Petition Letter
Dear Associate Dean,
I am petitioning for a late drop of ASTR 102 taught by David Hanes in 2022 fall. I have suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder for many years, and it became extremely severe in 2022. I started to receive help from Student's Wellness Center and Hotel Dieu Hospital from April 2022.
The impact of obsessive-compulsive disorder on my study is mainly manifested in two aspects. First, I force myself to repeatedly do the same thing, which is very time-consuming. Second, my mind generates intrusive thoughts about certain things. Although I know that what I think cannot happen, they stuck in mind, and I cannot get rid of them. And as my anxiety increases, things that make me have intrusive thoughts will increase.
Since my mental health problem started to become very severe from April 2022, I dropped my minor and only took four courses in 2022 fall, including three core courses and ASTR 102. In the first two weeks, I did not feel anything wrong in learning this course, so I did not drop this course or switch it. In the fifth week, I became aware that certain content in this course had begun to stir me into intrusive thoughts, with the immediate effect of keeping me awake at night. Since the time for the drop course without fanatical penalty has passed, I turned this course into a PIC course to reduce the time I need to spend on it to relieve my symptoms. And it did have some help. But around the tenth week, because I started to prepare for my final exams, I became very anxious, and then there was more and more content in this course that made me have intrusive thoughts. I found that reviewing this course at that time would make me stuck in intrusive thoughts all day and unable to concentrate on doing anything, so I deferred this exam to make me feel better. Although my situation has improved after deferring this exam, due to the intense exam preparation period, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety problems still brought me a lot of torture, and it made me still in a state of tension after the semester ends. When I started reviewing this course again, I still couldn't get over the intrusive thoughts that this class created, which made me fearful and kept me in a restless state throughout the day. But I didn't want to leave DR on the transcript at first, so I forced myself to continue preparing for the exam. However, I found that this course had too much impact on my mental health. It had already put me in an extremely abnormal state and seriously affected my daily life, so I finally decided to drop this course.
I know this might be hard for someone without a professional background in psychology and psychiatry to believe, but it did happen to me. Because my state was not unbearable before the deadline of the drop course, and considering my academic progress, I didn't drop it at that time. Affected by my obsessive-compulsive disorder, I will uncontrollably learn what I have already known repeatedly, so I spend a lot more time on my studies than normal people. If I continue to study this astronomy course, I would continue to be immersed in intrusive thoughts and waste more time.
In the past few years, I only have intrusive thoughts about particular things. But since my situation worsen in 2022, there are more and more things that can cause my intrusive thoughts. Since I have not taken a class related to astronomy before, I did not expect that the content of this course would cause me to generate intrusive thoughts. In order to be able to successfully complete my degree plan, I may only choose mathematic, statistics and computer -related courses in the following semesters.
I hope to get the approval to drop this course. I appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Yuxin
I am petitioning for a late drop of ASTR 102 taught by David Hanes in 2022 fall. I have suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder for many years, and it became extremely severe in 2022. I started to receive help from Student's Wellness Center and Hotel Dieu Hospital from April 2022.
The impact of obsessive-compulsive disorder on my study is mainly manifested in two aspects. First, I force myself to repeatedly do the same thing, which is very time-consuming. Second, my mind generates intrusive thoughts about certain things. Although I know that what I think cannot happen, they stuck in mind, and I cannot get rid of them. And as my anxiety increases, things that make me have intrusive thoughts will increase.
Since my mental health problem started to become very severe from April 2022, I dropped my minor and only took four courses in 2022 fall, including three core courses and ASTR 102. In the first two weeks, I did not feel anything wrong in learning this course, so I did not drop this course or switch it. In the fifth week, I became aware that certain content in this course had begun to stir me into intrusive thoughts, with the immediate effect of keeping me awake at night. Since the time for the drop course without fanatical penalty has passed, I turned this course into a PIC course to reduce the time I need to spend on it to relieve my symptoms. And it did have some help. But around the tenth week, because I started to prepare for my final exams, I became very anxious, and then there was more and more content in this course that made me have intrusive thoughts. I found that reviewing this course at that time would make me stuck in intrusive thoughts all day and unable to concentrate on doing anything, so I deferred this exam to make me feel better. Although my situation has improved after deferring this exam, due to the intense exam preparation period, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety problems still brought me a lot of torture, and it made me still in a state of tension after the semester ends. When I started reviewing this course again, I still couldn't get over the intrusive thoughts that this class created, which made me fearful and kept me in a restless state throughout the day. But I didn't want to leave DR on the transcript at first, so I forced myself to continue preparing for the exam. However, I found that this course had too much impact on my mental health. It had already put me in an extremely abnormal state and seriously affected my daily life, so I finally decided to drop this course.
I know this might be hard for someone without a professional background in psychology and psychiatry to believe, but it did happen to me. Because my state was not unbearable before the deadline of the drop course, and considering my academic progress, I didn't drop it at that time. Affected by my obsessive-compulsive disorder, I will uncontrollably learn what I have already known repeatedly, so I spend a lot more time on my studies than normal people. If I continue to study this astronomy course, I would continue to be immersed in intrusive thoughts and waste more time.
In the past few years, I only have intrusive thoughts about particular things. But since my situation worsen in 2022, there are more and more things that can cause my intrusive thoughts. Since I have not taken a class related to astronomy before, I did not expect that the content of this course would cause me to generate intrusive thoughts. In order to be able to successfully complete my degree plan, I may only choose mathematic, statistics and computer -related courses in the following semesters.
I hope to get the approval to drop this course. I appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Yuxin