The purpose of this assignment is to increase your understanding of what individuals with various mental illnesses experience in their day to day lives. It is easy to reduce mental illness to a checklist of symptoms and forget the people who actually live with these illnesses every day. This assignment will build on your knowledge of symptoms by challenging you to put yourself in the shoes of someone suffering from the disorder, and to see the world as they may see it. Although we can never know exactly what another person is experiencing, this is an exercise in empathy and understanding. The Assignment: For this assignment, you will pick one of the disorders listed below and write a paper (in the style of a blog post) highlighting the experience of someone suffering from the disorder. See below for the specific guidelines. Please understand that everyone experiences mental illness differently, and even though we discuss general symptoms in class, not everyone experiences every symptom. Also, it is important to note that many individuals with mental illness are able to manage their symptoms and do not necessarily appear mentally ill in their everyday life. Your assignment, however, needs to illustrate the symptoms that are characteristic of the disorder so that you can communicate your awareness of this information to me. However, a surface-level report of symptoms will earn a lower grade; an A-level assignment will also illustrate how the individual feels and how the illness affects their life. Specific Required Elements: 1. Choose one disorder listed below. These were chosen because they are a bit easier to conceptualize. Writing about a disorder that is not on this list will earn a 0 on the assignment. o Generalized Anxiety Disorder o Panic Disorder o Obsessive Compulsive Disorder o OCD-Related Disorder (Hoarding, Trichotillomania, Excoriation, or Body Dysmorphia) o PTSD o Major Depression o Bipolar Disorder o Schizophrenia o Antisocial Personality Disorder o Borderline Personality Disorder 2. You will use Microsoft word (or a similar word-processing software) to write your blog. 3. Your post must contain the following elements: o A title o A narrative, written in the first person, about your experiences with the illness ? Suggestions and ideas: Describe a particularly bad day dealing with symptoms Look back at a time when you were really suffering and highlight how you were able to improve Describe an encounter with a family member, friend, therapist, etc. Discuss a problem you may be having with work or school life Any other ways to portray the experience of the illness ? You should discuss the symptoms commonly associated with the disorder as part of the blog (how you choose to work it in is up to you) ? You should include a portrayal of the experience of the disorder. In other words, discuss the way the individual feels, thinks, etc.; I am looking for their internal experience, rather than just a checklist of external symptoms. o Your narrative does not have to have a particular paragraph structure, but it should be a minimum of 750 words in length. This may seem long, but remember that you are describing the experience of suffering with a significant illness. That perspective alone deserves 750 words. 4. You should not quote extensive sections of other published work (the DSM, for example). If you want to include the DSM criteria for diagnosis, you need to summarize it in your own words. Copying/pasting will not count as graded content and will not go toward your word count. 5. Submit your assignment in Canvas in .doc, .docx, .pdf, or .rtf format. Not all graders have macs, and .pages files (or any other file types that cannot be opened by your grader) will not be graded. NOTE: submitting a blank or corrupt file will earn you a 0. If a partially completed file is submitted, it will be graded accordingly. Please check your submission in Canvas. There is no way to determine time of completion for an assignment unless it is submitted in Canvas (and no, time stamps on documents are not considered adequate proof). Questions? Email us, visit action tutoring, or come by office hours. Remember that your chance to get help on your assignment is BEFORE the due date, not after. If you get your assignment grade and realize you did something wrong, you do NOT get to redo it, not even for partial credit.
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