What's+Bothering+Holden?

Around the Holiday season, Holden roams the streets of New York trying to meet new people and talk with his old friends. Holden has recently dropped out of Pencey Prep, and is now alone for a few days before spending the Holidays with his family. However, Holden doesn't act like a normal teenager because he is always so depressed and lonely. It seems that Holden has trouble connecting with everyone except his ten-year old sister Phoebe. Holden is constantly getting into fights with his classmates and roomates at Pency Prep, and he struggles to connect with Jane Gallager and Sally Hayes. Possible psychological reasons for Holden's behavior may include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, the five stages of grieving and loss, or the death of his brother Allie.

​ __ Post Traumatic Stress Disorder __
 * Re-experiencing of the trauma like troublesome memories, flashbacks, nightmares, feelings of intense distress, and intense physical reactions


 * avoidance of places, people, and experiences that remind you of the trauma, feeling detached from others and emotionally numb, loss of interest in activities and life in general, and a sense of a limited future


 * signs of increased arousal include sleeping problems, trouble concentrating, irritability, anger, blackouts, increased tendency and reaction to being startled, and abnormal awareness to threats.
 * Depression and hopelessness


 * Suicidal thoughts and feelings
 * Feeling alienated and alone
 * Feelings of mistrust and betrayal
 * Headaches, stomach problems, chest pain
 * Self-destructive behavior, such as drinking too much
 * Hearing or seeing things that aren't there

__ Depression  __ Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), also known as depression, is a serious biologic disease that affects millions of people each year. Depression has no single particular cause, but many such as: interaction among genetic, biochemical, environmental, and psychosocial factors. However, depression can be successfully treated. Symptoms of depression include constant sadness, irritability, hopelessness, trouble sleeping, low energy or fatigue, feeling worthless or guilty for no reason, significant weight change, difficulty concentrating, and loss of interest in favorite activities. Other extreme symptoms include thoughts about suicide or dying, attempting suicide, panic attacks, acting aggressive, acting on dangerous impulses, and unusual change in behavior or mood. Depression can be successfully treated in a variety of methods. These include prescribed medications, psychotherapy, or other types of therapy. A health care professional can diagnose a patient experiencing depression.
 * The prescription medications affect the level of chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. Antidepressants affect the levels of //serotonin// and //norepinephrine//.
 * Psychotherapy proves to be helpful to people with some forms of depression. There are two main types of psychotherapy used for depression:
 * Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) challenges and reverses negative thought and beliefs.
 * Interpersonal therapy (IPT) helps to overcome problems with social skills and other interpersonal problems.
 * Living a healthy lifestyle also helps fight depression. Maintaining good habits such as, sleep, hygiene, diet, exercise, and manageable goals helps relieve depression.

__ The Five Stages of Grief __ Grief is a somewhat commplicated and misunderstood emotion. Yet, grief is something that, unfortunately, we must all experience at some time or other. We will all inevitably experience loss. Whether it is a loss through death, divorce or some other loss, the stages of grieving are the same. There are five stages of grief. If we get stuck in one stage or the other, the process of grieving is not complete, and cannot be complete. Thus there will be no healing. A person MUST go through the five stages to be well again, to heal. Not everyone goes through the stages at the same time. All five stages must be completed for healing to occur. The five stages of grief are: 1-Denial-"this can't be happening to me", looking for the former spouse in familia places, or if it is death, setting the table for the person or acting as if they are still in living there. No crying. Not accepting or even acknowledging the loss. 2-Anger-"why me?", feelings of wanting to fight back or get even with spouse of divorce, for death, anger at the deceased, blaming them for leaving. 3-Bargaining-bargaining often takes place before the loss. Attempting to make deals with the spouse who is leaving, or attempting to make deals with God to stop or change the loss. Begging, wishing, praying for them to come back. 4-Depression-overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, frustration, bitterness, self pity, mourning loss of person as well as the hopes, dreams and plans for the future. Feeling lack of control, feeling numb. Perhaps feeling suicidal. 5-Acceptance-there is a difference between resignation and acceptance. You have to accept the loss, not just try to bear it quietly. Realization that it takes two to make or break a marriage. Realization that the person is gone (in death) that it is not their fault, they didn't leave you on purpose. (even in cases of suicide, often the deceased person, was not in their right frame of mind) Finding the good that can come out of the pain of loss, finding comfort and healing. Our goals turn toward personal growth. Stay with fond memories of person.

__ Impact of Death on a Family __ Allie Caulfield is Holden's younger brother who dies of leukemia three years at the being of the story. According to the catcher in the rye,Holden thinks Allie was the smartest in the family and was an all around good kid. When he dies, Holden has a bit of " guilty." He does not understand why such a young and smart child, like Allie, had to die and why not someone like himself. Allies death totally harm Holden feeling and made him scared to having changes. From the story we could clearly seen Holden and Allie were so close to each other. One of the part shows that Holden feels so regrets by not spending much time with his brother because he thinks that he didn't take the responsibility to take care of his brother.From Allie's death ,he feels so guilty even though he couldn't do nothing but he still blame himself .For Holden,death is a word,full of guilty and responsibility,he wants to know if there's someone could help the dying person,so he can easily be traced back to his own brother's death.From Allie’s death ,Holden seems to can’s move on, even that he can't move on,but he still needs to learn how to live by himself and not the past. Holden and Allie were obviously really close because Holden spent the night he died in the garage and smashed all the windows. From that reaction,it shows that Holden took it pretty bad. After Three years ,he still relates most of what he does back to Allie's death. He can't blame his academics and his personality on Allie. He needs to grow up and start taking responsibilty. He should try to be more like Allie,so that he can take it more easy to forget about allie's death.