Andrea Yates long history of mental illness did impact what she did to her children as well as an outside influence of Michael and Rachel Woroniecki. In 1993 Rusty and Andrea married and a year later they had their first child a son named Noah. They planned on having many children whatever God intended for them. Their five children were all named after figures from the Bible. After Andrea’s first child Noah was born she began to have violent visions and felt that Satan was speaking to her. Andrea kept all her feelings to herself not realizing how much mental illness was in her family because she and Rusty had Bible inspired notions about family and motherhood. Andrea tried to have a fourth child, but suffered a miscarriage. Not long after that she got pregnant and had her fourth child. Andrea began to suffer from serious depression after the birth of their fourth child. America has a hard time on understanding how hormonal shifts can cause violent hallucinations and thoughts. Such women are at risk of committing suicide or harming their children thinking that it is for the child’s own good.
Despite doctor’s warnings of having more children could result in psychosis in late 2000 they had a fifth child a baby girl named Mary. Meanwhile Andrea has survived two suicide attempts, experienced many episodes of psychotic hallucinations and has taken a number of different medications. Andrea let a big cry for help out when she told a doctor that she was scared that she may hurt someone. After Andrea’s father died which she was very close with she began to drift into a private world and no longer functioned. Andrea was tangled with depression, religious fanaticism and psychosis. She had five young children to care for and tried to be a...
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...ychosis. During the years of 1994 to 2000 Andrea had five children and one miscarriage. She also breastfed causing a disruption in her hormonal balance never have any time to re-establish equilibrium. This had strong effects on her mental health. According to (Comer & J, 2011), the sociocultural model looks outward to the social and cultural forces that affect members of a society. One of this model’s perspectives, the family-social perspective, points to three kinds of factors in its explanations of abnormal functioning: social labels and roles, social networks and supports, and the family system. Clinicians from the family-social perspective may practice group, family, or couple therapy or community treatment (p.62). In Andrea’s treatment plan Group therapy and remaining on haldol and having a strong supportive support system might have helped her with coping.
Donna has quit working as a prostitute and is currently on the road to recovery from years of addiction and abuse. As a child she suffered from years of neglect and sexual abuse from her immediate family members. Donna admits to using drugs when pregnant with her youngest child and suspects that he may have fetal alcohol syndrome as he is unable to control his emotions and has a difficult time in forming social bonds.
Throughout the film, we learn that each woman has setbacks within her household. One sister has a terrible drinking problem and ultimately loses her job due to excessive drinking and tardiness. The second sister has had several pregnancies that each result in miscarriages due to high stress. As a therapist, there are several different elements to review.
The Yates’ unconventional standard of living along with the social belief that a woman’s role is to be the homemaker could have created anxiety and undue pressure on Andrea. Their pastor and mentor, Woroniecki “preached that parents were ultimately responsible for the souls of their children” and if children were behaving poorly the parents should “commit suicide rather than cause their children to stumble and go to hell” (Lancet 1952). The Yates lived on Woroniecki’s converted bus for two years with Noah, John, and Paul—all of which toddlers—while Andrea tried to be content because she “thought [she] was helping [her] husband and trying to do what [Rusty] wanted”(Park & Dietz 9). Upon giving birth to her fourth child, Andrea had her first major bout with postpartum depression, followed by several psychotic breaks.
Mental health is not the mere absence of illness but it is the sense of harmony and balance for the individual. Aspects associated with the individual include self-worth, sense of accomplishment, and a positive identity (Fontaine, 2009), where as mental illness is the disharmony someone is experiencing. This disharmony affects not only the individual but their friends and family as well as the surrounding community. This disharmony causes the person to be unable to function properly in many aspects of their life (Fontaine, 2009). Disco Di started to display signs of mental illness from the young age of 12. Her behaviours may have been triggered by a traumatic event and have been interfering with her life ever since. I agree with the diagnosis that Disco Di was given which was an Axis I diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Axis II diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This paper is going to explain why I agree with these diagnoses as well as genetic and cultural factors and treatment method for them.
Andrea Yates, a nurse and mother, drowned her five children--Noah, 7; John, 5; Paul, 3; Luke, 2; and Mary, 6 months--one at a time in their family bathtub on June 20, 2001. In 2002, she was sentenced to life in prison, but due to testimony from a prosecution medical expert, she was granted a new trial by a court of appeals. After twelve men and women debated the case for 13 hours over three days, they said Yates did not know her actions were wrong when she drowned her children ("Andrea Yates Case”). In order to prove to the jurors that Yates was mentally ill, testimonies that demonstrated her illness, depression, hospitalization records, and suicide attempts were documented. They also had evidence that she had been given drugs that were not appropriate, was released from the hospital early, was overmedicated, and had discontinued taking her medicine two days before the kills transpired (Paquette).
Andrea Yates craved a quite household. With four young boys and a female infant, Andrea was constantly engulfed in noise. Also, the death of Andrea’s father had caused her to feel as if she was a terrible caregiver and she was responsible for his death. Andrea also felt that every time her children had behaved incorrectly she was at fault, fearing that she would hold her children back in life. Andrea had even attempted suicide twice because she felt that she was an incompetent mother to her children and felt that they would be more successful without
Rosa Lee Cunningham is a 52-year old African American female. She is 5-foot-1-inch, 145 pounds. Rosa Lee is married however, is living separately from her husband. She has eight adult children, Bobby, Richard, Ronnie, Donna (Patty), Alvin, Eric, Donald (Ducky) and one child who name she did not disclose. She bore her eldest child at age fourteen and six different men fathered her children. At Rosa Lee’s recent hospital admission to Howard University Hospital emergency room blood test revealed she is still using heroin. Though Rosa Lee recently enrolled in a drug-treatment program it does not appear that she has any intention on ending her drug usage. When asked why she no longer uses heroin she stated she doesn’t always have the resources to support her addiction. Rosa Lee is unemployed and receiving very little in government assistance. She appears to
The primary diagnosis for Amanda Anderson is separation anxiety disorder (SAD) with a co-morbidity of school phobia. Separation anxiety disorder is commonly the precursor to school phobia, which is “one of the two most common anxiety disorders to occur during childhood, and is found in about 4% to 10% of all children” (Mash & Wolfe, 2010, p. 198). Amanda is a seven-year-old girl and her anxiety significantly affects her social life. Based on the case study, Amanda’s father informs the therapist that Amanda is extremely dependent on her mother and she is unenthusiastic when separated from her mother. Amanda was sitting on her mother’s lap when the therapist walked in the room to take Amanda in her office for an interview (Morgan, 1999, p. 1).
The Andrea Yates murder trial was one of the most highly publicized cases of 2001. Perplexing and complicated, it appealed to the public audience for various reasons. A mother methodically, drowns her five children in the family bathtub after her husband leaves for work. Was this an act of a cold calculating killer, or was this the act of a woman who lost touch with reality. Is this a case of medical neglect, and psychological dysfunctions, or is this a battle of ethics and deviant behavior exploiting medical and legal loop holes?
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the health pattern and function of the Boodie’s family in an effort to achieve optimal health outcomes. Assessing the entire family is important. “A family functions together and if at any point there is a member with a dysfunctional health pattern, then the whole family is affected” (Edelman, 2014). “Family members are the first influence on a person’s view of health. They function as support systems for one another, assist with providing basic human needs and define both acceptable and unacceptable values and behavior” (Lecture 4, 2011). The collection of data on assessment of this family will be used through the nursing process and critical thinking to arrive at the best diagnoses and intervention to promote health and wellness in this family. In order to obtain the necessary data required, the nurse needs to follow a proper health assessment guide. “Gordon’s 11 functional health pattern serves as a framework, data is collected and assessed, allowing for the application of nursing diagnosis and interventions that encompass a holistic view of the client” (Lecture 4, 2011). The Gordon’s Functional Health Pattern seemed to be the most effective assessment guide and as such was used to assess this family.
In the book Margaret Sanger: A life of passion by Jean H. Baker. Margaret Sanger, the subject depicted in Baker’s novel Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion is one of the leading women in the fight for birth control. Born in 1879 to Irish immigrant parents in Corning, New York she is the 6th of 11 children. Her mother was a devout Catholic and had a total of 18 pregnancies in her 22 year marriage 11 of which were births and 7 were miscarriages. “My mother died at 48”, says Sanger “My father died at 80”. Her mother was a victim of tuberculosis not long after her last child was born. Sanger grew up in poverty and soon realized that bigger families were associated with lower means. Sanger was not one for domesticated duties and soon defied social norms and went to nursing school her aspirations included becoming a doctor. She did not complete nursing school she instead married William Sanger, an architect and artist. They settled into domestic life for a short time in the suburbs. Together they had three children, two sons and a daughter. Soon a fire consumed their home and this was the turning point for Sanger. The family then moved back to the city and Sanger became a nurse. Their daughter would later die of pneumonia at a very young age due to horrible conditions at her boarding school. The two older sons would eventually grow to blame Sanger for her death and she would divorce her husband and maintain the company of several men after. Despite the number of suitors she acquires she will be single when she dies.
It is generally accepted within healthcare that to understand mental health we must adopt the biopsychosocial model. This model assumes that an interdependent relationship exists between biological, psychological and social factors which are involved in all aspects of mental health (Toates, 2010, p. 14). To be true to the model research must be holistic and not investigate the factors in isolation.
One of the main causes for her insanity is the treatment she is receiving by her husband. Right when the story begins the narrator moves into a home with her husband and new born child to stay for a few
In this academic essay I will be focusing and explaining my understanding of the Family Social System, how it interacts with other systems, how it works on the internally, but also on Murray Bowen’s family system theory, concepts and tools he has provided for future therapists in the pursuit to help family systems in crisis, how some of his views are very simular to Erik Erikson’s developmental theory stage effects and can actually mesh quite easily to assist in understanding the human psyche in individuals for both theory’s, finally I will explain briefly on genograms and how this tool can help assist in deciphering repetitive detrimental crisis and anxieties in the family system.
Mental illness is the condition that significantly impede with an individual’s emotional, cognitive or social abilities (Savy and Sawyer, 2009). According to (Savy and Sawyer, 2009) neurological, metabolic, genetic and psychological causes are contributing factors for various types of mental illness like depression, schizophrenia, substance abuse and progression of condition. An elaborate system known as DSM-IV-TR gives a classification system that acts to separate mental illness into diagnostic categories based on the description of symptoms of illness (Savy and Sawyer, 2009). The exact primarily causes of mental illness are complicated, however, it seems to occur in a psychologically and biologically prone individual, in the trigger of environmental and social stress (Elder, Evans and Nizette, 2007).