Dr. Sheldon Cooper will convince himself that suffering makes him more prone for achievement in the next all-new episode of "The Big Bang Theory."

In the upcoming episode, which is entitled "The Anxiety Optimization," Sheldon will develop the belief that he needs to endure more suffering in order to have more scientific breakthroughs after he realizes that he is more productive when he is anxious. As a result, he goes on a mission to keep his anxiety level high by asking his friends to try to make him as miserable as possible. According to Carter Matt, this might actually be Leonard's dream come true since he has long hoped for new and creative ways to mess with Sheldon.

However, Sheldon's plan backfires once he reaches a targeted state of anxiety and then begins to feels happy that his plan is actually working. In turn, those feelings of satisfaction cause his anxiety to level off.

Meanwhile, Raj will have a huge blow out with his girlfriend, Emilie, over his pet dog Cinnamon, reports Realty Today.

According to Carter Matt, the episode's synopsis reads as follows:

"In the hopes of achieving a scientific breakthrough, Sheldon invites his friends to challenge him. Meanwhile, Wolowitz invents an embarrassing game about Raj."

In addition, executive producer Chuck Lorre revealed that the upcoming episode will pay tribute to Carol Ann Susi, the late actress who played the voice role of Howard Wolowitz's nagging mother. The 62-year-old actress died last November.

"We shot an episode last week that deals with the loss of Carol Ann," Lorre said in an interview, according to USA Today. "It took us a couple of months to deal with that; we didn't know how to at first," he says. However, executive producer Steven Molaro is "in charge of a beautiful script that takes account of the loss of Carol. We thought we handled it in a delicate and respectful way. We lost somebody in our family; it's not something you anticipate happening."

Season 8, Episode 13 of "The Big Bang Theory" will air on Thursday, Jan. 29 on CBS.

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