Mental Illness Diagnosis
Task 1: Identifying List of Symptoms and Signs
Casey, our patient is 36 years old. He is exhibiting signs and symptoms of a severe mental disorder that he has suffered from for many years. These signs and symptoms are as follows; fear, poor interaction with friends, loneliness, crying, low self-esteem, sleeping difficulties and fearing people. Casey’s indicated that he had feared a lot of things and situations. He is afraid of being in crowded gatherings, he is afraid of interacting too much with his workplaces, and he is also afraid of being in a car with other people.
Task 2: Abnormality of Client’s Symptoms
The symptoms exhibited by Casey are completely abnormal. These patients’ symptoms indicate that he should seek help. Human beings are inherently social beings. Casey’s inability to interact with other human beings is an indicator of psychological problems. This vto socialize cannot be taken as normal anxiety since the patient has had these symptoms for more than twenty years. The patient has stated that the symptoms seem to get worse over the years. Casey’s symptoms indicate an underlying issue that needs attention.
Task 3: Categorize the Client’s Symptoms
Casey’s symptoms can be categorized into three groups. The first group is the depressive symptoms which are, crying, loneliness, low self-esteem and sleeping difficulties. The second categorization is common symptoms which are: fearing people, poor interactions with people, avoiding work so that he can avoid people and fearing to be in a car with other people. The third categorization is anxious symptoms which are; fear of crowded places, fear of people, and lack of sleep, crying and loneliness.
Task 4: Possible Diagnosis
According to the patient’s symptoms, there are three possible diseases he could be suffering from. The first one is Social Phobia. According to DSM-5 diagnosis, the client exhibits the following characteristics that are consistent with this disorder; persistent fear, voiding people and social situations and stress interfering with a patient’s life (Kupfer, 2015). This disease is disqualified by the fact that the patient can trace the origin of his phobia. The second disease is Panic disorder. The diagnosis of this disease is frequent panic attacks, worry about the next attack, and no medical cause can be traced back to the attack. Panic disorder is disqualified since the patients fear can be traced back to his recent asthma attacks. The third disease is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. The diagnosis for this disease is experiencing a traumatic situation, avoidance and having visions about the traumatic occasions. This condition is disqualified because this patient has more symptoms than the few that are indicated in the DSM-5.
Task 5: Confidence assessment
According to the client’s signs and symptoms and the DSM-5 diagnosis criteria, the patient could be suffering from any of the three diseases. The disorder with the highest possibility is the social phobia being rated at 8 out of ten. The other disease is a post-traumatic disorder with a rating of 7 out of 10. The terminal disease with the least chances is a panic disorder with a rating of 5 out of 10.
Task 6: Best Diagnosis for the Symptoms
Casey’s best diagnosis is Social Phobia Disorder. The most unusual symptom that specifies that Casey’s case is a case of social phobia is how he avoids social gatherings. He indicates that he is totally afraid of being in crowded places since he feels like he is being chocked. He indicates being afraid of even being in a crowded vehicle. Casey even quits his job to avoid interacting with people. He also is unable to visit his dentist as he progresses along. The many cases of how he avoids people are proof that his case is social phobia disorder.
Task 7: Treatment Options
The first treatment option for social phobia is using medications. Our patient at these levels will need to use medicines. The client is at advanced levels if these conditions. In his explanations, the early symptoms began when he was a child and 20 years down the line, his conditions have worsened. The patients require the use of antidepressants to help him cope with the stress magnifies itself through crying, lack of sleep and loneliness (Acarturk et al., 2009).
The second recommended treatment is through therapy. The patient requires to be put through social anxiety therapy. Through this therapy, the patient will learn how to deal with his social fear. Through the therapy, the patient will slowly resume to being in social gathering (Acarturk et al., 2009). Given that the patient’s condition is severe, he will require attending the therapy severally. Through therapy, the patient will be equipped with skills in cognitive exposure restructuring and social skills training.
References
Ataturk, C., Cuijpers, P., van Straten, A., & de Graaf, R. (2009). Psychological treatment of social anxiety disorder: a meta-analysis. In Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE): Quality-assessed Reviews [Internet]. Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (UK).
Kupfer, D. J. (2015). Anxiety and DSM-5. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 17(3), 245.