Chapter 13 Entry

So far throughout this semester I haven't really been able to relate psychology to my life on a personal level. However, I was able to relate to this chapter on psychological disorders because I consider myself to have one. A psychological disorder is deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional patterns of thoughts, feeling, and actions. The psychological disorder that I have is the anxiety disorder. An anxiety disorder is a psychological disorder that is characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety. Within the anxiety disorder are multiple sub-disorders and I have two of them. The two disorders that I have are panic disorder and obsessive- compulsive disorder. However, I would not consider myself to have extreme cases of them because I can still function normally and I don't consider them to get in the way of my everyday life. Obsessive-complusive disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted receptive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions). A common obsession I have is a need for order, symmetry, or exactness. This is most noticeable in my coloring and the organization of my room and closet. For example in my closet my shirts have to be in a certain order. First they are organized by color then within the color they are organized by sleeve length. Yes, this seems a bit crazy and I have been made fun of for it but that's the way I like it and have to have it. My shoes also have an order to them. Each pair of shoes is placed exactly alike with one the shoes having the toe face out and the other having the heel face out. Some common compulsions I have are eating foods in a certain order and constantly arranging things in a certain way. For dinner we usually always broccoli, salad, and some type of a "main" food. I always eat dinner in the same order. Broccoli first, them the "main" food, and my salad last. I have been doing that for as long as I can remember. The second type of anxiety disorder I have is panic disorder which is marked by unpredictable minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which terror, choking, and other frightening sensations can be experienced. Usually I get panic attacks due to my OCD. They do not occur very often but I have had a couple throughout my life. A big thing that sets of a panic attack is being on time. My whole life I have always been on time or either early. I do not like going places with other people who cannot be on time. During basketball season in high school I would carpool with my neighbor who was always late. I would start pacing my front door and start to breath really heavily. I would begin to freak out and sometime would even hyperventilate. This past year, I believe it was fall semester, I had my worst panic attack yet in my dorm room. My roommate, I love her to death, is not as organized as I am and usually leaves her things everywhere. I freak out whenever my room is not neat. So one day the room was a disaster and I just broke down. I was crying hysterically, shaking, and having a hard breath and this was just because my room wasn't clean. Looking back on that I realize that I probably was a bit dramatic but that's just how I get because I have to have everything neat and perfect.