6. Hyperbole: Identity Part One and Identity Part Two
Post your ideas and thoughts about these chapters on Allie's struggle with identity. Respond to at least one of your classmate's posts.
Post your ideas and thoughts about these chapters on Allie's struggle with identity. Respond to at least one of your classmate's posts.
I found this whole book to be very interesting. Allie's thoughts about her identity arose in every single chapter. She's comparing herself to a "normal" person. She refers to a "real person" on page 53. "I'll learn how to use willpower like a real person." She is a real person, she is just trying to make herself fit in this bubble of what she thinks is "normal". I really enjoyed page 97 when she wrote, " we can pick out the tiny, most imperceptible good qualities from the ocean of terrible qualities, and we can cling to them." On depression part one she says, "some people have legitimate reason to feel depressed, but not me. I just woke up one day feeling arbitrarily sad and helpless." I hate that we, as a society, have put it our brains and everyone's brain that you have to have a reason to feel depressed. Everyone is unique and there is no legitimate reasons a person should feel depressed. I think there is a misconception about "finding a cure" for depression. She talks about not being able to "fix" it so it made her get angry. We think everything needs to be fixed versus finding a balance. I liked how she talked about the stages of depression. Depression is often associated as just depression, but it has many different stages, parts, and different experiences that happen within depression. That is what makes it so unique, every time experiences different stages, parts and experiences. I think it's important to realize that's it's hard for doctors to understand depression as a whole since the person who experiences a form of depression doesn't quite understand it themselves. On page 161, Brosh describes life when she is explains a memory when her mother got lost, " she tried to be confident through unfamiliar, wait-high plants, she accepted that she had no idea where she was going. She was lost in a forest with two young children and she was completely terrified." You cans directly relate this to the corn on the floor when she was depressed. She had no idea why it was funny or why she laughed or where she was going with that, but it's a part of her life and life can be terrifying when you don't understand something sometimes. " we had come no closer to meeting our mother's ludicrous standards. We were beginning to lose hope," page 165. This can be directly related to people losing hope when they can't meets society's ludicrous standards. "I yearned for attention and approval, and I couldn't exactly afford to be picky how I earned it," page 210. In my studies, I have found this to be a big factor in why an individual might lash out or be the leading cause of behavioral outburst. "And this is possibly the most humiliating thing of all. That I am so embarrassed about how embarrassing I am. As if I've got some sort of dignity to protect. Because I am a serious, dignified person. And I don't what anyone to know I'm not," page 286. A lot of people have a hard time with thinking about how other people think about them. It creates a restriction on how one feels they can live because of outside judgments. "My mom and I were told that the tooth, if left unchecked, would completely ruin everything in my mouth and turn me into a horrible, horrible mutant," page 313. This is often the case with medications. Patients are told that medication is the only way to help "get rid of" the mental illness. That one simply can't live with a mental illness and be alright, but if you have a mental illness, you have to get "it" taken care of.
ReplyDeleteI love how you've summarized the book into all of your favorite parts! Many of the parts you pulled out and talked about were my favorites too. I'm wondering what you think about the chapter Identity Part Two and how Allie continued down the "tunnel" even though she continually got disgusted as she continued through. Why do you think she didn't turn around when the sign told her to?
DeleteAshley your last sentence really speaks to me because sometimes I feel like I have so much going on up there but I don't want to be changed into someone I'm not because I don't believe that you can fix or get rid of mental illness ya know? I know I don't feel normal all the time or most of the time even, but I'm me and I think everyone should have that freedom to be exactly who they are.
DeleteMegan, I am not sure myself. I think we all have our own opinions from an outside perspective, but we will and Allie might never know why herself that she didn't turn around when the sign told her to.
DeleteI love this sentence, "She is a real person, she is just trying to make herself fit in this bubble of what she thinks is "normal" that you wrote and I couldn't agree more! I think that we all try to fit into this "bubble" of "normal" Everything you have said in your post is so relatable!
Delete“Similarly, I can safely believe that I am the type of person who would donate a kidney to a loved one, give million dollars to help save the animals, and survive a biological disaster due to my superior immune system and overwhelming specialness. As long as no one I love ever needs a kidney, I don’t become a millionaire, and my immune system is never put to the test by an antibiotic-resistant super flue, these are just thing I can believe in for free.” pg 329 I found it interesting how she made it a point to infer that she can believe that she would do these things since she has no reason to, and cannot do them now. I actually find myself doing that quite often, saying that I would go for a run if it wasn’t raining, when in reality I probably wouldn't go for a run even if it wasn’t raining, it just makes for a good excuse not to go.
ReplyDelete“When you start figuring out how full of shit you are, it’s like opening a tunnel to all the lies you’ve every told yourself. The tunnel is really deep and scary, but you’re suspicious about it and you want to see what’s down there.” pg 348 You become really suspicious but you know you don’t actually want to know what is there but you can’t help but look, and once you find out you're disappointed. So in retrospect you sent yourself down a spiral because you knew you wouldn’t want to know yet you went and looked anyway to then just be disappointed. For some reason I just found that interesting, because I feel like a lot of people go digging about something or someone even though they know they aren't going to like what they find.
Megan,
DeleteEverything you said was totally relatable. I find myself doing the same things... reading this book makes me think about my own identity and how I do some of these things!
“When you start figuring out how full of shit you are, it’s like opening a tunnel to all the lies you’ve every told yourself. The tunnel is really deep and scary, but you’re suspicious about it and you want to see what’s down there.” pg 348 I loved this. I find it funny, because a lot of times I am sitting and doing something or talking to someone and I'll be sitting there saying this to myself in my head. I don't think this is a type of identity issues, I think it's insecure issues.
DeleteI really enjoyed the last part "For some reason I just found that interesting, because I feel like a lot of people go digging about something or someone even though they know they aren't going to like what they find". This is so true! It is definitely our curiosity that gets the best of us. I honestly feel that since we think too much about negative things, we develop this thought process that says, "we made it this far, lets see what else can breaks us".
DeleteI think or I guess I find that when I do intense self-reflection its at times when I'm feeling rather sad and upset. I'm sure it could also be a sign of intelligence but that's not what I think of first and that could be influenced from society. There are those racing thoughts which are usually negative and I think that's why it is associated with depression. I think we all have those times where we feel so busy and caught up in our own lives that we don't feel like a good person so we think that maybe soon we will be able to do something nice and helpful. There is nothing wrong with self-reflection but if it is always negative or condescending then it might be a problem. Identity isn't an easy topic in general so some of these thoughts are very normal. It's interesting to read these chapters because she says she feels better about herself when she doesn't do many of the things she is resisting to do but then she turns around and saying that she try's not to realize how shitty of a person she really is but not doing these things is huge. Some people don't even have that self control.
ReplyDeleteIntense self-reflection during a time when you're feeling sad or upset can caused sever depression. I have seen, from personal experience, a friend who was going through a tough time, start reflecting on everything and it sent them into a downward spiral. I think support is very important during this time. Identity is hard for most everything, I think. You're never truly sure if you're being the person you are suppose to be.
ReplyDeleteI think intense self- reflection to an extent is a natural occurrence. It is something that happens to everyone and after reading this chapter it is very relatable. There is not a single person in the world who is good all the time and never has mean intentions. The part where she talks about wanting to throw sand at children or push people; I sometimes have thoughts like that but that doesn't mean that I do them nor sit and ponder on them. At one point or another everyone struggles with identity and truly finding themselves. When it comes to identity it becomes hard especially when it looks like everyone around you seems to have already found who they are. Some people may have thought they knew who they were but certain situations come along and make them question everything they were believing about themselves. Finding your true identity is something that takes a lifetime to find and can keep changing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said! I think that it is normal for people to perform intense self-reflection from time to time. I really like when you said "Finding your true identity is something that takes a lifetime to find and can keep changing." There is no right or wrong "true identity" and for some people it is easier to figure out. For some, they could live half their life thinking they have found their true identity, and then one day, something occurs and changes what they thought was their true identity.
DeleteReading this chapter, I found it to be quite relatable. What person doesn't struggle with finding out who they are or ponder at the thought of doing this because it will make us feel good, but then we don't because we know we will come up with an excuse not to do it. Self-reflection is a crucial mystery to everyone. We tend to question ourselves and everything we are told to believe in. I find it funny because the person you think has got it all figured out, actually doesn't. They are thinking and feeling what you are. Intense thoughts can lead These thought soon develop less into identity, but more into our own personal insecurities.
ReplyDeleteI think that self-reflection is sort of a natural process to engage in. I found this chapter to be very relatable to my own life and thoughts. One quote that stood out to me in this chapter was "A lot of other people are better than me. When something causes me to become aware of this, it makes it more difficult for me to be satisfied with the way I am because the way I am seems so shitty compared to they way these better people are able to be." (pg. 340) I really related to this quote because I often find myself self-reflecting and comparing the way I am, my thoughts, behaviors, and appearance to other people. And a lot of times it ends up making me feel bad about myself because I view them as being better. Overall, I really enjoyed reading to this book and found myself relating to Allie's thoughts and behaviors a lot, which I did not expect to happen.
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