Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problem faced by the citizens of the nation. A case study is provided where a patient named Georgia was showing symptoms of anxiety and was living poor quality life. This assignment would provide details about anxiety as a mental disorder and describe is symptoms. It will divide for it unpaved physical health of patients as well. Moreover, different interventions of the disorder would also be discussed in details in the assignment.
Anxiety can be defined as the mental health conditions where the patients suffer from a type of fear that usually remain associated with the thought of threat or some aspects that would go wrong in the future. One in every six people in the nation is seen to suffer from the mental health issues of depression and anxiety (Townsend & Morgan, 2017). The patient named Georgia is also suffering from anxiety that is making her live poor quality life. People suffering from anxiety are seen to suffer from a number of symptoms like troubled sleeping, feeling irritable, lack of concentration, feeling depressed as well as loss of self-confidence (Urden et al, 2017). Similarly, in the case study as well, the patient is seen to have lost confidence in herself and cannot pass the driving test successfully even when she tried twice to complete the task successfully. Moreover, she is also having issues with sleeping and cannot sleep properly at night. She remains awake for a long time and sleeps late at night. Moreover, she has also developed depression and this is evident from the way by which she avoids social meetings. Depressed individuals avoid socialization. The patient stated that her mother also suffer from anxiety issues. Studies are of the opinion that genetics can be a risk factor that results in anxiety. Anxiety disorders run in families as suggested in studies and some families have higher than average amount of anxiety issues among relatives. Therefore, the patient might have acquired it from her mother.
Researchers have categorized different types of anxiety. One of them is the generalized anxiety disorder. This disorder makes individuals develop regular as well as uncontrollable worries about many different things in everyday lives of the patients (Coventry et al., 2015). These worrying attributes can consume several hours of the individuals every day and thereby makes it hard for the individuals to concentrate or finish daily tasks. Georgio also seems to suffer from this type of anxiety disorder. This is evident from the fact that although being a full-time psychology student, she could not complete the tasks on time and always felt anxious that affected her academic career. Therefore, she had to change it to part time course. Another type of anxiety issue is the social anxiety disorder. Patients suffering from this disorder experiences extreme fear or anxiety that are mainly triggered by social situations like parties, workplace or situations in which they have to work with another person (Sklenarova et al., 2015). Georgia is also seen to avoid any interactions with her friends and cancel their invitations and therefore, she can considered to be suffering from the disorder. However, this cannot be understood whether this symptom is a result from social anxiety disorder or due to feelings of depression that also make people withdraw themselves from society. Another type of disorder is called the panic disorder. This actually refers to the situations when individuals suffer from regular or frequent panic attacks without a clear cause of the feelings or trigger (Kennedy et al., 2016). This is characterized by sudden feelings of terror sometimes striking repeatedly without warning. Panic attacks cause symptoms like that of heart attack like chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, stomach upset, heart palpitations and many others (Poulsen et al., 2016). One evident from the case study also shows that she also faces similar symptoms. She often suffers from similar panic attack during the time of examinations or during the submission of assignments worrying that she would fail in the assignments. Hence, she needs to be treated appropriately to help her overcome anxiety disorders successfully.
Studies have found out that anxiety can result individuals to suffer from many negative physical aspects. The individuals might suffer from rapid or irregular heartbeat. Individuals who experience fear and anxiety show irregular heart rate. Bodies are seen to escape from the feelings of danger or harm and this is achieved by elevation of the heart rate and increasing the force of each beat that occurs during atrial fibrillation. Georgia also faces similar pounding of heartbeat when she faces anxiety attacks. Individuals are also seen to suffer from fast breathing. They also suffer from weakened or tensed muscles and suffer from sweating. Dry mouth and dizziness are also two other physical impacts that people might suffer from due to anxiety. Long-term anxiety as well as panic attacks can affect the central nervous system making the brain to release stress hormones on the regular basis (Huffman et al., 2014). This indeed is responsible for increasing the symptoms of dizziness, depression as well as headaches. A feeling of churning stomach and loose bowels are also seen to be the result of anxiety issues in patients. In case of Georgia, it was found that she had fast breathing rate and this was measured for about 22 breaths per minute. Normal persons have respiration rate between 12 and 20 breaths. Studies are of the opinion that anxiety can help in triggering a flight or fight stress and thereby causes release of flood of chemical and hormones that might include adrenaline into the system. This is mainly responsible for increasing the pulse and breathing rate for making the brain get more oxygen. Often people also suffer from sleep issues. Different sources of stress and feelings of uneasiness (due to excessive worrying in patients) make people suffer from anxiety make them prone to sleeplessness (Yohannes et al., 2014). Therefore, Georgia also suffered from similar symptoms that made her wake up fatigues and stressed in the mornings as well.
Clinical recovery is mainly defined as the condition of the patients where they have fewer or no symptoms of the disorder they were suffering from. In contrast, personal recovery can be explained as the ability of the individuals to live a meaningful life as defined by the individual themselves in the context of their experience or severe mental health problems. Studies are of the opinion that personal recovery helps by promoting the health as well as wellbeing of the individuals that include defining of the personal recovery goals, building up of the self-esteem, self-confidence as well as resilience (Coventry et al., 2015). It also includes the ability of the individuals to maintain relationships effectively and also have proper sense of purpose. However, it should be remembered that although clinical and personal recovery are not mutually exclusive but they can go hand in hand (Otte et al., 2016). Studies are of the opinion that although clinical recovery includes achieving an end goal, personal recovery is an on-going procedure and involve maintaining of developing a healthy self-identity. It incorporates the attributes of empowerment and having control and realizing strengths.
In the case study, it was seen that Georgia was in a very vulnerable situation and had lost her mental and emotional stability. She was suffering from anxiety as well as panic attacks on different circumstances which were having negative outcomes on her physical health as well. She was not able to carry on her full time academic career as a psychologist even after getting admitted to it. She had to pursue part time course to cope with the stress. From this incident, it can be understood that she had completely lost her confidence and no more contained the zeal to overcome barriers. She had to compromise her academic career which could have contributed to grief and sadness to the patient. Secondly, she was even not able to pass her driving test because of anxiety and this shows that she was failing miserably in all activities which can be easily achieved by others.
All these attributes might have made her upset as well as frustrated with her and could have contributed to emotional burnouts. The condition became more intense when she started turning down the offers of friends in handling out preferring to be socially excluded. Even the quality of her health and mood were also impacted by poor sleep making her stressed and fee; fatigued (Stein et al., 2015). Therefore, it can be seen that she was having very poor quality life where she was not being able to succeed or remain happy in any instances. Therefore, she needed personal recovery by which she can not only overcome symptoms of anxiety but also achieve important millstones of her life. The professionals should be supporting her in ways by which she feels empowered, identifies her strengths and overcome her weakness. She should learn to replace her negative thoughts with the positive thoughts and participate in every aspects of her life successfully. Personal recovery would be achieved when she strengthens her confidence and participate in developing self-identity and self esteem. She would be able to enjoy challenges of her academic life, have stable personal lives, socialize with friends and families and spend valuable moments with all when personal recovery is achieved (Lai et al., 2015).
Georgia remains highly stressed and therefore, the most important intervention that should be included in her care plan is development of stress management techniques. Potential triggers should be limited. She should be advised to keep an eye on the deadlines and the pressure and thereby arrange the daunting tasks in her to-do lists and take proper time off from her educational obligations. This would help Georgia to handle her academic submissions successfully. Another important intervention would be relaxation techniques. Studies are of the opinion that certain measures like deep breathing exercises, mediation, long baths, yoga as well as resting in the dark can help in reduction of the signs of anxiety (Patel et al., 2016). This would help her to overcome her fear as in case of driving of cars and also help in developing her concentration issues like in case of riving, completing her academic home chores and many others. Often the healthcare professionals are also seen to refer patients towards support networks. The patients are also requested to share their anxious feelings with friends and family members in place of suppressing as the latter can worsen the anxiety disorders. Georgia should go out with friends and can also talk about the issues with her parents with whom she shares quality bonding. This would help her to release her stress to some extent. Studies are of the opinion that exercises also help in anxiety management in patients. Physical exertion as well as an active lifestyle can cause improvement in the self-image. Exercises also help in triggering the release of chemicals in the brain that would help in stimulating positive emotions (Nielsen et al. 2015).
Apart from the above-mentioned techniques, professionals also prefer psychological counseling and therapy. One of the most important therapies that show maximum successful result is the cognitive behavioral therapy. This therapy mainly aims in recognizing and altering the harmful thought patterns that can trigger an anxiety of the disorders as well as different troublesome feelings with positive thinking. This also helps in limiting distorted thinking and help in changing the scale and intensity of the reactions and stressors. Many studies are of the opinion that psychotherapy along with counseling brings out beneficial outcome. The healthcare professionals can also include Georgia in CBT and counseling (Fogel et al., 2015). This would help her to recognize her negative thoughts and encourage her to modify them replacing with positive thoughts through motivational interviewing and continuous encouragement.
Drugs are also one of the effective interventions that can help Georgia to overcome the feelings of anxiety, fear and stress. One of the classes of drugs is the tricyclics that show positive outcomes on most of the patients suffering from anxiety issues other than the obsessive-compulsive disorder. They have side effects like drowsiness, dizziness, eight gain and many others. Another class of drugs is the benzodiazepines but they should not be used a first line medications. These forms of drugs help patients by promoting relaxation and helps in reduction of tensions. They should never be referred or long-term use as they can affect coordination, become addictive and reduce alertness. Antidepressants are another form of medication that brings positive results on anxiety and its symptoms although they are primarily used for treatment of depression (Patel et al., 2016). During anxiety disorders, different chemicals in the brain like the serotonin, noradrenalin and dopamine lose their balance. This class of drug can help in correcting the imbalance of chemical messages between the nerve cells in the brain and help in developing the conditions of the patient. Healthcare professionals for Georgia can also apply this. However, the side effects should be kept in mind and the medications should only be provided when the positive outcomes overcome the negative effects caused by medications.
Nursing professionals might have to manage patients who suffer from anxiety and help them cope with their symptoms and develop their health. Therefore, during treating such patients, the professionals might apply cognitive behavioral therapy. This is a psychotherapy that helps individuals to replace their negative thoughts with positive thoughts and help in handling symptoms effectively. Medications like anti-anxiety depression as well as antidepressant can also be provided to the patients. However, complementary health approaches also help in bringing out effective results for overcoming anxiety in patients (Townsend & Morgan, 2017). These include introducing self-management as well as stress and yoga relaxation techniques to patients. Moreover, yoga, exercises and meditation also help in mitigating the issues. Therefore, healthcare professionals can apply these interventions when they have to tackle patients suffering from anxiety. Some of suggestions they can make to patients are consuming less tea, soda, chocolate; keeping balanced diets; avoiding alcohol, cannabis, and other recreational drugs. It should also include Regular sleep patterns to ensure better health and mood.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion it can be seen that anxiety disorder can have huge number of negative impacts on the life of individuals. From the case study, it was seen that additional results in development of stress in the patients resulting from fear and worrying of matters of everyday lives. It results in disturbed sleep, faster respiratory rate, shortness of breath, lack of concentration, social exclusion and many others. It also affects the physical health of people to a high extend impacting the quality of life. Therefore healthcare professionals need to identify the symptoms and accordingly develop interventions for the patient. Some of the interventions developed by professionals are self management strategies, exercises, meditation, yoga, mindfulness based therapies and many others. Psychotherapies and counselling are some of the most successful interventions as found in the evidence based studies. Cognitive behavioural therapy and motivational interviewing are highly effective. Medications are also found to be helpful for management of symptoms of anxiety. Antidepressants, tricyclics as well as benzodiazepines are also helpful although they come with several side effects. Healthcare possessions can use these interventions to help individuals cope up with the symptoms and develop quality life.
References:
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