Isolation Of Astronauts Essay

That little orphan boy, that one family member who made an unforgivable mistake, or even that shy girl who sits in the corner of the room all endure isolation; although all of the situations vary, the people affected suffer the same harsh effects of isolation. Isolation does not only affect a person’s feelings it affects their view on the world, society and their interpretations of illusion and reality. For example in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, multiple characters suffer various different forms of isolation ranging in severity. Although self inflicted and forced isolation possibly could motivate distant and abnormal personalities, social isolation

Sadly, the truth is that solitary confinement does take a heavy toll mentally on inmates (Breslow, 2014). The philosophical question the writer seeks is summed up to if solitary makes inmate crazy; the effects on the inmates, and are inmates more dangerous after solitary confinement. The background to the effect of solitary confinement on the mind was conducted in 1950, by psychologist Harry Harlow. The research resulted in that extreme isolation is havoc to the human psyche (Breslow, 2014). Harlow test subjects were rhesus monkeys placed in a special designed solitary chamber.

Philosophy Of Out Of The Silent Planet The book Out of the Silent Planet (C.S. Lewis) Is a brilliant example of a science fictional allegory. In this compelling story we are met with multiple characters. Amidst the action of being kidnapped and whisked away to an unknown planet our main character, Elwin Ransom, reveals his many skills, fears, and philosophies.

These factors can be the trigger of hypersensitivity to external stimuli, hallucinations, panic attacks, cognitive deficits, obsessive thinking, paranoia depression and alcoholism. Loneliness can make you worse. Loneliness and loss of self-worth lead many mentally ill to believe that they are useless, and so they live with a sense of hopelessness and low self-esteem.” (Stobbe, 2006) These factors can be seen in inmates who have been sent to ‘the hole’ for a long period of time.

Isolation is defined as the separation from others whether it is physically or emotionally. It can also be a choice or it can be imposed upon you. A lot of people in the world feel isolated because of their emotions. They could be holding a secret, or guilt. People can also feel physically isolated because they are alienated whether it be from their appearance, social status, or some action that caused them to be a plague to society.

Mental health stigma in the military is defined as, “a dynamic process by which a service member perceives or internalizes this brand or marked identity about himself or herself or people with mental health disorders. ”1 The perceived mental health stigma in the military stems from proximal and distal impacts.1 The proximal impacts include interpersonal outcomes, coping mechanisms, attitudes toward treatment and the distal impacts include the personal well-being, readiness, quality of life, treatment-seeking, and treatment success.1 The United States Air Force has been promoting treatment-seeking through various programs to reduce stigma and facilitate a widespread culture shift that views mental health in the context of readiness and resilience.1 The Air Force has attempted to redefine mental health help-seeking as a sign of strength instead of a sign of weakness.1 Additionally, the Air Force has quadrupled the availability of mental health programs over the past six years.2 The Air Force has provided over seven mental healthcare treatment options to Air Force members.3 These options include: the airman and family readiness center, military family life consultants, installation chaplain, mental health clinic, behavioral health, family advocacy program, and master resilience

Some common symptoms associated with isolation are insomnia, a lack of appetite, and trembling. These can escalate to heart palpitations, which is a tell-tale sign that the punishment has gone too far. Despite these warnings, the incline in suicides tells us that changes in our current laws need to happen to force preventative measures onto staff in federal prisons. A study occurred in 1951 at McGill University in which a paid group of voluntary graduate students stayed in a confinement room, to conduct a study on sensory deprivation. The plan was to observe these students for 6 weeks, nevertheless not one of the students lasted for more than 7 days.

In my honest opinion solitary confinement in the U.S. is not justified and only does more harm than good. Not only is it a rash punishment, but it is one of the worst kinds of psychological tortures that could be inflicted upon an inmate. Human beings are undoubtedly social creatures and without the mere contact of another person the mind decays and ultimately leads a person to anger, anxiety, and hopelessness. Psychologists also claim that solitary confinement and isolation in general also cause depression or the loss of ability to have any "feelings", cognitive disturbances, such as confused thought processes and disorientation, perceptual distortions, such as hypersensitivity to noises and smells, distortions of sensations, and hallucinations affecting all five senses, as well as paranoia and psychosis which often times involve schizophrenic type symptoms, and finally, the worst of all symptoms, being self-harm such as self-mutilation, cutting and even suicide attempts.

The effects of isolation are also shown in an article by Harvard Medical School. The author shares the frightening effects of isolation on a person. They state, “People who feel lonely (disconnected from others) have been shown to have faster rates of cognitive decline than people who don’t feel lonely loneliness

When isolation comes to mind, people often think of being stranded without any outside contact. In this day and age however, the removal of outside contact in scarcely heard of. Humans now are living in a time where they are constantly connected. Whether this is by means of transportation or technology, the human race rarely ever experiences moments of isolation. Before cars, planes, and technology though, the feeling of being isolated was much more familiar.

In the mid 1800s when Poe wrote his short story, society did not know much of mental health, this leads to many studies done about loneliness. Isolation causes the mind to become dispersed restricting the communication abilities, consciously restricting basic human rights making a person

Isolation in The Martian Andy Weir promotes the theme that when isolated one must be resourceful, intelligent, and independent through the conflict as Mark Watney fights for survival on Mars, the most isolated place any human has ever been, in The Martian. Throughout Watney’s mission to survive long enough to be rescued and brought home, he shows exceptional intelligence as he solves a lot of problems without help from anyone but himself. In the beginning of the novel, after Watney realizes he has been left on Mars, he starts to think of every way he can be killed on this planet. The list seems endless as he goes over it, “If the oxygenator breaks down, I’ll suffocate.

Often, these high levels of stress can lead to academic failure (Kim, Oliveri, Riingin, Taylor, & Rankin, 2013). Stress can be defined from

When Neil Armstrong first touched down on the moon in 1969, millions of people watched him take the first step and create history (Villard). Yet even as we’ve moved on from the moon landings and consider them as a pivotal point for mankind, “Forty years after U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon, many conspiracy theorists still insist the Apollo 11 moon landing was an elaborate hoax”(Than). The idea that our voyage to the moon was deliberately staged seems to resurface year after year. While the conspiracy theorists claim the moon landing was a hoax, creating a fake moon landing would have been more expensive and difficult than actually reaching the moon. The race to the moon began on October 5, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit around the earth: “When the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik, on October 4, 1957, the United States experienced a technological identity crisis”(Olson).

3. Review of literature 3.1 Stress and its types: Stress is an essential mediator of human behaviour. Immediate physiological response to any type of stressor facilitates survival of the species at its maximum. Despite of normal homeostatic regulatory mechanism, the stress responses can become maladaptive. Chronic stress, for example immobilization, exposure to noise, irradiations, psychological stress can leads to a host of adverse health consequences, including cardiovascular diseases, neurodegeneration, obesity, depression and early ageing (McEwen et al, 2004).