Health Problems through Tuesdays with Morrie - Essay Example

Health Education First M. al Affiliation Health Education 0 Introduction Learning lessons can sometimes be too late when death comes first before the realization happens. Forgiveness and love should happen now. These are Morrie’s perceptions relating to how he played his life here on earth. This paper wishes to deliver health problems through the film Tuesdays with Morrie. The film depicts the three systems that impacted the life of Morrie, his legacy and strengths, and the implicative treatment plan for Morrie. A conclusive remark will be drawn to delineate about generic scope of the topic. 2.0 Three Systems that Impacted the Life of Morrie The death of Morrie’s mother. Morrie had begun to hide his real emotions, when his father married another woman, and he had stipulated to desist in uttering about his late mother. His stepmother was able to fill-in the missing piece he all had ever wanted, but his father remained inexpressive to him. His father wanted to sustain the secrecy of his wife’s death with his youngest son, Morrie’s little brother. All Morrie’s had to prove the existence of their mother was the telegram letter that their mother sent them when she was diagnosed and died. From then on, young Morrie had to hide everything about his mother and kept his sorrow and affliction on his own self (“Tuesdays with Morrie: Plot overview,” n.d.). The significant thing that this system emphasizes is that Morrie’s emotions that he had been keeping all throughout his childhood have caused him intense isolation. The death of Morrie’s father. The death of his father seemed to be unimportant for the young Morrie. As per time, he was a teenager when his father died. His father was walking down the street when a guy attempted to block his way and showed him a gun. Morrie’s father immediately picked up his wallet from his pocket and began to run. His father seemed to be so scared, and it was last to his belief that he had heart problems, which caused him to death. The moment he saw his father, he felt nothing but hatred. He could not forgive his father, and to cry for his death was not even an option for him. Such a feeling had led him to stay away from his family and lived with friends (“Tuesdays with Morrie,” 2008). The importance of this system signifies Morrie’s sense of hatred that rooted from his father. The emergence of ALS or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Life was going well for the old Morrie until he discovered his deteriorating illness. He was diagnosed with ALS, or commonly termed as Lou Gehrigs disease, which is deadly and incurable (Felice, White, & Chow, 1998). Morrie commenced to desist doing usual things and undergo a home-based physical therapy. The positive side of his sickness was that it did not sustain a cognitive psychology. Also, he had been able to communicate well with his family and friends including Mitch. However, later on, Morrie became very weak as he suffered from the deteriorating illness. He had difficulty in breathing and completely bedridden (“Tuesdays with Morrie,” 2008). Moreover, this stage of Morrie’s life had opened him to what life should be and how it should be lived. He had taught Mitch so many things about life and death. 3.0 Morrie’s Strengths Fearless about death and dying. Every Tuesday when Mitch and Morrie continued to talk about life, Mitch had found out that Morrie was a person who sees death as the beginning to a new life. Morrie began to instill into Mitch mind that death is just an opportunity to correct mistakes, but not everyone is informed about death. He uttered that he was lucky enough to know that he was dying for him to be able to forgive, love, and be loved. Morrie did even converse about how he viewed life when he was young and became an adult. Acknowledge mistakes. Ever since the story began, it can be viewed that Morrie was a child who instilled hatred on his young mind and heart. He regretted everything about his wicked memories with his mother. He had implanted hatred on his heart and despised his father. He was a child that bear affliction because of regrets and fear. He wanted his father’s attention that his father could not give him. He longed for this father’s touch. Moreover, when he became old, he began to forget about his past and started a new life as a professor. He always enjoyed dancing as his pastime. However, these changes vanished because of ALS. From then on, the past began to hunt Morrie as he realized his mistakes and regrets about the past. He affirmed his mistakes and was able to accept everything in the past. 4.0 Morrie’s Legacy Love. The greatest legacy that Morrie has given to Mitch and every person is to love. He said that people should not be afraid to love and be loved. People should not wait for something because time is so important and death would fall people apart from their loved ones (“Tuesdays with Morrie,” 2008). Morrie depicts no hesitance when it comes to love; people must give it all for the person that they love. Forgiveness. Morrie had a lot of experience from his childhood. The death of his mother was so painful for the young Morrie. In connection with this event, he had longed for his father’s touch that the latter could not give him. To mourn for the death of his father was inconceivable for the young Morrie, hence, instilling hatred in his heart. However, later on, he regretted everything that happened in the past. He had forgiven his father, but he could not even cry for his death. Before his death, his mind and heart were already at peace that forgiveness had been the missing piece he had been longing for since then. Relationship. No matter how many times his father would take home a new wife, little Morrie would still value the relationship he had with his late mother. That was all Morrie’s perceptions when he was a kid that remained when he grew up. He could not detach the relationship he had with his father because, in reality, his father was his father. However, forgiveness had made Morrie accepted his father later on his life. Even if a person dies, Morrie firmly believed “death ends life, not a relationship” (“Tuesdays with Morrie,” 2008). These were among his last words. No matter how far a person can go, a relationship with them will not vanish even in the end of time. That is how important a relationship is for Morrie; he even waited for sixteen years for his favorite student Mitch to come back. 5.0 An Implicative Treatment Plan for Morrie It is a medical fact that Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) does not have any cure, and as a health counsellor, the only way to ease the burden of the person with ALS is to help him or her accepts such fact. In the case of Morrie, he manages his difficulties during the day; however, his emotional and physical pain is evident while he is in bed in the morning. For this reason, as a health counsellor, the goal must be to ease the difficulties he experiences in the morning by first, to lessen it three to four times a week. In the long run, after a repetition of managing his difficulties, the objective will easily be determined. As to the case of Morrie, the objective of the counselling will be short-term goals in resolving Morrie’s isolation during his childhood, which was caused by the death of his mother. The second goal is to instill forgiveness and guilt to Morrie in relation to his relationship with his father and his death. For this, a behavioral approach will be used as the counselling focuses on the emotional conflicts that Morrie is experiencing. In this manner, as a health counsellor, Morrie must learn coping mechanisms in order to better handle the crisis that he is experiencing. Training in terms of stress inoculation will be helpful for Morrie in order for him to cope with his morning physical pain and emotional burden he is carrying. Specific symptoms will be given attention in the intervention process in order to effectively use the remaining time that Morrie has (Philip, 2005). 6.0 Conclusion Morrie depicts the reality of how important real emotions are when describing a thing because only people can really tell what they feel when they actually experience it. One cannot attract people with just words alone; actualization and reality count as the greatest factors to let people realize how important time is. Morrie is a person who believes that being an adult is a privilege to be like an infant again because babies lived by touch, and a dying man also lives by touch. Morrie’s longing for his parent’s touch was realized through Mitch. Mitch did able to let Morrie experience that he was loved. At the end, a hug, which Morrie had been longing for from his father, was realized through his favorite student Mitch. Also, he learned how important time is, and most of all, the real essence of life that he only discovered through his professor. References Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. (2012, December 23). The New York Times. Retrieved From http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis/ovrview.html Felice, K. J., White, L. R., & Chow, M. S. S. (1998). Pharmaceutic options in the treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Formulary, 33(1), 44-51. Philip, B. (2005). Counselling skills for health professionals (4th ed.). Cheltenham, UK: Nelson Thomas Ltd. Tuesdays with Morrie (2008) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/tuesdayswithmorry?feature=watch Tuesdays with Morrie: Plot overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/morrie/summary.html Read More