So last week I spoke about workplace health, well here it is a bit again. After that post, just this Thursday, I called in ill to work. Why you may ask? Quite simply I had a migraine, a very extensive painful, please shut off all the lights and if the sun had a switch I'd shut it off, kind of migraine. I thought maybe it was the heat in my apartment and that cool air or a shower might help, but no. I was in nauseating pain and even breakfast was hard to stomach. So I went to the doctor and got looked at and got a note. The doctor stated I must stay off work for 3 days, take a muscle relaxant past 6 pm and naproxin during the day, and get massage therapy because it wasn't just a migraine. No this stemmed from something else. Tension.
I was asked a series of questions and upon looking at my chart, and hearing my symptoms, he did a simple test of squeezing down on my shoulders and neck muscles and simply stated that 1. it's from work and 2. I definitely would benefit from massage therapy. Next thing I know I have a referral, an appointment and am out the door to get the note to work. Thank goodness I am not fired because I brought the note in right away. I may not have looked ill per se, but I was in enough pain that even keeping sunglasses on didn't help the light.
The good news from all this is that after speaking to HR they are going to look into an ergo assessment for my chair and back once I bring in a note. Which I will be doing by next week after I have my second session. So that means I can get some proper seating which after seeing the therapist, she totally agreed.
Now to the session. I was told to monitor how I feel throughout the week after the session, which by the way I learned some things and it felt amazing! I highly recommend it even as a gift to someone! What did I learn? Well I learned that after near 4 years at a strictly desk job this is bound to happen and is quite common and no one bothers to get help for it. I learned that the question mark shape migraine, that stems from my shoulders around into the back and base of my neck and skull and around my ear, behind my eye and into my sinuses is all because of the tension in one group of shoulder muscles. Those muscles get stuck in a certain way, even as I'm typing here, it is in that sitting, typing and mouse holding position that in fact causes it. Even right now I admit that I haven't taken the relaxant yet and am feeling a bit of discomfort in my right side where all of this is stemming. I feel the tension. I feel the muscles straining like they're tired.
She told me that when it's that much pain it's our body's reaction to it being tired and that if the body thinks that it can increase the pain, then perhaps we'll do something about it. So the earache and headache and all that suffering randomly over the past 2 years at least is a sign that I need out of a desk job! Or at least a lessening of some hours perhaps. I'm thinking that I may actually ask for a week off in December. Or a few days at least perhaps near my birthday. I just need to rest my body. It needs to do nothing but rest and not be at the computer.
The therapist also asked me a series of questions that included where I worked, how long I worked there, what I did, right down to how I wore my headset. She told me most people sit with a slouched forward position as well which is so very true, everything she described is true about me and I looked at the diagram and thought wow that is right where all the pain is!
Sitting is the next disease. It truly is. We are becoming obese, diabetic, and stressed. We have more heart attacks and heart disease etc. and women especially are at risk apparently. This is sad. We need to stop this trend. We need to have more active roles and lives like we used to. Like I used to. I used to walk everywhere, be able to lift up boxes and do laundry even without pain, without having to sit down for breath. Now I can't even do that. I try to stay active but the more I try the more it seems that work work work is holding me down.
This has made me come to the conclusion that we need to change our work habits in North America, and if not North America than Canada at the least where we do not work more than 8 hours a day and if we do and if we have sitting jobs we must have a plan or some kind of hour or two a day of mandatory working out or activity of some kind. You know, team sports or some kind of work out room installed or even some kind of just fun activity where everyone stops working and does stretches or something. The schools uses to have that and even now they don't. They've removed a lot of the essential skills and activity based education in our school systems. We don't have recess as adults, we need to. We need to have fun, destress and be active. It's not just diet. It starts there yes. But we need activity.
Now it's just a matter of how would one implement this? Who would be with me for this? I know we have busy lifestyles with going out, drinking with friends or being out and about with family and maybe you feel that no we shouldn't have an hour out of our busy work day to have this kind of activity. And maybe for some jobs there is no need you think right? But what about those people who are on their feet every day? Well those ones perhaps could be exempt if they are only working say a 4-6 hour shift and only part time throughout the week. Perhaps it would be only the 8-12 hour shifts 5-6 days a week people. Even those that work labour jobs should be subject to this, oh but it'll stop production you say? Well why not then do a half hour stretching period? Because even those at labour intense jobs require their bodies to stay active and flexible and healthy.
It's a thought. It's something that I think should be mandatory. Like the siestas in other countries. They get a nap time or they don't even work before or past a certain time because of the weather conditions and heat. I think that being healthy should be a world wide thing and in North America it's become an important and controversial topic. I'm not waging a war on "fat" people, no I am one of those people now and even if I wasn't I think back to even when I was thin and thinking that perhaps I wasn't entirely healthy then either. I was constantly sick with colds and flus etc. so therefore my immune system was waging war on me. Why, I think it's because of the environment. We can't take care of the earth so the earth won't take care of us.
No wonder we're obsessed with zombie apocalypses and viruses and such. We are one and are creating them. Soon enough with all these things we'll have wiped ourselves out.
Moving onto one more thing that comes to mind, I came across this article a few weeks back or so, Fat Letters. Yes they are making it mandatory in schools in some parts of the US that they be weighed and that there be a bmi and "fat letter" as they're being called sent home. Why? This isn't going to stop being obese and it isn't even accurate. Not to mention they are children. It is up to the household, the medical practitioner, not the school to judge who is and who isn't obese and what to perhaps do about it. How is this right? This is a war, it's discriminatory and demeaning. It hurts more of a child's self esteem and causes more bullying etc. How is this helping the problem? It isn't! Again we need more activity in our educational system and more encouragement for young children both boys and girls to be active in sports etc. If given more of an opportunity admittedly I would have perhaps joined sports teams but because of funds and because of the constant bullying for being small as well as the competition was so great, I didn't. I was discouraged in that way but I kept myself active by playing with my siblings and walking and lifting and doing other things like dancing. Yes, yes, I'm sure some of you who know me probably can't imagine me at 19, way back when, dancing in my bedroom with my sister making up choreography and loving to dance to Spanish or Celtic tunes and the love of watching River Dance etc. But I did. I did so almost every day, even when I was little we would dance while cleaning our rooms or doing dishes. One day I got so ambitious I was cleaning everything and listening to the good old tape deck and dancing and singing away (horrible voice but still!). It's things like that that can make cleaning or doing basic stuff fun.
So again I say, we need this as children, we need this as adults. And again I say that massage was very well worth it and I am excited and look forward to this Friday's session. I still hurt after, it didn't get rid of the headache entirely, yet. But it did do wonders and I can move more of my shoulders and arm than I could before. She is even going to do my lower back, which this first time around the heating pad helped significantly and I could walk much better. We shall see what happens next and of course updates will follow.
Until then everyone have a good week! Stay healthy and stay active!
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Workplace Health
So I had a bunch of things to write this time but I'm going to save them for later right now. I would like to talk about something that's been in the works for a while. Obviously it's not going to be the last chapter on this subject either. Health in the work place. Health in a call center. Quite frankly there is so much to this topic that I can't cover it in one post. Ultimately I'm going to start with myself and my experience since starting in the workforce altogether.
Now I've worked in a frozen food factory before, that was my first official job. That job I worked for 3 years, 3 seasons I should say and each time I found myself sick with a cold or flu or something of the sort simply because it's COLD. Freezing actually, however I always seemed to bounce back and work hard and during the summer I found myself less ill than during the colder seasons. And the more I worked the less sick I seemed to be though exhausted. Then I worked in customer service and was sicker than anything before, one summer and that's all it took and then I was back in college. My immune system however seemed to bounce back and that year though exhausted all the time I wasn't as ill, not with colds and flus anyway. That being said I strongly believe it's the environment, your surroundings, the people you're with and right down to who you're living with. It's not just diet or rest etc. it's the air, the pollution, the smoking (my mother smoked and that's who I lived with at that time) , pollen content, closed quarters etc that make a difference. And working in customer service, after working at Winners, I found myself actually not as ill after I moved out on my own, had my own place where I had control and though I worked with the public I still had more of an open environment where I could walk to and from work and eat better and breathe better.
However, since working at a call center, now going on four years, I have found myself in an enclosed environment with no windows, filled with germs where everyone touches everything from the computer to the headsets we end up sharing where they are growing with germs and bacteria. Not only do we breathe the same filtered and recycled air but we're breathing on and coughing, sneezing on the headset piece which usually have no covers, and we have a headset to our ears where not only volume affects our hearing but the fact that bacteria and wax build up causes plugged ears and ear infections. The headsets are not covered with new ear covers either so when sharing, well that's like sharing make up and toiletries almost. We also have florescent lighting while looking at screens all day which is horrible for eye sight. In fact when I had my eyes tested this summer I asked why my eyes were so dry and itchy all the time. As it turns out it is not because of my needing glasses but because I'm looking at a screen all day with said lighting and I'm not blinking as much as I should be to keep my eyes moist as they should. That's the downfall of electronics you see. And we've become so reliant on them that we don't notice or think about it.
The next horrible thing, that I've mentioned in past posts I'm sure, is weight gain and the "sitting disease". They wonder why people are obese? Why, I'll tell you, it's because we're immobile. We can try to be active, like myself where I walk every day to and from work, try to workout when I can and am not exhausted from listening to people (which will be my next subject on this matter) but none of it makes a difference. We are thrust into an environment full of temptations as well from the cafeteria, such as junk food, pop and even smoking. They say now that sitting is the new smoking. It's so bad that it causes more diseases especially for women than many other things. I can attest to this. Not only have I gained about 10 or 12 lbs since March til September when I last weighed myself but over the course of working at the call center and sitting I've gained a total of 83 or more pounds. I used to weight 98lbs. I want to weight 130 max. This has caused back problems, pinched nerves, leg strain, depression, self hate, being near diabetic etc. All this from sitting. Yet I walk 80 min or more per day you say? That's right I do and my doctor was shocked when I said this and said I need to do MORE. How can I when my schedules are also random? Such is the life of the call center right? And one would like to just accept it and say well this can't be the issue but it is. Although I found out also that we apparently get a percentage off gym membership at Good Life Fitness gyms, I am not inclined to go because it's still costing me money and expenses and time that I don't have to get to and from. We need another action plan. I need another action plan.
This moves me to mental health. I'm one to definitely speak out about mental health because it's an increasing issue. We have teens and children committing suicide due to bullying and depression among other reasons and no one is listening or helping until it's too late. And this goes for call center or workplace as well. One of the good things I like about where I work is an employee assistance program with online councilors among other things. Certainly something I've used when it came to my mother and how I felt to help get me through just last year. However with the weight and also listening to cranky people all day, it can be very frustrating especially when you feel that all you do is fix people's issues that ultimately half the time, I'll admit we're all human and make mistakes but this many? I won't go into details of course because I could be fired for it, but I'm sure it happens in any inbound call center regarding billing services or adding and selling services to existing accounts. It can be very trying and angering. There are many days where admittedly I'm not happy. I pretend to be chipper and cheerful on the phone and to my colleague and I even had one colleague come over to me the other day and ask me if I was ok. I was so to speak, I was in my own world though just thinking and dreaming and talking to my sister. I have to. I have to shut the world out on some days especially at work on breaks and lunch. I don't want to think about it and I put too much effort into my job to be a good agent and try to meet my stressful never ending set of metrics. I meet everything but handle time, I could go on and on complaining but point being this handle time is affected again by trying to do my job right and be thorough and listening to these angry and frustrated , sometimes irate customers who in turn make you feel the same way because someone else didn't do their job right in the first place. It's a never ending cycle.
Mentally speaking and physically speaking, the call center job is not a great one. It can be. It has it's good times but not many at this particular one. I'm not happy. It's making me sick. My father continues to say "you need to find a new job", problem is in this market and times it's hard to come by a full time job of 40 hrs with benefits. Benefits right now is the only thing keeping me here as well as an ensured steady rate of pay. It's not the benefits, not the people , not the clients, not the job. I don't love it. I want to do something I love. I guess my ultimate point to close this post off is, don't do something you don't love if you can avoid it. If it makes you sick, try to find something else and if it's a desk job and you do love it make sure you get the right activity including setting up a standing computer work station, take your eyes of electronics periodically and try to have natural light where allowed. Currently I'll admit I'm looking for another job opportunity.
So that's my talk about that, for now. As I said I could expand on a great many things with this and I'm sure I will in the near future. Hope everyone has a good week! :)
Now I've worked in a frozen food factory before, that was my first official job. That job I worked for 3 years, 3 seasons I should say and each time I found myself sick with a cold or flu or something of the sort simply because it's COLD. Freezing actually, however I always seemed to bounce back and work hard and during the summer I found myself less ill than during the colder seasons. And the more I worked the less sick I seemed to be though exhausted. Then I worked in customer service and was sicker than anything before, one summer and that's all it took and then I was back in college. My immune system however seemed to bounce back and that year though exhausted all the time I wasn't as ill, not with colds and flus anyway. That being said I strongly believe it's the environment, your surroundings, the people you're with and right down to who you're living with. It's not just diet or rest etc. it's the air, the pollution, the smoking (my mother smoked and that's who I lived with at that time) , pollen content, closed quarters etc that make a difference. And working in customer service, after working at Winners, I found myself actually not as ill after I moved out on my own, had my own place where I had control and though I worked with the public I still had more of an open environment where I could walk to and from work and eat better and breathe better.
However, since working at a call center, now going on four years, I have found myself in an enclosed environment with no windows, filled with germs where everyone touches everything from the computer to the headsets we end up sharing where they are growing with germs and bacteria. Not only do we breathe the same filtered and recycled air but we're breathing on and coughing, sneezing on the headset piece which usually have no covers, and we have a headset to our ears where not only volume affects our hearing but the fact that bacteria and wax build up causes plugged ears and ear infections. The headsets are not covered with new ear covers either so when sharing, well that's like sharing make up and toiletries almost. We also have florescent lighting while looking at screens all day which is horrible for eye sight. In fact when I had my eyes tested this summer I asked why my eyes were so dry and itchy all the time. As it turns out it is not because of my needing glasses but because I'm looking at a screen all day with said lighting and I'm not blinking as much as I should be to keep my eyes moist as they should. That's the downfall of electronics you see. And we've become so reliant on them that we don't notice or think about it.
The next horrible thing, that I've mentioned in past posts I'm sure, is weight gain and the "sitting disease". They wonder why people are obese? Why, I'll tell you, it's because we're immobile. We can try to be active, like myself where I walk every day to and from work, try to workout when I can and am not exhausted from listening to people (which will be my next subject on this matter) but none of it makes a difference. We are thrust into an environment full of temptations as well from the cafeteria, such as junk food, pop and even smoking. They say now that sitting is the new smoking. It's so bad that it causes more diseases especially for women than many other things. I can attest to this. Not only have I gained about 10 or 12 lbs since March til September when I last weighed myself but over the course of working at the call center and sitting I've gained a total of 83 or more pounds. I used to weight 98lbs. I want to weight 130 max. This has caused back problems, pinched nerves, leg strain, depression, self hate, being near diabetic etc. All this from sitting. Yet I walk 80 min or more per day you say? That's right I do and my doctor was shocked when I said this and said I need to do MORE. How can I when my schedules are also random? Such is the life of the call center right? And one would like to just accept it and say well this can't be the issue but it is. Although I found out also that we apparently get a percentage off gym membership at Good Life Fitness gyms, I am not inclined to go because it's still costing me money and expenses and time that I don't have to get to and from. We need another action plan. I need another action plan.
This moves me to mental health. I'm one to definitely speak out about mental health because it's an increasing issue. We have teens and children committing suicide due to bullying and depression among other reasons and no one is listening or helping until it's too late. And this goes for call center or workplace as well. One of the good things I like about where I work is an employee assistance program with online councilors among other things. Certainly something I've used when it came to my mother and how I felt to help get me through just last year. However with the weight and also listening to cranky people all day, it can be very frustrating especially when you feel that all you do is fix people's issues that ultimately half the time, I'll admit we're all human and make mistakes but this many? I won't go into details of course because I could be fired for it, but I'm sure it happens in any inbound call center regarding billing services or adding and selling services to existing accounts. It can be very trying and angering. There are many days where admittedly I'm not happy. I pretend to be chipper and cheerful on the phone and to my colleague and I even had one colleague come over to me the other day and ask me if I was ok. I was so to speak, I was in my own world though just thinking and dreaming and talking to my sister. I have to. I have to shut the world out on some days especially at work on breaks and lunch. I don't want to think about it and I put too much effort into my job to be a good agent and try to meet my stressful never ending set of metrics. I meet everything but handle time, I could go on and on complaining but point being this handle time is affected again by trying to do my job right and be thorough and listening to these angry and frustrated , sometimes irate customers who in turn make you feel the same way because someone else didn't do their job right in the first place. It's a never ending cycle.
Mentally speaking and physically speaking, the call center job is not a great one. It can be. It has it's good times but not many at this particular one. I'm not happy. It's making me sick. My father continues to say "you need to find a new job", problem is in this market and times it's hard to come by a full time job of 40 hrs with benefits. Benefits right now is the only thing keeping me here as well as an ensured steady rate of pay. It's not the benefits, not the people , not the clients, not the job. I don't love it. I want to do something I love. I guess my ultimate point to close this post off is, don't do something you don't love if you can avoid it. If it makes you sick, try to find something else and if it's a desk job and you do love it make sure you get the right activity including setting up a standing computer work station, take your eyes of electronics periodically and try to have natural light where allowed. Currently I'll admit I'm looking for another job opportunity.
So that's my talk about that, for now. As I said I could expand on a great many things with this and I'm sure I will in the near future. Hope everyone has a good week! :)
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Mental Health of Youth, Miley, Too Much Water? and Are We From Here?
So this week's blog has a few controversial issues. As usual of course I bring these issues to you relating to health of some kind trying to keep with the name of the blog. Though to my readers, I am looking perhaps for a new blog name and if any of you have suggestions please post comments below.
Let's start with again, body shaming and self image/mental health of young children. First of all there have been many reports over the summer of schools banning certain hairstyles such as braids and small mohawks or even a shaved head because of what? It's a distraction they say. Well no it's not it's part of culture it's part of what makes a person unique so why are children now being banned from being their own person and now must conform having to wear uniforms and have all the same generic style making them robots. They learn things too fast and with technology, and many a discussion with many parents through the call center I work for, and even those that are not parents, I have found that there are a great many that though they have the tech, wish it weren't there and wish their children could get away from it so they didn't have to be "cool". Or that it takes away from our daily enjoyment of ,quite simply put, life! We are training our children that being of a certain race or gender is not cool, not good and that we all have to be the same in some way or another. Not only this but I also have seen a report that France is banning beauty pageants for those that are under the age of 16, and that Quebec, is not following suit. In fact they are encouraging it. You can read one report I found here. I do not agree with pageants, in fact I think any "beauty" competition is outrageous and unfair and not appropriate. It's got to stop.
Moving forward on this is the new controversy of Miley Cyrus. Oh yes! I have something to say about this. You may argue, leave this poor girl alone she's doing what she wants and why are we critizing her when there are so many artists that have done it and gone naked and or have had naked dancing women in their videos etc. Ok that's fair I suppose but I guess my issue is that she made something like "twerking" that is as I pointed out with another video in another entry a very cultural thing not to mention it's a sensual thing not a sexual thing, disgusting on stage. She "prostituted" herself as put in the words of Sinead O'Connor who posted an open letter of which I totally agree with. She is 20-21 and has been a child star all her life, spoiled and unknowing just like a great many others such as Brittany Spears, Lindsay Lohan, just to name a few. All of those stars seemed to have a breakdown and either picked themselves back up and learned to control themselves or they are still unfortunately struggling with many issues and have or are seeking out help. Miley is a child that needs to grow up and she will grow up fast. Point being that she also is a role model for other young ladies as Sinead points out and this is a concern and should be for parents out there that have seen her go from young child Hannah Montana to this young woman who is showing their daughters and sons that it's ok to flaunt yourself, sexualize yourself and sell yourself to the public or to anyone that will have your body for the sake of money and fame and being "free". That isn't right and you have to show yourself more respect! I totally agree with Sinead that respect comes first for yourself and she does not have that. There are many artists like Lady Gaga, J-Lo etc. that yes have shown a sexy or naked side, for photos, promotion, videos, but they chose as adult women, not under advisement that this is what they must do and they all did it at an age that they could make an informed decision. Yes, sex sells, but there is a way to do it, and there is a way not to. Porn, sexual acts parading around on stage nearly naked with an older man, that's not the way to do it. Especially when you know your audience is that of younger women and children not that of 30-40 year olds.
Next item on my list is mental health in schools and the topic of suicide. Should this be spoken about? Should this be a topic that is brought up in health class or better yet, English class as it has in this article. Well, when it comes to certain topics in books certainly this is one that was never really totally brought up and we never had to do an assignment in such a way that we had to write such a letter. However I do feel that it is a topic that should be discussed and there should be an assignment of discussion with family, as to how perhaps it affects the mental health of someone, how they feel and perhaps bringing to light an understanding or an attempt thereof of how the person who committed the suicide felt and what brought them to that decision and was it really the only and best way out? Suicide I feel is a scapegoat and one that should be not an option however there are now a days so many children, yes I said it, children that are feeling this way and committing the act. Why? It's an epidemic! Is it drugs, bullying, mental illness, the feeling of loss and despair, the feeling of no way out? All of those things play a crucial role. How I know? Because I've considered the act many times myself but, I then think, well what about my cats, what about my family, how would those who do care feel? What would happen to the world or just those that care without me? Do I make an influence? Well, in light of things, and speaking to a counselor a year ago, yes I do make a difference and this is what inspired me further to continue writing this blog. That being said, everyone has an influence on everyone and can make a difference even if it is simply a smile on someone's face, holding a door for someone, helping with groceries etc. Little things that may not seem like they make any difference at all but mean so very much to that person when done. These simple acts affect mental health, it can affect the decisions people make. As children, we have to do more for them because they are our future. We can't just let them kill themselves off because they think we don't care. As a society though, we allow sexual images and bullying of all kinds bombard ourselves and our youth.
Ok enough about that, let's move on to something that really affects our health. What is that you may ask? Water! Water is all around us and we're made up of mostly water as human beings, we drink lots of it per day or we're supposed to. However, apparently, we can overdose on it! We can in fact actually make ourselves sick and die, not by drowning but drinking too much and by lessening salt intake on top of it we then further the problem. Example is this article of this young lady. Hard to believe I know but there should be balance on everything. As I have said before, it doesn't matter what we have, everything that claims to be good or bad, can be in fact bad for us. Not to mention we should do things in moderation.
Speaking of balance and overdosing on a natural resource, food for thought, are we actually from this planet? Is water and other things here poisoning us? Well I've said it before that we are earth's virus. And after reading this report here, well I think it furthers my thoughts on this in agreement that we don't belong here and that mother nature is going to get rid of us sooner or later.
And that's all for now folks. Hope you all enjoy your next weeks to come. I'll try to post sooner but my shift has also changed so it makes it a bit difficult and I might move all writing days to Sunday when I officially have off. :) Stay healthy friends!
Let's start with again, body shaming and self image/mental health of young children. First of all there have been many reports over the summer of schools banning certain hairstyles such as braids and small mohawks or even a shaved head because of what? It's a distraction they say. Well no it's not it's part of culture it's part of what makes a person unique so why are children now being banned from being their own person and now must conform having to wear uniforms and have all the same generic style making them robots. They learn things too fast and with technology, and many a discussion with many parents through the call center I work for, and even those that are not parents, I have found that there are a great many that though they have the tech, wish it weren't there and wish their children could get away from it so they didn't have to be "cool". Or that it takes away from our daily enjoyment of ,quite simply put, life! We are training our children that being of a certain race or gender is not cool, not good and that we all have to be the same in some way or another. Not only this but I also have seen a report that France is banning beauty pageants for those that are under the age of 16, and that Quebec, is not following suit. In fact they are encouraging it. You can read one report I found here. I do not agree with pageants, in fact I think any "beauty" competition is outrageous and unfair and not appropriate. It's got to stop.
Moving forward on this is the new controversy of Miley Cyrus. Oh yes! I have something to say about this. You may argue, leave this poor girl alone she's doing what she wants and why are we critizing her when there are so many artists that have done it and gone naked and or have had naked dancing women in their videos etc. Ok that's fair I suppose but I guess my issue is that she made something like "twerking" that is as I pointed out with another video in another entry a very cultural thing not to mention it's a sensual thing not a sexual thing, disgusting on stage. She "prostituted" herself as put in the words of Sinead O'Connor who posted an open letter of which I totally agree with. She is 20-21 and has been a child star all her life, spoiled and unknowing just like a great many others such as Brittany Spears, Lindsay Lohan, just to name a few. All of those stars seemed to have a breakdown and either picked themselves back up and learned to control themselves or they are still unfortunately struggling with many issues and have or are seeking out help. Miley is a child that needs to grow up and she will grow up fast. Point being that she also is a role model for other young ladies as Sinead points out and this is a concern and should be for parents out there that have seen her go from young child Hannah Montana to this young woman who is showing their daughters and sons that it's ok to flaunt yourself, sexualize yourself and sell yourself to the public or to anyone that will have your body for the sake of money and fame and being "free". That isn't right and you have to show yourself more respect! I totally agree with Sinead that respect comes first for yourself and she does not have that. There are many artists like Lady Gaga, J-Lo etc. that yes have shown a sexy or naked side, for photos, promotion, videos, but they chose as adult women, not under advisement that this is what they must do and they all did it at an age that they could make an informed decision. Yes, sex sells, but there is a way to do it, and there is a way not to. Porn, sexual acts parading around on stage nearly naked with an older man, that's not the way to do it. Especially when you know your audience is that of younger women and children not that of 30-40 year olds.
Next item on my list is mental health in schools and the topic of suicide. Should this be spoken about? Should this be a topic that is brought up in health class or better yet, English class as it has in this article. Well, when it comes to certain topics in books certainly this is one that was never really totally brought up and we never had to do an assignment in such a way that we had to write such a letter. However I do feel that it is a topic that should be discussed and there should be an assignment of discussion with family, as to how perhaps it affects the mental health of someone, how they feel and perhaps bringing to light an understanding or an attempt thereof of how the person who committed the suicide felt and what brought them to that decision and was it really the only and best way out? Suicide I feel is a scapegoat and one that should be not an option however there are now a days so many children, yes I said it, children that are feeling this way and committing the act. Why? It's an epidemic! Is it drugs, bullying, mental illness, the feeling of loss and despair, the feeling of no way out? All of those things play a crucial role. How I know? Because I've considered the act many times myself but, I then think, well what about my cats, what about my family, how would those who do care feel? What would happen to the world or just those that care without me? Do I make an influence? Well, in light of things, and speaking to a counselor a year ago, yes I do make a difference and this is what inspired me further to continue writing this blog. That being said, everyone has an influence on everyone and can make a difference even if it is simply a smile on someone's face, holding a door for someone, helping with groceries etc. Little things that may not seem like they make any difference at all but mean so very much to that person when done. These simple acts affect mental health, it can affect the decisions people make. As children, we have to do more for them because they are our future. We can't just let them kill themselves off because they think we don't care. As a society though, we allow sexual images and bullying of all kinds bombard ourselves and our youth.
Ok enough about that, let's move on to something that really affects our health. What is that you may ask? Water! Water is all around us and we're made up of mostly water as human beings, we drink lots of it per day or we're supposed to. However, apparently, we can overdose on it! We can in fact actually make ourselves sick and die, not by drowning but drinking too much and by lessening salt intake on top of it we then further the problem. Example is this article of this young lady. Hard to believe I know but there should be balance on everything. As I have said before, it doesn't matter what we have, everything that claims to be good or bad, can be in fact bad for us. Not to mention we should do things in moderation.
Speaking of balance and overdosing on a natural resource, food for thought, are we actually from this planet? Is water and other things here poisoning us? Well I've said it before that we are earth's virus. And after reading this report here, well I think it furthers my thoughts on this in agreement that we don't belong here and that mother nature is going to get rid of us sooner or later.
And that's all for now folks. Hope you all enjoy your next weeks to come. I'll try to post sooner but my shift has also changed so it makes it a bit difficult and I might move all writing days to Sunday when I officially have off. :) Stay healthy friends!
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