Reflections of Self: Inventories of Me*

I was fascinated by the inventory results and chose the ones I did because there were either spot on and I knew I could write an interesting paper, surprising or concerning and I wanted to further explore them. I hope this paper is engaging and that I successfully articulated my interpretation in this paper. 

 

I have to confess, I was surprised by the results of 14-4 (Coping with stress). My score indicates that I am easy going ,less anxious than most and more self confident, which goes against everything I know to be true about myself.  It points to "Active-Behavioral" strategies, which are said to be more often used by women than by men. This is where the similarity ends. 

 

My past, definitively, has resulted in the outcome of 14-11 (A Personality Inventory) and 6-5 (How Large is Your Sleep Debt) and 7-6 (How Good are My Sleep Strategies) contribute to my inability to overcome the results. The inventory indicates that I am angry, aggressive, cynical and have a hostility problem, all of which point to Type A's negative emotions. (In 14-10, I was a Definite A). 

 

I feel that 6-5 points to deeper issues. The fact that it says I am not getting enough sleep, when I am always tired, always get 8 hours, take medications to aid in sleep, and am very regimented, concerns me.  After learning in class about the four stages of sleep, I feel like I spend too much time in REM  stage and not enough in stage four.  It makes me feel like I could be in need of an amphetamine to aid in balancing my sleep debt. It also makes me wonder if my memory retention issues don’t have more to do with having an attention deficit disorder and less to do with my childhood behavioral problems and currently my age. Not having medical insurance is not only frustrating, but presents a problem, because his is an arena of my life that I feel strongly needs further investigation. It is said that people, such as myself, which a "Large Sleep Debt", often finds that their work suffers from random errors and misses the small errors the second time around. I hope that this doesn’t actually occur at work, but I have seen evidence in my education, particularly in math. I would be curious to see if that coincides with the part of the brain where math is retained. 

 

My chosen lifestyle, past and future, all strongly contribute to the result of 7-6, and at least for now, my inability to change the fact that my habits and routines interfere with my ability to get a good nights sleep. My anxiety, racing mind, even with medication, have nearly made it impossible to feel rested. 

 

My family, peers and "addictive personality" traits have led to 11-4 (Sensation Seeking Scale), determining that I am a "Low Sensation Seeker".   My childhood and my health issues, keep me from doing things like riding roller coasters, zip-lining and scuba diving, just to name a few. They are amongst a few of the things that I know I would otherwise enjoy partaking in, but don’t for a fear of motion sickness.  My diagnosis of AP, amongst others, made me always weary and fearsome of doing drugs.  I feel as though, had I tried most drugs, and succumbed to peer pressure, I would have most certainly become a drug addict, and God only knows if I would even still be alive.  Much less if I would be able to function independent of groups Like Narcotics and Alcoholics' Anonymous, full familial support, rehab, therapy, etc., and I am certain I would lie prisoner to such a disease. 

 

Overall, These inventories, more specifically this class, has taught me many things about myself; some I knew, some I don't want to face, yet others I hope can help me make positive change going forward.