Understanding How To Care For Myself and Others

Something I liked about this module was how it exposed death and got us to think about it. I often fear death, but what I should fear is continuing bad habits that could lead to death over a period of time. It was interesting to read the discussions and se people’s thoughts on rational suicide, which is still something that is often debated. I did not even realize that there was more than one type of euthanasia and that active euthanasia is illegal in the United States. It was very informative to learn about rape culture and how to stay safe. I liked how the lecture said when a party gets out of hand; leave. If we remove ourselves from dangerous situations, we can keep ourselves safe.

Currently, I waste a lot of water and that affects the environment negatively. I will often leave the water running on accident or start the shower way before I take a shower so that the water is extra hot. Clean water is becoming less and less and we need to be trying to save water and save our resources to help the planet. From now on I will try to use less water and sacrifice steaming hot showers for warm showers.

In the future, I will definitely be more aware of what I am doing while I am driving a vehicle. I use my hands free a lot, but that is not always safe. Plus, in order to use it I still have to press a button which can be distracting. It is important to just drive and pay attention to the road and nothing else. From now on, I will try to not use my hands free and wait to talk on the phone until I am parked.

I think the information in this course was so useful. I love taking health courses because they are relatable and that helps promote understanding. Many of the habits or issues listed in the text were things I participate in or have lived through. I will use the facts throughout the text such as healthy ways to lose weight, ways to keep yourself safe from harm and situations of being out of control, and healthy ways to consume alcohol to help better my life and my health. This course was very straight forward and I always understood my grades and why I was giving them. The discussions were helpful because they opened up a new type of learning because we were able to learn from each other and understand each other’s thoughts and why we were thinking that way. One thing I found to be difficult some of the time was finding articles for the discussions. Some of the topics definitely took some research to find a good one that really was able to portray what I was trying to say.

Living and Learning Through Medicine

Throughout this module I have learned a lot about chronic diseases. I did not know that cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease had so many of the same risk factors such as smoking, poor diet, inactivity and excessive alcohol consumption. Some illnesses are unavoidable, but it is important to avoid the things we can and to be up to date with information about our health. Breast cancer is the most occurring cancer for women. It is so important to do regular self-checkups. With illnesses like this one, the sooner they are found the sooner they can be treated and the better chance people have of living a comfortable life style.

I also learned a lot about how to be a consumer in the health world and much about self-care. It is so important to ask questions and be in touch with your physician when making important decisions about your health. Communication is everything. Decisions such as choosing a health care provider take time and much thought. I feel as though I can become a better consumer by doing my research and becoming as knowledgeable as I can with my health. Making sure I choose the right provider and health insurance are so important.

Alternative medicine was something that really interested me throughout the text. There are so many different practices within this branch of medicine. In the future I hope to be able to try out some of these products such as natural products and energy therapies. My family has never been on board with alternative medicines, but I think they have a lot to offer and are often more pure than most of western medicine.

I feel as though this semester has gone pretty well. I have been able to get my assignments in on time and have received pretty decent grades for them. It is important to cite the text and attach a website when making your initial discussion post and your responses. I feel as though I would grade myself higher on the discussions because I have always done this and put a lot of thought into what I am going to write about. I also think the fact that for the most part, this class had certain things due on certain days; it helped me to stay organized. It was easier to remember that tests were mostly taken on Wednesdays and that initial posts were due on Fridays. Overall this class was a great experience for me and I have been learning a lot about health in general and also a lot about my own personal health.

Learning More About Myself

I learned a lot from these chapters, they were definitely very relatable. The chapter I got the most out of was chapter 6 because I myself have experienced an eating disorder. In this chapter I was able to see it from a more scientific and informational standpoint rather than emotional and personal. In my diet I think I could definitely try to eat less and more times a day rather than consuming so many calories at once and eating fewer meals. I also could eat more fiber. I believe my participation in this module was not as good because I had so much work from my other classes and I felt very stressed. I hope next module is better and I am more organized!

The Harmfulness of Addiction

This module really opened my eyes. Being a college student, activities such as smoking, doing drugs and drinking alcohol are so commonly heard of. The fact that young people treat these things as ‘activities’ is a problem it itself. However, even if someone is not participating, it just becomes so normal to hear about these things. To actually read about all of the affects and the damages they can do to your body is terrifying. Thinking of all the people I know who are harming their bodies by participating in these acts is so sad.

The video about smoking at the beginning of the Prezi was so intense. The music behind it really accented what it was saying. Those statistics are real. We as a country and as a planet are sucked in to these bad behaviors. It is hard because often the effects of smoking are not shown until after years of already becoming so addicted. When the signs are not immediate, people believe they are fine. Chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma are some diseases that can come from smoking. Although they make take some time to develop, they do not take pity when they start to destroy your body.

Something that really surprised me in the text was about parents. I always thought that parents letting their kids drink in high school would help them be safer in college because they had experience and wouldn’t be as interested in it. However, it only makes the chances of binge drinking and other harmful behaviors that much greater.

I was also surprised to learn about the behavioral addictions. Gambling, sexual and spending addictions I have definitely heard more about than the technology addiction. All of them were interesting to read about, however, because whenever I think of addiction I think of drugs and alcohol immediately. Technological addictions make a lot of sense for this generation of youth. People now want to be constantly connecting and feel good about people messaging them or giving them feedback on social media. This is building a self-esteem that I am not necessarily sure is a good thing. It definitely does not sound healthy.

I do feel as though I put in the needed time to complete this module. However, in the future I would like to try to get my responses in a little sooner. I think this way it would be less stressful because I would be ahead of the game.

Making Choices That Will Last A Lifetime

All of the chapters were actually full of many things I did not already know. It was interesting to me because topics such as suicide and depression are things I have studied a lot of. It just shows that there is always still so much to learn. The chapter on stress management really stood out to me. I have a lot of issues with stress, as I am sure most college students do. It is easy to get behind on work and feel like you will never be able to catch up. It is also hard to balance classwork, homework, a job, eating and sleeping when there is so much to get done every day.

Some ways that I cope with stress as a college student is by prioritizing. I like how the textbook says “Change yourself, change your world” (Lynch, 41). This statement is so true. I like by the quote “With our thoughts, we make our world.” We have to stay positive and believe everything will be okay because that is the only way it possibly could be. As humans, we have the power to determine whether things are good or bad. That is an incredible gift.

I have a list for each class of assignment due dates, and then I also have a combined list so I can see how much work total is due on what days of the week. This helps me with time management so I am not doing so much classwork for each class on the same day. On days I am working I find it much more difficult to get schoolwork done or to even just focus on it. On those days I try to stay extra alert by consuming food that will nourish my body and give it energy. I also try to get a lot of sleep the night before so that I am not so exhausted.   

I do feel as though I put in the time needed for this module. All of my assignments were handed in on time and I took a considerable amount of time planning for them. I took time to read others discussion posts and genuinely think on their questions and absorb what they could teach me just as I would with readings from the textbook. In the next module I want to try to have the text read faster so that I do not feel rushed to read it.

A suggestion I have for this module would be to read the text because that just makes everything so much easier. Also watching the lectures is very helpful in understanding what is important. Also, it is easy to forget to link websites to the discussion posts, but that is very important.

Healthy People Initiative- A federal initiative to facilitate broad, positive health changes in large segments of the U.S. population every 10 years

I learned that Healthy People is a text Health and Human services updates every 10 years with progress made and new insights on how to be healthy.

Environmental Mastery- The ability to choose or create environments that suit you

I learned a new way to think about things that maybe are not the most interesting or uplifting to me. This reiterates how much power our minds truly have.

Eustress- Stress resulting from positive stressors

Although I was aware that ‘positive’ things can cause stress, I never thought of categorizing them in this way and I think that it is a good idea to understand where our stresses come from and why. Not all of it can be bad and that is important to remember.