I am proud of this essay for English 4, so it shall appear here. It was part of our discussion on Dante’s Inferno. We were to choose one of 5 topics…
- Hell is a state of mind.
- Hell is other people.
- Heaven and Hell are two sides of the same coin.
- Hell is exothermic.
- Hell is endothermic.
…and write a 200 word (+/- 10%) essay on it. I chose the first simply because it was easier to cram than the others.
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Prozac for Satan
Ladies and gentlemen of the psychiatric community, I present a new condition for consideration. It is not particularly new, but the condition causes such great distress that it must be looked into.
The affected show a kind of hypochondria, for they believe that they constantly endure extreme emotional or physical anguish (when in fact they do not). Patients are also apparently schizophrenic, showing signs of being delusional, paranoid, and heavily distorted. But even with evident symptoms, the condition is mostly undetectable and extremely difficult to gauge. I name this condition “Hell.”
The illness involves the exaggeration of one’s life as the worst example of suffering. The patient bears enough emotional baggage to exceed airline regulations, and heaps great amounts of self-pity on his or herself. It has been determined that Hell is a negative means of coping with the crap that life inevitably brings, and it manifests in people under extreme or prolonged stress. It is then no surprise that research has found Hell to be more prevalent in angst-ridden teenagers.
Hell is often used a means of gaining attention – a good example would be the much-laughed at “emo kid” – or as self-justification. Currently the only cure – optimism – is infeasible for the target demographic, so we must find a cure for this distorted state of mind.
