There are many different disorders in society that affect peoples personalities which effects their identities. Depression, Bipolar, and anxiety are just some of the many disorders that effect peoples identities.

          Depression is an example of a disorder that effects personality and identity. Depression often makes you feel tired and keeps you from doing the things you normally like doing. It can also effect peoples eating and make you not feel like yourself. Bipolar is another disorder many people have. its symptoms include maniac episodes, depressive episodes, extended periods of being happy then sad, and getting little to no sleep. Bipolar disorder affects approximately 5.7 million adult Americans, or about 2.6% of the U.S. population age 18 and older every year. The last example od a major disorder that effects peoples identities is anxiety. Anxiety can come in many different forms but major anxiety includes excessive worrying, headaches, fidgeting, and being easily startled.
      
       My point in explaining these disorders is to show that with so many other things going on, how could you possibly be yourself? most people suffer from one if not more of these or know someone who does. I chose to talk about these three disorders in my blog because it seems like they are the main ones that would effect someone's personality. It also seems like many people have seen or at least been around it. To me it almost seems like this has become the new normal. Now a days if someone says I have depression or anxiety it isn't taken as a HUGE shock compared to how it would've been back in the day.

                          Work Cited:

                               http://www.latuda.com/bpd/mood-disorder-questionnaire.html?                               http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_statistics_bipolar_disorder

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/depression-signs-and-symptoms.htm

Split

    Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have one body but several different people living in it? Around the U.S there are multiple cases of DID or Dissociative Identity Disorder each year. DID is a condition where one person has many different personalities. In some of these situations a forty year old woman could thing she was a twelve year old boy and a eighty year old woman. DID is one of the most controversial psychiatric disorders, with no clear consensus on diagnostic criteria or treatment. The only country that recognizes DID as being a real thing is the U.S.

   I feel like it would be insane to be diagnosed with DID simply because you would know who you really are. In several cases people are reported not even knowing they became another personality. In a documentary on a young woman names Gretchen, there were several times where her other personality would take over and try to kill her. Gretchen would wake up to having mutilated cuts on her arm and not remember anything about it or how it happened. Going in and out of personalities like that would be horrifying. especially if you didn't know what your other personality was doing.

Work Cited:
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder#1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder

In the book, Along way gone by author Ishmael Beah, it talks heavily about war and how young children are forced to serve and fight in wars. Reading about this topic disturbed me a lot but not as much as finding out it still happens around the world today. In the book a long way gone, Africa is the main place setting so that's where I naturally assumed most child soldiers were. However after doing more research I discovered that children are forced to go to war in many different countries. Below is a list of several countries that have recruited children to go to war.

Afghanistan

Central African Republic

Democratic Republic of Congo

Iraq

Mali

Myanmar

Somalia

South Sudan

Children that are recruited into the army don't just fight, they're used for several different things. examples of this would be, "children are used as shields, cooks, suicide bombers, fighters, spies, messengers and/or for sexual purposes." cited a source. I find this is happening super disturbing but the fact that I'm eighteen years old and just now learning about it is what really gets me. if this is happening in so many different countries then why aren't we hearing anything about it?  Since 2001 child soldiers have been recruited in 21 armed conflicts all around the world.  although there have been several acts ad laws passed to prevent children under the age of 18 to be recruited, most of them have only been in the U.S. The Child Soldier Prevention Act (CSPA) is a United States federal statue signed into law by President George W. Bush on 3 October 2008. The law criminalizes leading a military force which recruits child soldiers. The law's definition of child soldiers includes "any person under 18 years of age who takes a direct part in hostilities as a member of governmental armed forces." However this only limits the U.S. Nothing is being done about any other foreign countries. I personally think that the United States is a powerful enough nation to step in and do something. Even if we aren't interfering on a bigger level we're still not hearing anything about it. If the news was honest about the situation I think people would actually be a where of what's going on in these other countries and what we could do to help.

works cited:
https://www.child-soldiers.org/about-the-issue
https://www.childfund.org/child-soldiers-forced-to-fight
https://www.child-soldiers.org/
Along way gone By: Ishmael Beah