Neuro Note 2

The Theory of Everything is a movie that looks into the life of Stephen Hawking. It highlights the high and lows of his battle with ALS, while managing work, family and love and his rise to “fame”. The movie follows Stephen when he was a young, brilliant physics student set out to find an equation that “explains everything”. The theory of everything shows the incredibly fast paced progression of ALS. This movie articulates the impact that this can have on an individual and their well-being. Receiving a diagnosis such as this can take a major toll on an individual and accepting something like this can take a long time to come to terms with. As seen in the movie, Stephen goes through a period of time shutting out the ones he loves and keeping to himself. He is given two years to live and began seeing many signs of the disease show up quickly such as falls, fasciculations, and weakness. Throughout the movie you see the relationship between Stephen and his wife slowly change as they have children, as he becomes more dependent, and as she spends more time tending to his needs. I chose this movie because I feel as though Stephen Hawking was such an influential individual and his battle with ALS was one that is very well known. The fact that it was produced into a movie brings attention and awareness to this disease, and to those that may not know about ALS. I learned even more about his story from this movie which I also felt was an awesome learning experience. From watching a theory of everything, I learned that an ALS diagnosis can cause more than just physical impairments. Depression and grief are common when given this diagnosis as there is no cure and the life expectancy is often short. Therapeutic use of self and empathy are things that will be necessary as a future practitioner when working with a client with ALS.