Pregnancy-induced Insanity

I've created a new diagnosis to add to the DSM-IV: Pregnancy-induced Insanity (PII). It is characterized by sudden outburst, teariness, and/or unusual behaviors. One or more episode is required in a two-week period. I definitely qualify for this disorder. Let me give you a case study that happened to me yesterday. First of all, I went to the BYU homecoming game (many of you might realize that this in itself would qualify under "unusual behaviors"). My dad has season tickets and my friend karen really wanted to see a game of "American football" while here in the States. I packed a bunch of things for Eliana to do during the game and off we went. I actually really enjoyed the game. Eliana loved it when the crowd cheered and she danced every time the band played.

Anywho, it started to rain pretty hard during the fourth quarter, so Eliana and I went under the stadium. Karen had mentioned that she wanted a BYU t-shirt, so I braved the crowds in the book store shop they had set up there to sell their wares. After the game I showed the shirt to Karen who said, "Oh! It's so cute, but I think it's too small." So I offered to go back in and exchange it. I waited in line to get to a cashier who informed me I needed to wait in a different line on the other side especially for exchanges and returns. So, I found the correct line and waited again while other people bought merchandise (no body was returning or exchanging, oddly enough). When I finally reached the front, I showed the shirt to the woman behind the register and said, "I just want to exchange this for a different size." She looked down her long, pointed nose at me and said condescendingly, "Do you have a receipt?" Me: "well, not with me, but I bought this two seconds ago. See, it says on the tag that it's from here." Devil woman: "I can't do anything without a receipt." At this point PII hit me full force. I was flooded with memories of similar instances where BYU employees were so bent on following the rules exactly that they forgot how to think (my apologies if any of you reading this fall into the category of one-time BYU employees. I'm sure there are exceptions). All the skills I teach to my groups on how to replace negative thoughts and manage anger went out the window. I marched outside and found the receipt, then fought my way back in the store and through mobs of blue-clad people to the front of the devil woman's line. I then threw the receipt at her, along with the t-shirt and said, "Here's your stupid receipt!" and if that were proof enough that I have PII, I continued, "and I hate your stupid school!" Then I found the right size, grabbed it off the rack and stormed out of the store, daring any security personnel to stop me.

It took me a long time to calm down. But, I've heard recognition is one of the first steps to recovery, right?