Obsession.  It comes in many forms and many degrees. Everybody has probably had “obsessive” moments in their life. Maybe you’ve been obsessed with a band, a certain food, a clothing item, or maybe even a person. Things you might tell your friends about and all laugh about how silly it is.  But what happens when the obsession crosses the line to a disorder, when a person can’t even leave their house because their obsessions are controlling their thoughts. They feel completely incomplete and anxious if they do not complete a certain task. 2.3 percent of the population between ages 18-54 suffers from Obsessive Compulsive disorder.  Obsessive Compulsive disorder is a disorder that affects people in many different ways, but all has to do with a person being overly obsessed, causing them to act in a certain way. There has been a lot of research done on treatment for OCD. Just 10 days ago FOX news did an article on a new kind of treatment called exposure treatment.  This is a treatment where they expose the patient to different environments and slowly try to turn the patient away from the obsessive behavior they may have in that environment.  OCD is a mental disorder that takes a lot of time and energy to change.

                But what I was wondering was if this disorder is more common now because of our modern society and values. I thought this because in some ways a lot of OCD symptoms and sighs are safety or image based, things that our looked at and spoken a lot about in our society right now. I thought that it must be a more modern disorder. But after doing some research I discovered OCD has been in our History since 1489. Martin Luther the Man who was the leader of the Protest Reformation in Europe suffered from OCD.  Charles Darwin also suffered from OCD. It surprised me that so many people in our history and presently suffer from OCD.  

It’s also interesting to think about the fact that all of this history and research done on OCD is all based of a single emotion that someone has. A single emotion that shapes a person’s life and personality. 

Madelyn Patterson, Blog Carnival

Rebel-a person who refuses allegiance to, resists, or rises in arms against the government or ruler of his or her country.

Rebelling is a popular thing. I think that the word rebel is a word with many meanings and emotions surrounding it. There are so many people that would probably tell you that being a rebel is a bad thing, that you should always follow the rules because they are there for a reason. Then there are many people that say being a rebel is a good thing.  That you need to stick up for yourself and your beliefs or else nothing will change.  So how do you decide if being rebellious is something that you should do or shouldn’t do?  On the link posted below there is a small Article written by a group called “Rebels at Work”. At the bottom of the article they create a chart that I find interesting.  The chart shows there opinion on what they think a “good” rebels traits are verse the traits a “bad” rebel has. The chart proves that you can be a rebel but in a way that is considerate of other peoples thoughts and rules.

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=97671a9e7f800c6066c612a86&id=98c9c781fb

So then the next question is, how do you know that your opinions are worth rebelling for? In the article below it states that teenagers actually rebel because their brains are developing and changing every day. It also says that teens are more likely to rebel because they are the ones who are the most connected to society and the pressures that are given to be rebellious.  This makes me question if teenagers actually have reason to rebel or if it’s just because of what we are being taught or the way are brains are calculating ideas.

http://children.webmd.com/features/teenagers-why-do-they-rebel

Although teenagers may not have complete control over there “rebellious” side, other people in our history seem to know exactly why they are rebelling and how to do it. In our world’s history there have been long planned out rebellions.  These Rebellions are to prove to a higher power that they are not just going to stand by and watch while something they don’t like happen. It’s something that has been in our world’s history for years and years.  In this article written by Wikipedia list rebellions throughout history. If you look at the list, it is shocking to see how many rebellions there have been in our world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revolutions_and_rebellions

You may think that my different thoughts on the word rebel don’t fully mix all together. This is because I am wanting to show how many different things can be associated with the word “Rebel”. There are so many different sides and thoughts about the word.  There are so many different kinds of Rebellions and Rebels. There are so many different ways to Rebel. Our world revolves around people rebelling, or not rebelling.  Rebelling is a popular thing; it’s what makes people feel like they have control over their thoughts and ideas.

Did Chris McCandless die Happy? I really hope that by the end of reading this book we find out if he died happy or not. I think the question "Did Chris McCandless die Happy?" really is the only thing that will tell us if his whole journey was worth it. When I read all of our classes questions, they were all about why he left, what he did to get him in the place he got, or if he was being brave or just stupid. Those questions are all relevant and will be interesting to find out. But when it comes down to it, he did die. So all of those things are more or less pointless. It really doesn't matter if he was being ungrateful for the stuff he was given. Pretend he was completely grateful about everything that was given to him, he still would have died. So all that really matters is if being ungrateful was what made him happy, then he was doing the right thing. Chris McCandless had only one thing that was truly his in these last few years of his life. That was his happiness. He was living alone, if he wasn't happy he would of gone back home from the start. That is why I wonder if he died happy or not. If he died in regret or unhappiness this story will be one of pure sadness. If he dies unhappy, we will know that he was not being himself the entire book , because deep down it's not what he really wanted or the way he wanted to die. But if he dies happy then you know it was all worth it, all his stupidity, all his work, all his fight was for him to leave this world the way he wanted to.

Hi, My name is Madelyn Patterson. On this blog I will be writing my personal opinion on things that may or may not be interesting to you. I will try my best to make sense in my posts and write with clear and informative points, but I can not guarantee anything. I will probably write a lot of things that just randomly come to my mind at the time of that writing. Maybe! if I am feeling like I really don't understand what I am writing about I will do some research on the topic. I most likely will be one of the last people to reply to any of the group blogs. This is not because I do not enjoy writing on blogs or this class, it's simply because I am a procrastinator and always find ways to waste time. I have no favorite color, or animal, or place. So I cannot write about any of those things in this first welcome post. My dad has been editing all my papers since I can remember,  but this year I decided to try and edit all my own papers before I go to college. That being said, it is guaranteed that there will be spelling and grammar mistakes in my blog posts. I look forward to spending this wonderful last year with everybody.

 “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”                                              - Douglas Adams