Diagnosis And Treatment

Description

Instructions:

1. Read the 4 case descriptions and answer the assignment question listed below.

2. Your complete response must not exceed a max. of 500 words. Underneath your response, report the word length using the following format: “Number of words = x.”

Case Descriptions for Module 3 Assignment: Anxiety and Related Disorders

1. Trevor is an 18-year old young man who needs everything to be “just so.” He spends several hours a day cleaning and rearranging and checking his room to make sure that all his things are in their proper place. He stays up late at night to complete his homework but tends to get stuck on trivial matters like choosing the right font style and margin sizes and formatting his documents so that “things line up perfectly.” No one except for him is allowed to enter his room. Trevor is afraid that if anything is out of place, something awful will happen to him or one of his family members. He has mental images of awful things happening but refuses to speak about them.

2. Ancy is a 25-year old woman who says she has always been an anxious person. She rushes around her apartment at night making “to do” lists and trying to accomplish tasks. She is exhausted but is too revved up to allow herself to fall asleep. Her body is full of tension and he worry comes in constant, uncontrollable waves: What if I can’t get all my errands done tomorrow? What if I forget to fill up my car with gas and get stranded on the highway? What if my friends get upset with me for not remembering their birthdays? What if I screw up at work and lose my job? What if I can’t afford to pay the bills this month? Ancy moves frantically from one task to the next, unable to concentrate or calm herself down.

3. Vladimir is a 40-year old man terrified of leaving his home. His problems began several years ago when he experienced a sudden and unexpected surge of intense anxiety while walking around a crowded mall. “Out of nowhere,” he later had another panic attack in a movie theatre. The attacks became more frequent but when they would happen remained unpredictable. His most distressing symptoms include a pounding heart, tightness in his chest, difficulty breathing, lightheadedness, nausea, and a feeling of losing control. Although Vladimir has never actually fainted, he worries constantly that he might faint and require medical attention in public. Even prior to the pandemic, his world had started to shrink as he avoided more and more situations and begun spending more and more of his time at home.

4. Elizabeth is a 49-year old woman who came to Canada several years ago as a refugee from a war-torn country. She witnessed unspeakable atrocities during the war and feels very grateful to be living in a safe place now, surrounded by other family members who arrived with her and a supportive community upon which she can depend for help and support. A few months ago, Elizabeth was mugged by a masked stranger who stole her purse at knife point. Luckily, she was not physically harmed. Shortly afterward, she developed an overwhelming feeling of anxiety and dread that has stayed with her ever since. She has been having intense flashbacks to her time in the war and has felt totally on edge and on “high alert,” startling easily and struggling to calm down even when she’s completely safe at home with her family. She has also been waking up frequently in the middle of the night, convinced that she is under attack.

Assignment Questions (please answer all parts):

1. For any one of the cases, please respond to the following questions:

a. Identify the case you choose and provide the most likely diagnosis. Would you consider any other diagnoses? Justify your response.

b. Imagine you are a CBT therapist hired to conceptualize and treat the problem. Name acore feature or symptom of the problem that you would aim to target directly in your treatment. Explain your reasoning.

c. Name one specific CBT technique that you might use in treatment in order to target that feature or symptom. Justify your response based on course materials.

d. How might you evaluate if your treatment is “successful?” Base your answer on knowledge gained through course materials (hint: you may also wish to consider relevant information from module 2).

• Your complete response must not exceed 500 words for all four parts combined. Please report the exact word length underneath your response using the following format: “Number of words = x.”

Academic integrity: Open book course materials may be used to support your completion of this assignment, but plagiarism from published materials or other students’ work is a serious offense will be taken very seriously. You must work independently and submit original responses in your own words.