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Consciousness is a state of awareness of self and the environment and is determined by the level and content of this awareness, also referred to as arousal and awareness respectively (1). Consciousness itself takes many forms, as can be seen in the many combinations of level and content of awareness. When describing comas and vegetative states, people often use the terms interchangeably and freely without regard for the differences in consciousness of patients in these states. This however does not account for the differences in consciousness of patients in these states. In a coma, a patient is described as having “disordered arousal,” as opposed to an impairment of the content of consciousness (as is found in patients in minimally conscious states).

“Mania is...constant anxiety, constant irritability, having everything be raw, being brittle, crying but feeling nothing, and really . . . just you never know” (Anon). Though it refers to a something that Western society generally characterizes as a mental illness, this statement is more applicable to madness than a medical condition. It is no small wonder that the stigma associated with bipolar disorder, once called manic depression, have endured far more strongly than that of many other mental illnesses.

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In order to describe the deeper issues involved with depression, I think it’s important to define what addiction really is. Addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive substance seeking and use despite harmful consequences to the individual who is addicted and to those around them. Addiction is a brain disease because the abuse of drugs leads to changes in the structure and function of the brain. It is a behavioral syndrome in which substances impede one’s ability to exert control over the impulse to use drugs despite adverse consequences. This is the defining characteristic of addiction. There is a slight difference between substance abuse and addiction. Substance abuse means using a substance in the wrong way.

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             What really is a blog? Is its best definition that of a genre, or of a medium, or maybe, as MOBYLIVES claims, it is purely “a place where people talk”.

    “Is he still there, somewhere we can’t reach?” For many people whose loved ones are in a vegetative state, this might be one of the most asked questions. For doctors and researchers studying human consciousness, this is always a hard question to answer. Thanks to the development in methods of neuroimaging, we are now able to detect awareness in some patients who used to be thought of having no consciousness. Furthermore, these advanced techniques also indicate revision in medical terminology and the care of those patients in a vegetative state.

Historically termed “hysteria” and thought to be a physical manifestation of disordered emotions, little is known about the mystery that is conversion disorder (5). In the seventeenth century, some individuals with unexplained paralysis, blindness or “fits” (seizures) were thought to have been involved with witchcraft and were burned at the stake (2). Nowadays, these symptoms are considered relatively common and oftentimes debilitating. Although not much is known about conversion disorder, it seems possible that the neurological processes responsible for its development are related to those involved in anxiety and depression disorders.

Hysteria!