Understanding Stress and Anxiety- A Psychological Analysis of Sheldon Coopers Disorder

Understanding Stress and Anxiety- A Psychological Analysis of Sheldon Coopers Disorder

Anxiety defines intense and persistent worry or unease about something or a day-to-day situation. Phobia, on the other hand, defines the disproportionate fear of something or situations that would have otherwise been harmful to an individual. Anxiety is a common phenomenon often experienced by an individual before embarking on tasks or activities that present difficulty or uneasiness to them (Rudaz, Ledermann, Margraf, Becker & Craske, 2017). Persistent anxiety can, however, be classified as a mental disorder often requiring pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. Phobias are also common among individuals and often are specific to a situation or something. Phobias vary across individuals, and one’s phobia may not necessarily be someone else’s. Individuals with phobias usually develop anxiety when they are subjected to their phobias (Gillan et al., 2020). This paper seeks to analyze the concept of anxiety and phobias as depicted in the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” taking a keen interest in the character “Sheldon Cooper.”

The character displayed by Sheldon Cooper has several phobias. Some of these phobias include cynophobia, ornithophobia, and mysophobia, among others. Whereas the objects reflected in these phobias remain a significant part of daily living and maintain near-absolute harmlessness, the effect they do have on this character is non-pleasant. Stress defines the feeling of emotional torture or tension. A stressed individual often feels frustrated or angry when met by daily life challenges that they perceive they cannot cope with. The overall effect of stress is nervousness, anxiety, and sometimes a feeling of helplessness (Gillan et al., 2020). In the long run, small life stressors that are not properly dealt with often cause anxiety and depression to the individual and, in some cases, become phobias.

This is the case in the life of the character portrayed by Sheldon Cooper. Some of the phobias that he does possess are extrapolated from the various traumatic life events that he experienced in his childhood. His fear of dogs, for instance, began in his childhood and strengthened into a phobia. Even in his adulthood, he is chased down the street by a dog upon sensing he has pieces of hot dogs in his pocket. He ultimately surrenders some of the hot dogs to the dog. Stress and phobias are all characterized by anxiety. The effects the feeling they do present to an individual is often that of fear and helplessness, as it is depicted by Sheldon Cooper whenever he experiences any of his phobias.

The character of Sheldon Cooper is one that presented a lot of difficulty in handling among his counterparts and friends. This difficulty is attributed to the many checks that he had on his life and proceeded to impose them on others. To begin with, he had a strict time schedule for his routine activities and often wanted everyone to appreciate those timelines and do absolutely whatever he wanted to be done. His phobias also presented him with social interaction challenges. His phobias for dogs, for instance, meant that none of his friends could handle a dog in his presence. He also, on one occasion, surrendered pieces of hot dogs to a dog because of fear. His phobia of birds was also evident. He once could not sleep because a bird had patched in their living room window, having had countless attempts to chase the bird away.

Sheldon also had a phobia of dirt and general disorderliness. This was manifested by his compulsive urge to put things in places he considered right. He once got into his neighbor Penny’s house in the middle of the night just to have it arranged. The food choices and menus, as well as the ingredient selection and order, were as well very disturbing to Sheldon. He only took specific meals and prepared them in a specific manner and in specific places. Disruption in order, exclusion of an ingredient, and change of table arrangement and sitting positions would make him characteristically uncomfortable. 

Sheldon’s phobia for dirt was as well very unpleasant. He never shook hands. Upon coming in to contact with an individual, Sheldon had the compulsive urge to wash his hands with the fear of contracting germs. This even escalated whenever a disease scare became imminent among members of his inner cycle. He would isolate himself from them and sometimes even force them to disinfect their entire body. Whereas these actions made him feel safe and out of the hook, the impact they had on his friends was bad. 

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is a tool used as a guide by healthcare professionals in diagnosing various mental disorders. This tool contains descriptions as well as symptoms and other criteria that are necessary for the diagnosis of mental disorders. This tool covers a range of mental disorders, such as anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit disorder, and bipolar disorder, among others. According to the DSM-5 diagnostic codes, the character portrayed by Sheldon Cooper has a positive diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder under DSM code 300.3 (F42). This diagnosis is arrived at upon scrutiny of the symptoms displayed by the character.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a mental condition that is characterized by thought impulses that create significant emotional distress to the person. These thought process often brings anxiety to these individuals, as well as anger and a feeling of helplessness. These individuals tend to react to these emotionally distressing thoughts by overtly or covertly finding a way through them. This reaction is often to ease their emotional distress or to prevent reacting towards them. The most common compulsions among individuals with these disorders include compulsion towards tidiness, orderliness, symmetry, pattern identity, and counting, among others.

As evident in Sheldon Cooper’s life, he has a compulsion towards cleanliness, orderliness, counting patterns, and arranging, among others. His compulsion towards cleaning has been evident across the show. Stretching from his own house, which they share with another plot character, to his friend’s houses, Sheldon has been notable for having been unable to allow a noticeable exhibition of untidiness to pass. His compulsion towards arranging and orderliness is as well striking even discoverable in his closet arrangement, table arrangement, and the general orientation of the room and sitting positions. Additionally, Sheldon shows a compulsion towards counting. In the later episodes, Sheldon is noted to adopt three times knocking on the door while calling the room holder three times simultaneously as he knocks. A disruption during this process often creates emotional distress that he often goes through by imitating a knock even upon opening the door. These indicators show how obsessive and compulsive the character is.

Psychological models are models that attempt to explain the psychological abnormalities in mental disorders. These models include humanistic, behaviorist, cognitive, psychodynamic, and biological models. The psychological model that best explains the symptomatology of Sheldon Cooper is the cognitive psychosocial model. The cognitive model theory asserts that individuals with compulsive disorders have faulty beliefs and that their disorder is a consequence of misinterpretation of their intrusive thoughts. According to this theory, people with compulsive disorders tend to misinterpret actions or thought processes that other people otherwise tend to see as normal as very important and thus requiring huge priority (Berman, Schwartz & Park, 2021). Obsession often occurs upon a repeated misinterpretation of these thought processes.

Treatment of these individuals tends to be individual-specific, and the response to treatment will vary from one individual to another. Cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure and response prevention are efficacious among these individuals. Cognitive-behavioral therapy requires that the individual identify their fears and then face them without using compulsive behaviors to neutralize them. This modality of therapy has proved significant in the treatment of OCD (Purgato et al., 2018). In Sheldon Cooper’s case, he managed to confront some of his phobias with the help of his friends. As the show winded up, she had a wife with whom he could have intimate relations; he even held a bird and was able to drive a car.

The CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory epitomizes how anxiety and phobias are evident in contemporary society. As drawn by the character Sheldon Cooper, who has several phobias, these phobias are individually specific, and individuals are often faced with anxiety whenever they are subjected to these phobias. The character is drawn to have a positive diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder. This is evident in his obsession and compulsion towards various aspects of life. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is an effective treatment plan that showed great efficacy on the character in

References

Berman, N., Schwartz, R., & Park, J. (2021). Psychological Models and Treatments of OCD for Adults. Retrieved 8 October 2021, from

Gillan, C., Kalanthroff, E., Evans, M., Weingarden, H., Jacoby, R., & Gershkovich, M. et al. (2020). Comparison of the Association Between Goal-Directed Planning and Self-reported Compulsivity vs Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Diagnosis. JAMA Psychiatry, 77(1), 77. DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2998

Purgato, M., Gastaldon, C., Papola, D., van Ommeren, M., Barbui, C., & Tol, W. (2018). Psychological therapies for the treatment of mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries affected by humanitarian crises. Cochrane Database Of Systematic Reviews, 2018(7). DOI: 10.1002/14651858.cd011849.pub2

Rudaz, M., Ledermann, T., Margraf, J., Becker, E., & Craske, M. (2017). The moderating role of avoidance behavior on anxiety over time: Is there a difference between social anxiety disorder and specific phobia?. PLOS ONE, 12(7), e0180298. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180298

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In an essay of 1,000-1,250 words, address the following:

How is stress related to the disorder displayed by the character you chose (anxiety, stress, or phobia disorder)?
What irrational or abnormal beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors did the characters display, and how did they manifest?

Understanding Stress and Anxiety- A Psychological Analysis of Sheldon Coopers Disorder

What is a possible diagnosis for your character using current DSM diagnostic codes?
What psychological model best explains the cause of the symptoms/behaviors? Based on this model, explain a possible treatment plan, including how the character can modify the stress and reduce anxiety (cope).
Use the GCU Library databases and include two to four scholarly sources from the GCU library to support your claims. In addition to the scholarly resources from the library, you can include past classroom materials, your textbook, and credible internet-based sources (.org, .edu, .mil, .gov).

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