A Case Study:  “Amy and Political Science”, Accommodations for a Psychological Disorder

History:

My name is Amy and I’m thinking about social sciences for a major. I have a psychological condition called Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and I’ve also been diagnosed with depression.  I was first diagnosed in grade school and take medication that controls most of my symptoms, most of the time.

Access Issues:

In high school I didn’t get any special accommodations for my OCD. I was in advanced placement classes for the most part and I got pretty good at hiding some of my unusual behaviors. Even though I was in the advanced classes, I didn't feel too much stress and my medications worked so that I wasn’t depressed.

Coming to college was real different!!  All these new people and situations.  Preparing for exams and taking exams are the worst. Part of my disorder involves constant recurring thoughts – like a tape loop in my head. Also, excessive worrying about knowing all of the content from each class lecture and all of the textbooks.

One big problem is that I constantly need to check if everything is ok (like rechecking and rechecking all my answers on a paper, checking that the teacher got my papers; rechecking my answers on a test so many times that I sometimes don’t complete exams.)

I’m pretty smart and I think that’s how I made it through high school but college is much more difficult.

There are more exams, the exams are longer and harder, and there is so much more reading material for me to obsess about.

I really obsessed about my poli sci classes, because the exams were so detailed and complex. I got real bogged down and did poorly on my exams and wound up failing two courses that semester.