Value Analysis

Mclennan Community College

Value Analysis

Exploring my personal value system will be an important journey in determining if I have what it takes to become a social worker. Examining my own personal values and comparing them to the core social work values will give me a sense of where I stand on issues that may come up when I start working with clients. Some personal values that I will be sharing in this paper are good health, having close friendships, having a close family, having children, having a house, and helping people in distress.
Good health is something that I value because in order to live a long life and accomplish all the things I want to do I must be in good health. To me, good health is both physical and emotional. I am actually struggling on both levels right now. Because I am not emotionally healthy, I feel like it’s stopping me from being motivated to get into physical shape. I have been struggling with depression, anxiety, and fear of death since 2012. I lost three family members within seven months of each other. My stepmother died in February, my birth mother in June, and my dad in August. Because their deaths were sudden and unexpected, I have been left with a lot of unanswered questions. The depression has caused me to spiral out of control, in and out of darkness. I have several health issues that I take medications for but because of the depression I sometimes go through periods of skipping them because frankly, I don’t care about my health. I never have thoughts of hurting myself, it’s more or less just giving up. I want to be emotionally and physically healthy I just don’t have the motivation to even know where to begin to get that way. Health issues were a big part of the causes of death for my late family members so I think that is why I put such value on them now. I don’t understand why that’s not putting enough scare into me to take care of myself. I am working on it slowly but surely. As a matter of fact, the day this paper is due I have an appointment to talk with my doctor about my health issues. I need to remember that if I don’t take care of myself I won’t be there for my children in their future.
Another personal value of mine is having close friendships. To me, having close friends does not mean having the highest number of “friends” on Facebook. It means having people in your life that you can’t imagine living without. This value has been shaped by having to re-examine some of my own personal experiences with friendships and unfortunately choosing to shut people out of my life. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t think they understand me anymore and what I am going through or if it’s because I just don’t trust them. When I make a friend it’s supposed to be for life and there have been too many instances where I have needed people and they weren’t there for me. I don’t have time for part time friends and if that means I continue through life without any close friends then I guess that’s what will happen. I hope I can mend my current relationships and build new ones because we all need people to trust in and depend on.
Having a close family is something that I value because it’s something that I never actually had. I know it sounds crazy to put so much value in something that has never existed. My family, or what is left of it, is the upitime of dysfunctional. I have cousins that live less than 15 minutes away and sisters that live an hour away but we don’t talk anymore. I have a brother in Chicago that I have not spoken to in months. A lot of the reasons for that have to do with the recent deaths of my family members but even before that we were not close. I thought it would bring us closer together but it has seemed to tear us apart. There was never any sense of togetherness when I was growing up and we never really felt like a family. We were just people going through the motions. The small handful of family members that I do communicate with are very