Navigating a Psychology Degree: hannxm&#x27;s GYG thread ♥

Original post by hannxm

Haha, yeah I get stressed when the control and responsibility is in my hands! Maybe the control you feel in the games reduces the anxiety - the loss of control causes the anxiety. Not sure why your psychologist didn't pick up on that. A lot of anxiety disorders and eating disorders begin from a loss of control in their life.

Yep. Ironically she even said one of my main reasons for having an eating disorder is because of control (the other main reason that I use it as a coping mechanism). So she understands the control aspect of anxiety disorders, but for some reason didn't put two and two together. :dontknow:

How is your studying going?

Reply 22

OP

Hmmm.

It's currently okay. These are the easier assignments so I'm appreciating it before things get real. :lol:

Original post by Pathway

Yep. Ironically she even said one of my main reasons for having an eating disorder is because of control (the other main reason that I use it as a coping mechanism). So she understands the control aspect of anxiety disorders, but for some reason didn't put two and two together. :dontknow:

How is your studying going?

Reply 23

OP

Progress: Second assignment written and submitted, almost a week early. Looking at and have started third assignment.

How I'm feeling: Firstly, I've got a nasty cold so that's bothering me but I've managed to brave the hard task of submitting my work and just leaving it to be marked now. It's due in on Thursday this week so I can now not worry about it and move on. I submitted it partly because I knew I would lose track of time and completely miss the deadline. I genuinely keep forgetting that I'm doing a degree :lol:

so I was three weeks ahead, now I'm only a week ahead! The time goes so fast. My subject has now moved onto constructing social science arguments and consumerism, so it's a little less interesting and more straight to the facts and new words and terms, but I'm managing and focusing on the positives. I studied for a few hours yesterday and made a start on my assignment that's due in next year! By the time that deadline comes around, I would've started my next module! :h:

It's a little silly because I already feel I could write my next assignment but I'm assuming they want me to continue learning around the subject before I fully attempt it, which is my plan. All going fairly smoothly.

More written here in my other blog.

Module emoji summary: :redface:

Spoiler

Reply 24

Original post by hannxm

Progress: Second assignment written and submitted, almost a week early. Looking at and have started third assignment.

How I'm feeling: Firstly, I've got a nasty cold so that's bothering me but I've managed to brave the hard task of submitting my work and just leaving it to be marked now. It's due in on Thursday this week so I can now not worry about it and move on. I submitted it partly because I knew I would lose track of time and completely miss the deadline. I genuinely keep forgetting that I'm doing a degree :lol:

so I was three weeks ahead, now I'm only a week ahead! The time goes so fast. My subject has now moved onto constructing social science arguments and consumerism, so it's a little less interesting and more straight to the facts and new words and terms, but I'm managing and focusing on the positives. I studied for a few hours yesterday and made a start on my assignment that's due in next year! By the time that deadline comes around, I would've started my next module! :h:

It's a little silly because I already feel I could write my next assignment but I'm assuming they want me to continue learning around the subject before I fully attempt it, which is my plan. All going fairly smoothly.

More written here in my other blog.

Module emoji summary: :redface:

Spoiler

Well done on staying ahead! I always left things to the last minute. :teehee:

What's your new assignment about? Sorry to hear you have a cold, feel better soon. :hugs:

Reply 25

OP

Thank-you! I have to stay ahead otherwise I'll stress! It's about constructing a social science argument, but we basically outline questions, claims and evidence about inequality in a consumer society. We don't have to put our input in or talk about contrasting arguments yet, thankfully!
Aw I hope so too. It's lasting quite a while. :frown:

Taking so many meds to keep things under control!

Original post by Pathway

Well done on staying ahead! I always left things to the last minute. :teehee:

What's your new assignment about? Sorry to hear you have a cold, feel better soon. :hugs:

Reply 26

Original post by hannxm

Thank-you! I have to stay ahead otherwise I'll stress! It's about constructing a social science argument, but we basically outline questions, claims and evidence about inequality in a consumer society. We don't have to put our input in or talk about contrasting arguments yet, thankfully!
Aw I hope so too. It's lasting quite a while. :frown:

Taking so many meds to keep things under control!

Haha, I'm the same but I still left everything (including my dissertation) to the last minute. :eek:

Clearly I like to make things difficult for myself. :facepalm:

I hope this assignment goes well.

Are you prone to infections? I seem to have them back to back, ha. Sucks. :sigh:

Reply 27

OP

Original post by Pathway

Haha, I'm the same but I still left everything (including my dissertation) to the last minute. :eek:

Clearly I like to make things difficult for myself. :facepalm:

I hope this assignment goes well.

Are you prone to infections? I seem to have them back to back, ha. Sucks. :sigh:

Gosh, I hope I don't end up doing that! :lol:

Yeah, you did make it hard for yourself but at least you did it! :P

I actually haven't had a cold for a while but generally my immune system is messed up. It attacked my leg once. :lol:

And I'm pretty sure it's been attacking my bladder and bowel. I was sick back to back with tonsillitis, chest infections, head colds etc for three months because my immune system had been weakened from terrible stress, so I try to keep my stress levels to an absolute minimum and I can usually tell when I get stressed. I actually got a bit stressed yesterday when I was studying yesterday - my breathing was becoming difficult, it was anxiety like and it was purely because I was tired, feeling dreadful, uncomfortable and forcing myself to work. I eventually stopped and did some cross stitching to take my mind off things. It really sucks having a useless and sensitive immune system. If my stress gets too bad, I end up going into a stressful downward spiral, get sick and depressed. :frown:

Reply 28

Original post by hannxm

Gosh, I hope I don't end up doing that! :lol:

Yeah, you did make it hard for yourself but at least you did it! :P

I actually haven't had a cold for a while but generally my immune system is messed up. It attacked my leg once. :lol:

And I'm pretty sure it's been attacking my bladder and bowel. I was sick back to back with tonsillitis, chest infections, head colds etc for three months because my immune system had been weakened from terrible stress, so I try to keep my stress levels to an absolute minimum and I can usually tell when I get stressed. I actually got a bit stressed yesterday when I was studying yesterday - my breathing was becoming difficult, it was anxiety like and it was purely because I was tired, feeling dreadful, uncomfortable and forcing myself to work. I eventually stopped and did some cross stitching to take my mind off things. It really sucks having a useless and sensitive immune system. If my stress gets too bad, I end up going into a stressful downward spiral, get sick and depressed. :frown:

Could be MCAS? I know that's really common with POTS and EDS, not sure if you've looked into it. That and a weakened immune system is common. :hugs:

feel better soon. Give yourself regular breaks, I was constantly running myself into the ground at university, still am even now, aha.

Reply 29

OP

Original post by Pathway

Could be MCAS? I know that's really common with POTS and EDS, not sure if you've looked into it. That and a weakened immune system is common. :hugs:

feel better soon. Give yourself regular breaks, I was constantly running myself into the ground at university, still am even now, aha.

I have looked up MCAS but it's really hard to get diagnosed. It is part of the same genetic strand and there's been studies proving that they're all linked and viewed as the 'disease trio'. People with my conditions who have MCAS also, who receive treatment have said they feel a lot better for it! Unfortunately, doctors know very little about the trio of conditions and still view EDS and POTS as rare, including MCAS. I'll probably be diagnosed when I'm retired or seriously ill in hospital.
I hope you can learn to take it easy yourself - you'll feel better for it!

Reply 30

Original post by hannxm

I have looked up MCAS but it's really hard to get diagnosed. It is part of the same genetic strand and there's been studies proving that they're all linked and viewed as the 'disease trio'. People with my conditions who have MCAS also, who receive treatment have said they feel a lot better for it! Unfortunately, doctors know very little about the trio of conditions and still view EDS and POTS as rare, including MCAS. I'll probably be diagnosed when I'm retired or seriously ill in hospital.
I hope you can learn to take it easy yourself - you'll feel better for it!

I think some doctors do clinical diagnoses for MCAS, but it's really hard to see blood results to give an official diagnosis (kinda like how they know hEDS is genetic, but can't find the gene for it and so diagnose it on clinical features). Take care though. Avoid your triggers if possible (I have really random MCAS triggers, or that's what my GP said, not entirely sure if they're that random, haha).

I know but, eh, oh well. :redface:

I'm not great at pacing, well I can do it, just not very often, lol.

Reply 31

OP

How did you get diagnosed? I don't know what my triggers are at all. :frown:

I get flushing of the skin, wheezing and such is put down to my asthma, the lightheartedness is put down to my POTs so that doesn't help when it comes to identifying symptoms! I know there's something more going on though and I'm pretty sure it's due to my immune system messing up. I've been to the hospital three times for bleeding from the bowel and in inflamed bowel. Then I started bleeding from my bladder with no infection and antibiotics did nothing. I think it's attacking me internally. I've tried insinuating to doctors that I believe there's an issue with my immune system because they have no idea what's happening, but they don't take it on board.
I've read that just the colouring on tablets can be enough to trigger it! It's pretty random and specific - it can be anything really.

Original post by Pathway

I think some doctors do clinical diagnoses for MCAS, but it's really hard to see blood results to give an official diagnosis (kinda like how they know hEDS is genetic, but can't find the gene for it and so diagnose it on clinical features). Take care though. Avoid your triggers if possible (I have really random MCAS triggers, or that's what my GP said, not entirely sure if they're that random, haha).

I know but, eh, oh well. :redface:

I'm not great at pacing, well I can do it, just not very often, lol.

Reply 32

Original post by hannxm

How did you get diagnosed? I don't know what my triggers are at all. :frown:

I get flushing of the skin, wheezing and such is put down to my asthma, the lightheartedness is put down to my POTs so that doesn't help when it comes to identifying symptoms! I know there's something more going on though and I'm pretty sure it's due to my immune system messing up. I've been to the hospital three times for bleeding from the bowel and in inflamed bowel. Then I started bleeding from my bladder with no infection and antibiotics did nothing. I think it's attacking me internally. I've tried insinuating to doctors that I believe there's an issue with my immune system because they have no idea what's happening, but they don't take it on board.
I've read that just the colouring on tablets can be enough to trigger it! It's pretty random and specific - it can be anything really.

I've not been diagnosed yet (although I do want to see an allergist at some point about it, to get either a clinical or official diagnosis), it's just something my GP and I talk about, there's too many other things to deal at the moment, so with the MCAS stuff I have to wait. :redface:

I had anaphylaxis as a kid to asthma medications (among other things, which probably doesn't help my current medication phobia), have weird reactions to perfumes, smoke, react to supposedly hypoallergenic tape, BP cuffs, some materials, heat, some foods (which I guess doesn't help my ED avoidance behaviours), temperature, etc. List is kinda endless for me at the moment. My GP is pretty clued up on EDS and its associated conditions though, so I'm lucky in that way. But as you can probably tell, some of the triggers aggravate POTS things (although still waiting on an official diagnosis of that :facepalm:

- spend most of my life waiting) as well as hEDS stuff. I just keep a diary now of weird stuff that sounds MCAS-y haha.

Basically the clinical diagnosis is based on symptoms and if you react well to medications (histamine blockers, and some other medications) - this is part of the reason why I haven't actively pursued a clinical or official diagnosis because of my phobia (well done brain :redface:

). The other part is catching mast cell mediators in blood work during an attack, if you have all three, then you have an official diagnosis of MCAS. It's difficult to catch them in the act as it were, because of how random MCAS attacks are, lol.

Perhaps just bringing it up directly might be good? Explain it links with your EDS and POTS? :dontknow:

Reply 33

OP

Progress: Written first draft for third assignment (due in January). Finished reading text book last week.

How I'm feeling: I haven't done much studying, it's been more than a week since I started and finished the draft for my third assignment. I felt happy to have finished my text book; it is the first book I have read and finished in many years! It was gruelling though as the topic became very boring - a lot of statistics on waste and such and all for just one page of information that was slightly relevant to the assignment.
My tutor is sick and I have been waiting longer than you're meant to for my TMA 02 results which is a little frustrating.
More written here in my other blog.

Module emoji summary: :frown:

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Reply 34

OP

Progress: Achieved 87% in my second assignment (equivalent of an A/Distinction)!

How I'm feeling: My grades have grown! I was very happy and excited to find out my score last night. Whilst I was waiting, I started losing my momentum because I was waiting for my feedback as it's needed for TMA 03, (I haven't done any work for two weeks) but this has pushed me forward again and I'm currently working on my essay again, but I am feeling pretty tired now. :frown:

I had to go out to work briefly as a co-worker broke down on the carriage way! Hopefully, I can finalise this third assignment before Christmas so I can submit and move on. :smile:

More written here in my other blog.

Spoiler

Reply 35

OP

DD102 (Social Science) progress: Achieved 91% in my third assignment (equivalent of an A/Distinction)!

How I'm feeling: Obviously, I am incredibly pleased by this score! It is my best yet and on an assignment that was found to be the most challenging as it involved laying out a social science argument. I honestly expected to have a lower score or a similar one to my last but I jumped up by 4%! Hopefully I can do just as well in my next one - the fourth one is proving pretty challenging already. :redface:

It is about segregation and integration in cities. It sounds pretty straight forward but my biggest struggle is collecting strong information and a lot of it to create an assignment and then laying it out nicely.

Module emoji summary: :smile:

DE100 (Investigating Psychology) progress: Completed the first two parts out of three for my first assignment which is due on the 27th. Read two chapters of first book.

How I'm feeling: This module is currently about intelligence and IQ tests. It talks about the darker side of psychology (how it encouraged segregation and racism) and often had a political aim. The psychologists, almost intentionally, misinterpreted the results in order to reinforce the beliefs of the time and so it brings to light of looking at everything and using common sense when it came to interpreting results, creating experiments and not to give into confirmatory bias. Some of the things they did were pretty ridiculous though.
It is basically what was mentioned in the film Django Unchained about scientific racism, where Leo said his slave had three dimples in his skull (craniometry) and said that this was due to a part of the brain that controls obedience. He stated that all black people had those dimples and that was way they were born to be slaves. The psychologists in the 1800-1900s were encouraging this sort of belief with intelligence tests. It's a shame that psychology was used in such a way.

Module emoji summary: :smile:

More written here in my other blog.

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(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 36

OP

DD102 (Social Science) progress: Fourth assignment submitted early. Waiting for results.

How I'm feeling: I only have assignment number 5, an online computer assessment and a end of module assessment/assignment before I finish this module, so I'm feeling quite excited about how my first module is nearly complete. It feels like only yesterday that I started it! We're now talking about social disorder and juvenile delinquency. It also looked at the the Kitty Genovese and James Bulger murders and bystander apathy which I find pretty interesting as I have an interest in forensics and criminology. The future assignments seem achievable and manageable.

Module emoji summary: :biggrin:

DE100 (Investigating Psychology) progress: First assignment submitted early and worked a little on the second assignment. Waiting for results.

How I'm feeling: I was feeling a bit bleh about reading all about methods and such and having to read two books simultaneously. Methods of research, surveys, ethics, research reports etc are a big part of psychology so it's no surprise. We have to write a research report over a couple of assignments in future so that should be interesting. I think I get it though and I'm enjoying learning how to read and understand research reports. I don't feel so intimidated by the uni database and actually like to look through them to find different studies on things. I'm certainly not a pro - it will take some more time using them before I'll feel more confident finding information but that time will come eventually! It's encouraging my interest in doing my own research and adding onto already existing studies.

Module emoji summary:

More written here in my other blog.

Spoiler

Reply 37

Original post by hannxm

DD102 (Social Science) progress: Fourth assignment submitted early. Waiting for results.

How I'm feeling: I only have assignment number 5, an online computer assessment and a end of module assessment/assignment before I finish this module, so I'm feeling quite excited about how my first module is nearly complete. It feels like only yesterday that I started it! We're now talking about social disorder and juvenile delinquency. It also looked at the the Kitty Genovese and James Bulger murders and bystander apathy which I find pretty interesting as I have an interest in forensics and criminology. The future assignments seem achievable and manageable.

Module emoji summary: :biggrin:

DE100 (Investigating Psychology) progress: First assignment submitted early and worked a little on the second assignment. Waiting for results.

How I'm feeling: I was feeling a bit bleh about reading all about methods and such and having to read two books simultaneously. Methods of research, surveys, ethics, research reports etc are a big part of psychology so it's no surprise. We have to write a research report over a couple of assignments in future so that should be interesting. I think I get it though and I'm enjoying learning how to read and understand research reports. I don't feel so intimidated by the uni database and actually like to look through them to find different studies on things. I'm certainly not a pro - it will take some more time using them before I'll feel more confident finding information but that time will come eventually! It's encouraging my interest in doing my own research and adding onto already existing studies.

Module emoji summary:

More written here in my other blog.

Spoiler

Ohhh, I loved social psychology. We looked at Kitty Genovese in quite a lot of detail too. Glad things are going well!

Reply 38

OP

DD102 (Social Science) progress: I achieved 91% again!

How I'm feeling: The next assignment is a compare and contrast with the choice of two. Not very interesting topics as well, the last chapter I read (which is for next week) was about riots and very political which isn't interesting to me. I skimmed a bit seeing as it's not needed for my next assignment. I just want to get onto the parts that matter for the next assignment and hopefully it will be more interesting to me.

Module emoji summary: :coma:

DE100 (Investigating Psychology) progress: I achieved 92% in my first assignment- my highest score yet!

How I'm feeling: I'm obviously very happy and relieved. When you start a new module, you have a new tutor and you don't know what they're like when it comes to marking - some are generous, some are very strict. My tutor was very in depth with her edits and feedback and it was all useful things I'd not considered. The topics are interesting and we're looking at studies of obedience and the next assignment is also a compare and contrast essay ( :colonhash:

) about two studies on obedience. It's amazing how easily I can read a chapter when it's interesting - some chapters make me want to nap. :lol:

Module emoji summary:

More written here in my other blog.

Spoiler

Reply 39

OP