Mr. Fife
Mr. Fife is a 25 year old, Asian single man living with his mother and working at the post office where he has been employed since he dropped out of college after 2 years. He complains of “nervousness” and says he is “just going through the motions” and “wants to lead a normal life and return to college.” His father abandoned him soon after his birth and divorced his mother. During his adolescence and young adulthood he had no close friends, but formed several close relationships in college. However, he states he became “super self conscious” when speaking to strangers and classmates, feel nervous and had difficulty speaking. He had a “buzzing” in his head, felt like he was “outside his body,” had hot flashes and perspired. He called these experiences “panic attacks” that came on suddenly when he was with people. He became increasingly uncomfortable in social situations and was “afraid of doing something stupid.” He finally dropped out of school. To deal with his discomfort he tried various drugs to medicate his symptoms and enjoyed some relief. His physician discovered he had mitral valve prolapse and treated him with medication, but it provided no change in his anxiety.
Mr. Fife feels that at the post office he does not have to deal with people. He avoids public restrooms and uses a stall rather than a urinal. He has 2 best friends but does not date and avoids group settings. He has no problems with authority figures.
The purpose of this assignment is for you to practice applying what you are learning about mental health diagnoses, the diagnostic process, and infusing counseling principles into diagnosis.
Analyze thiscase in an 8-page (minimum) paper. You do not need a cover page or references, and strict adherence to APA style is not necessary. You can also use first person language as needed. Your paper should have sections that address the following topics (minimum 1 double-spaced page per section):
Psychological, emotional, social, or biological/physiological symptoms
There are various symptoms seen in this patient that are in line with the DSM 5 diagnosis of anxiety. One of them is criteria A which presents that a patient may have issues of worry or an apprehensive expectation that occur for more than six months. In this case, Mr. Fife has been having this condition for a long time since he has had since when he was young.
The other presented information is that Mr. Fife has difficulty being in control over the worries that he has. The patient as well is seen to have various symptoms that show that it satisfies the symptoms for criteria C. The patient is restless and feels key up or on the edge which even led to him leaving school. The patient as well as irritable and has difficulties concentrating. The patient as well has had the experience of being embarrassed in public also referred to as a social phobia. The patient, therefore, ends up having issues of distress to the extent that there is an impairment in the social communities and that leads to the deterioration in the functioning of the patients in a manner that could allow for the client to have a clear service based on having issues of distress.
Relevant cultural considerations/issues that could be impacting the case
The issue of anxiety and culture are related in the way that it is expressed differently from one culture to the other. Someone from a culture that has had an understanding of the issue of anxiety may need to focus on discussing the anxiety. The clients of the Asian community are not well informed about the issue of anxiety and view it as a weakness.
The culture of the patient may therefore result in the influence on the way that the patient views their being and their health. The other thing that is supposed to be considered is for the creation of a clear perspective or point of convergence for the members of the community to get to learn and understand the issue of anxiety….
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