Television Shows

During the last few days I've watched a couple of shows that have to do with my first blog. First of all I watched Wife Swap. You may think a family is perfect because they appear to be from the outside and yet, they are not. There is no such thing as a perfect family. One family on the show was well-0ff financially, their children were involved in many activities. They did not have a choice with these activities they were required by the parents. The lives of the children were very structured. There really wasn't any fun time, or time spent together as a family. The most time the children spent with their mom was while she was driving them back and forth to the many activities. The second family ran a carnival and thus traveled around from city to city. The children really had no structure at all to their lives. No chores, home schooled maybe for 2 hours a day, they could do what they wanted. They didn't really have friends. So on outside appearances the second family is the worst, but is it really? In both families the children had sad feelings about the lifestyles the parents chose for them. Both families needed to change some things in order to function better.

The second show I watched was about celebrities with mental disorders. The whole aspect of the show was that people tend to think celebrities lead perfect lives and shouldn't have mental disorders. Gees! Me I tend to think the opposite. The way their lives are it's no wonder they all don't have mental disorders. The saying in their circle is "You never can be too rich or too thin". We wonder why so many people have eating disorders - just look at the magazines and tv. Everything is shown with thin people, not people with real bodies, that are not perfect. It is nice to see them talking about their disorders. Celebreties with Bi-Polar Disorder, Depression, Bulemia, Anorexia etc. These disorders are among all people of all socio-economic backgrounds. The more it is out there in the media, the more people can learn about them, and have a better understanding of what mental illness entails.

One of the catch phrases in psychology is dysfunctional family. I always wanted to write a book about that, cause even in families you think are perfect, there is dysfunction. In my own family there is dysfunction, in my life, my mother's, father's, sisters and other relatives. What is a functional family? Just because you have a dysfunction in your life does that make you dysfunctional? I want to explore some of these thoughts. I also will talk about mental illness, and drug addiction. Many people are affected by these. Lately drug addiction is talked about more then ever, we have shows on TV such as Intervention which talk about addiction. Mental illness on the other hand still is the secret disorder. People don't want to talk about it. They don't want others to know they are sick. Can you blame them? No one wants to be labled crazy. But still it is the same as any other disorder, and the more people learn about it, the easier it will be for them to understand. So on my quest to learn about functional families, I will touch on many other subjects, some may make you uncomfortable, and most will be about the dysfunctions most people have.