want to communicate there. (Also, I didn't mean DMV, I meant DSM; sorry)

I wanted to tell this because I really do see it. People look at the mathematics, and the science behind things and try to make a psychological judgement out of that only—and sometimes the science is ignored, yes, ignored. Then people believe that mental illness is a made-up exaggeration—especially when it comes to anxiety, and huge amounts of stress.

I kind of understand why. You don't see the brain in action. You can't be in the person's shoes whenever depression digs a whole in their lives, or when PTSD causes a break down—until you either experience it, or see it. But that's the thing, people like to hide things here; they like to hide the imperfections.

This leaves people in a dangerous situation, one that doesn't really seek out improvement due to the lack of belief in psychological help.

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This might be a bit too personal, but I still want to share it.

I saw a very clear and sudden connection between Sri Lankans and people in my community. I realized this when the book talked about how Sri Lankans separate and isolate themselves when they go through trauma, sometimes not being to fulfill their social duties and expectations.

At first it seemed kind of weird. My community is located somewhere that's highly developed and very first-world, but the behavior presented within the community is extremely old-century. Many families and kids grow into a certain pressure to be the local ideal: pretty, rich, and always happy.

After reading this I thought about social roles imposed into people in my family. I immediately thought of this one member, a cousin of mine, that has forced herself to create a sort of attitude and façade to fake being part of that ideal, and taking on the role that society told her she needed to be. I won't point her out in the picture, but I know, that despite how well she's been able to keep that up, people can still tell that she hides an internal suffering—as if she knows she isn't perfect.

It's rooted in the way she's seen her family value these things too. All those moments of instruction, those moments of hardships her family had also gone through to try to fit in, impulsed her to try to do the same—all while hiding a sort of unhappiness, a sort of stress.

I'm not sure if it's something that could be healed, but it has motivated her to push forward—unlike the Sri Lankans who go into isolation. Her never ending suffering kept her wanting to fulfill social expectations, and social roles.

I wish it didn't have to be that way, but it's the way this city's made her be.

Here's a photo of us...

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I found a lot in this chapter that has connected to our previous units, and current unit. From our previous unit, and the discussion we had before on this book, I saw a big connection regarding the theme of Westernization. There is a part in the book where it says organizations assume "at root, people throughout the world are the same in their emotional experience and expressions" (76) and this continued to make me wonder whether or not this is true. And from the rest of the chapter, I think it is reasonable to say that it is not always right to assume this. At the beginning of this unit, when we did our individual case studies, I found a common theme for the symptoms of PTSD to be "lack of sleep and motivation, hyperarousal, avoidance, etc.". That is why when reading this chapter, the sentence "how the symptoms of PTSD cluster in 3 different categories: avoidance, numbness, and hyperarousal". I found it interesting how this really is a common theme of sings in people suffering from PTSD.

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This chapter was really captivating to me, in that it expanded my knowledge of PTSD in other instances than war. I found it interesting how Western mental health specialists play a large role when catastrophe hits in other parts of the world. In this chapter, it spoke much about the assumptions Westerners make and it makes me wonder: is assuming something about a population in which you are culturally unalike, ethically correct? Are these assumptions helping those people? Or by imposing our Western privilege and entitlement, are they doing the opposite, and creating more harm than help?

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This is the cover of a book called "Many faces of PTSD" that my grandpa recently recommended to me, and this chapter reminded me of it's synopsis: "...Bringing this mental health issue to light for sufferers, families, and friends, these stories illuminate the confusion that often surrounds the behaviors and reactions associated with PTSD and can create understanding, patience, and awareness.."

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I remember in the beginning of the course I spoke about how I knew least about PTSD and how I only related PTSD to events such as war but I now realize that PTSD can occur after any trauma

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This chapter gave me insight into how trauma is not universal. As a person who grew up in Switzerland and then moved to the US, I thought I was well versed in how different cultures reacted to things such as trauma, and I even thought that trauma was the same everywhere (in treatment and reaction). I am humbled by this chapter because I realize I am wrong and I am glad that I have been re-educated on the topic.

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I saw this article online yesterday and I think that it very much relates to our studying of how different populations react to and deal with mental illness. This one is specifically on refugees with PTSD, which is related to this chapter of reading.

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New Michigan State University research has found that refugees diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder regulate stress differently than those who don't have the disorder, but may have experienced similar suffering.

PTSD is a mental health disorder that makes a person re-experience a traumatic event.

"What we discovered was that a gene associated with a person's mental health became overactive in refugees with PTSD and wasn't able to respond the right way when working with the body's stress defense system," said Bengt Arnetz, a professor of family medicine who led the study.

The methyl CpG binding protein 2 gene, or MECP2, helps control the normal function of nerve cells and plays an important role in mental health and the body's ability to handle stress.

An individual's stress defense system, known as the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical axis, or HPA, is activated when he or she is exposed to mental pressure or trauma and then calms down when the event is over. In refugees with PTSD, this built-in security system doesn't respond correctly and continues to overreact.

The findings are being presented at the American Psychosomatic Society's annual meeting on March 18.

It's estimated that up to a quarter of the refugees entering the United States have PTSD.

"Often times, those who come to the U.S. in search of a better life have been exposed to severe stress in one way or another," Arnetz said. "Some of this trauma can include coping with poor environmental conditions for many years and even violent situations as a result of war."

The federally funded study looked at 66 male and female refugees from Syria who had arrived in the United States within a month's time. Each were interviewed and given a validated medical survey to determine if they had PTSD.

The survey, known as the PTSD Checklist-Civilian included questions on socioeconomics, exposure to trauma, as well as symptoms associated with the disorder. Refugees with scores above 30 were classified as having PTSD and were compared to those with lower scores.

Researchers also took blood samples from study participants in order to analyze the MECP2 gene activity.

Arnetz said his findings provide important information that will help advance this type of research and assist individuals who are focused on aiding refugees once they arrive.

"Because refugees have typically experienced terrible environmental factors such as air pollution, as well as severe violence and trauma, it's important to study the impact of these things on the brain and body's physiology in order to optimize the health, well being and social integration of this population," he said.

Researchers from Wayne State University also contributed to the study with funding from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

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Refugees with PTSD regulate stress differently

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New MSU research has found that refugees diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder regulate stress differently than those who don't have the disorder, but may have experienced similar suffering.

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Through reading Crazy Like Us, there has been a constant underlying theme that whenever we try to bring our strategies of treatment and ideas concerning mental conditions to different areas of the world, we often send these areas into a tizzy. More and more cases of specific mental conditions start to pop up and suddenly something that was hardly thought about plagues a community. Then, we come in with all different forms of treatment and these areas start to begin using them and come up with their own. Ultimately, the American way of treating mental illness takes over and American culture permeates the regional culture of a land, somewhat diluting their previous thoughts on the matter and taking over in a way. It is as if America is getting the rest of the world to assimilate with us and our views.

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Before reading this chapter and entering this unit, I hadn't really considered all the different places victims of Trauma can come from. Stemming from that, I also hadn't thought much about the triggers that could cause a victim of trauma to experience distress. The way which Americans deal with treating trauma however, might come across as shocking to people of other societies based on the reception of mental conditions in their societies and the seriousness and severity for which they are concerned with mental health. So, to that effect, I hadn't really considered the fact that other parts of the world might actually deal with trauma differently. I am unhappy that I was so americanly ignorant to think this way and did not consider other approaches than our own to treating and responding to trauma before reading this chapter.

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We've learned about so many anxiety and depression-related disorders this year that I can make a connection here: rushing to a disaster scene to diagnose someone with PTSD can actually make them more nervous about their disease and allow the established stigma to leak into their heads, if you think about it from their perspective. It may actually create harmful anxiety!

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I never really considered rushing to the sites of trauma victims, without prior knowledge of culture or historical background, to be a bad thing until I read this chapter, but it actually makes so much sense. I like to think about it in the reciprocal sense: if another country were to respond to our disasters with mental health initiatives, disregarding our traditions, would that not negatively impact us in the end? But that never happens here, only in other countries who are now feeling the adverse effects of cultural loss.

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I thought this video was a great reflect of how PTSD affects different people from mostly the US, but one woman from Lebanon. The reason I liked this video was it touched on how PTSD feels when recognized.

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"It may never be the same, but it can get better." Check out more awesome videos at BuzzFeedVideo! http://bit.ly/YTbuzzfeedvideo Learn more about mental health week - http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/why-were-doing-mental-health-week#.vnAzxA7bY MUSIC What Was Once Shooting the Breeze Licensed via Warner Chappell Production Music Inc. Audio Network SFX provided by Audioblocks.

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The DSM and its role was the connection I made during reading. I wondered how much input non-western doctors have on the DSM and if other countries have their own version of the DSM.

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Not everyone handles stress like westerners which means that western style diagnosis and treatment won't work. However this shouldn't discredit the highly praised counselors that took time to visit Sri Lanka since their presence and empathetic nature mattered more than their techniques. One thought that flooded my mind as I finished the chapter was the effect medicine can have on a culture and if it can effect their confidence. I decided to include some of my thoughts I wrote on a white board because I think their more concise on the board.