Encephalitis In Awakenings

In this movie, I can’t help but feel really happy for Leonard. If I had to “wake up” realizing I just lost thirty years of my life, I would be extremely grateful just to have the chance to live like a normal human being again. Unlike some of the others around him, he went out and tried his best to enjoy life as he then discovered it to be. Personally, if I were in his position, waking up would be the most liberating experience of my life.
Leonard was in a mental institution with doctors that primarily gave up on him, or seemed to have no interest at all. Doctors didn’t really want to cure him, or treat his symptoms. They just let him, and all the others like him, lie there and make sure he was still breathing. So their diagnosis? Encephalitis

In Awakenings, most of these patients were survivors of the epidemic, showing signs of multiple diseases. Encephalitis is discussed as being the inflammation of the brain; not the outer layering of the brain, called meningitis, but the brain itself (Davis, 1). With all that inflammation, it would be easy to analyze and see that those neurotransmitters would have a hard time doing their job, and getting the brain to send those signals to the rest of the body in order to function. No wonder symptoms of encephalitis such as stiffness in the body, confusion, memory loss, paralysis, and lack of responsiveness are complications (Davis, 4). Encephalitis is believed to be viral, and can come from simple things such as herpes simplex, also known as HSV (Davis, 2). Therefore, since some of those doctors believed that is the condition Leonard had, it shouldn’t take much to believe that Leonard would never wake up in the first

It’s not just all things related to happiness. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, and “dopamine is signaling feedback for predicted rewards” (Brookshire, 1). Dopamine isn’t just pleasure or motivation and influence, it’s a vast concept that is still being studied. It’s a chemical released in one’s brain. It’s sex, it’s addiction, it’s love, lust, etc. It’s all of the above. It’s simple and difficult at the same time. It’s familiar but known. But what we do know as people, is that we tend to feel free because of such a chemical.
Parkinson’s has a whole lot to do with dopamine. When there is no dopamine, there is almost nothing. there are some motor reflexes, which explains why all the patients in the movie were able to catch a ball, but not able to seat themselves or eat their own meals. As parkinson’s disease progresses, the amount of dopamine produced in the body decreases, leaving the body unable to move at will and in a catastrophic state. It’s logical to assume that what was also related to the problem in the movie was the very problem of Parkinson’s...lack of