DSM-IV presents four subtypes of specific phobia. Claustrophobia belongs to the situational type because the fear is cued by specific situations. Concretely, claustrophobia is a fear of enclosed spaces. The situations that claustrophobics tend to avoid are elevators, tunnels, subway trains, small rooms, medical diagnostic imaging techniques, underground parkings, etc. The person does not fear the situation itself, but the negative consequences of being in that place. The most common fears in this problem is restriction and entrapment and fear of suffocation (Rachman, 1997). Most closed spaces entail a degree of entrapment and a restriction of movements and many claustrophobics feel excessively vulnerable when their movements are restricted (Rachman, 1997). The fear of suffocating may arise from the belief that there is not air enough available in the enclosed space. ~DSM-IV-TR~
My cousin, she emailed me today and told me that she has "Job Depression." I found that quite funny, that word. However, I can empathise that many people out there are stricken with depression, as I was one of them before.
Which brings me to why i mentioned that tunnel thingy. My boss, who is a very clever lady, and very animated in her ways, demonstrated to me what happens if one defines their lives by a narrow set of rules and values. She wobbled around like she was in a very narrow tunnel, and enlightened me by telling me that we are more likely to crash and be hurt.
Depression sometimes happens when people live by a very narrow set of things that define their happiness. If we put all our meaning of happiness into one basket (eg your spouse, your chlidren, your job, etc) then you are more likely to crash into the tunnel wall if one of these things bail out on you. Which made me think that my cousin was pretty clever to label it distinctly as "JOB" depression. which means that her depression was only confined to her job, and she had her happiness defined by many other things outside of her job, which are still safely protected when her job bailed out on her. i can just picture her 'onset' of depression as soon as she enters the office and then gets 'cured' at 5 pm, morphing into Samantha Jones from SATC...
Now my other cousin, she is a funny one. she lives by a set of quite narrow rules, but fortunately for her she has not crashed into any tunnel wall, fingers crossed. for example, she believes that chinese actresses should NOT act as japanese geishas and bluff the rest of the world that a chinese face can actually pass off as a very authentic japanese face. hence, she BANNED herself from watching the movie 'Memories of a Geisha'. some of us really do have issues... but it is so cute! haha. btw i think there is a name for people like her too...
Paranoid personality disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis characterized by paranoia and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others. Those with the condition are hypersensitive, are easily slighted, and habitually relate to the world by vigilant scanning of the environment for clues or suggestions to validate their prejudicial ideas or biases. They tend to be guarded and suspicious and have quite constricted emotional lives. Their incapacity for meaningful emotional involvement and the general pattern of isolated withdrawal often lend a quality of schizoid isolation to their life experience. ~DSM-IV-TR~
anyway, i digress a little. so, the gist of this blog is, keep your life's tunnel nice and wide. this way you are not likely to be hurt all the time. oh and if all else fails, do as i do - only drive on the neighbourhood roads at 50km/hr all the time.
"It is better to be a coward for a minute than dead for the rest of your life"
~Irish saying~
cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment