Mr. Fife
Uploaded by CaseyP on Jun 23, 2018
Mr. Fife
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Mr. Fife
Anxiety disorders affect people’s quality of life and the ability to engage in activities of daily living. This paper provides the analysis of the case study of Mr. Fife, who is suffering from a psychological disorder. The paper will focus on diagnosis, identification of symptoms, other possible diagnosis, help, and prognosis.
Diagnosis and Symptoms
From the case study, it is evident that Fife suffered from social anxiety disorder. This diagnosis is based on several symptoms. The first symptom is nervousness, where Fife held that he was going through motions and wanted to lead a normal life. People with social anxiety disorder are nervous and aloof. In addition, Fife had no close friends, which is an indication of the fact that he was detached. People with this kind of disorder often have few friends (Long, 2017). Moreover, Fife was super-conscious, especially when speaking to strangers, which is among the key indicators of the social anxiety disorder.
Additionally, Fife suffered from panic attacks. This kind of attack is triggered by one’s fear of receiving negative evaluation (Long, 2017). This is confirmed by the fact that the attack affected Fife when he was with people. Fife also felt increasingly uncomfortable in the social situations and feared that he would do something stupid. This is a common symptom among the people suffering from this kind of disorder and it occurs in the form of a phobia due to their fear of being humiliated or rejected in the social situations. This phobia makes the affected people avoid social settings. For example, Fife avoided public rooms, group settings, and did not date.
The symptoms seen in Fife relate to the American Psychiatric Association Criteria (APA). People are diagnosed with social anxiety disorder when they meet all the criteria listed by the APA (Long, 2017). Examples of these criteria include the marked fear of at least one social situation, negative evaluation, and anxiety that is provoked by social situations. The fear that these people have regarding the social situation is endured with intense anxiety, while the anxiety is out of proportion compared to the threat that is caused by the social situation. The anxiety or fear must last for over six months (Long, 2017). In the case of Fife, he dropped out of school two years ago, which is more than the required six months. In addition, the fear affects the occupational life of the...