Psychology: Practice Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, Conversion

Ruth was 30 years old when she sought help from a therapist after experiencing long-standing fears of getting dirty.  She stated that she became intensely uncomfortable with any dirt on herself or in her immediate environment.  After noticing any dirt, she felt compelled to carry out elaborate and time-consuming cleaning procedures.  This usually involved thoroughly washing her hands and arms.  Moreover, if she found dirt in her apartment, she was compelled to scrub her apartment methodically, in addition to showering in a very regimented manner.  Her cleaning rituals have severely restricted her life.  She now washes her hands at least four or five times an hour, showers six or seven times a day, and thoroughly cleans her apartment at least twice a day.    

• General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Panic Disorder

• Specific Phobic Disorder

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Daniel had always been a dependable figure in his family, especially to his younger sister, who struggled with substance use. One night, he received a call that she had overdosed and died after years of him trying to help her get clean. He had just seen her two days earlier and felt hopeful she was turning a corner. The news hit him like a brick.

Daniel woke up and found he could not move his legs. There was no pain — just a sudden and complete loss of motor function from the waist down. He was rushed to the ER, terrified he had experienced a stroke or spinal cord injury. Extensive neurological and imaging tests (MRI, CT scans, bloodwork) showed no physical damage, no nerve compression, and no identifiable neurological cause. Reflexes were intact.

• General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Panic Disorder

• Specific Phobic Disorder

• Conversion Disorder

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

A married woman, whose life was complicated by her mother’s living in their home, complained that she felt tense and irritable most of the time. She was apprehensive for fear that something would happen to her mother, her husband, her children, or herself.  She has no definite idea what it was that she feared might happen.  She suffers from occasional incidents in which her heart pounds with irregular beats; she cannot seem to catch her breath when this happens.  Often she breaks out in profuse perspiration.  Her mouth always seems to be dry, even though she drinks a great deal of water. She also has trouble sleeping.   

• General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Panic Disorder

• Specific Phobic Disorder

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• Agorphobia

I wish I could tell you what’s the matter. Sometimes I feel like something terrible has just happened when actually nothing has happened at all. Other times, I’m expecting the sky to fall down any minute. Most of the time I can’t point my finger at anything specific, the fact is that I am tense and jumpy almost all the time. Sometimes my heart beats so fast, I’m sure it’s a heart attack. Little things can set it off. The other day I thought a supermarket clerk had overcharged me a few cents on an item. She showed me that I was wrong, but that didn’t end it. I worried for the rest of the day. I kept going over the incident in my mind, feeling terribly embarrassed at having raised the possibility that the clerk had committed an error. The tension was so great, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to go to work in the afternoon.

• General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Panic Disorder

• Specific Phobic Disorder

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• Agorphobia

It’s a busy Monday morning, and Liam is on his way to work. He’s on a crowded subway train, packed shoulder-to-shoulder with other commuters. The air feels warm and heavy. He tries to distract himself by scrolling through his phone, but the Wi-Fi is spotty, and his mind begins to wander.

Suddenly, a wave of dizziness washes over him. His heart begins to race, pounding so hard it feels like it might burst out of his chest. His breathing quickens, and no matter how much air he takes in, it feels like he’s suffocating.

The thought hits him: What if I’m having a heart attack?

He grips the pole next to him tightly, his palms slick with sweat. The fluorescent lights overhead seem unbearably bright, and the noise of the train and chatter of passengers blend into an overwhelming roar.

His hands tingle, his chest tightens, and his vision blurs. Tears sting his eyes as the sense of impending doom intensifies. He feels utterly trapped.

• General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Panic Disorder

• Specific Phobic Disorder

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• Agorphobia

One rainy evening, Jasmine was driving home from work when a speeding truck ran a red light and T-boned her car at a busy intersection. The collision was violent — her vehicle spun out and slammed into a pole. Jasmine lost consciousness briefly and woke up to the sound of sirens and her own ragged breathing. Though she survived with only minor physical injuries, she witnessed the death of a pedestrian during the crash

Jasmine avoids driving altogether. She refuses to go near that intersection and even stops going out with friends if it means traveling by car. Jasmine blames herself for what happened, even though she had the right of way. She feels constant guilt over the pedestrian’s death and becomes withdrawn, struggling to enjoy things she used to love, like photography and design.

• General Anxiety Disorder

• Conversion Disorder

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

• Dissociative Identity Disorder

An 11-year-old boy has developed the following routine before going to bed: He can not sleep until he has told his mother every last detail of the events that occurred that day; there must be no scrapes of paper or clothes on the carpet of the bedroom; the bed must be pushed right to the wall; the pillows must lie in a particular way. In order to get to sleep, he must first kick out a certain number of times with both legs and then lie on his side.

• General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Panic Disorder

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• Agorphobia

Heather, a 19-year-old college junior has an intense fear of speaking to people she does not know very well. During her first and second years, she chose large lecture courses, which allowed her to hide in the back of the lecture hall and not speak to other students or participate in class discussions. Heather received high marks in all classes, earning a place on the dean’s list and honor roll. In her third year, Heather is not required to take some smaller upper-level courses in which class participation and small group discussions are mandatory. She is sure that she will do something embarrassing, such as vomit, and others will judge her negatively. Because of these fears, Heather has trouble sleeping at night and considers dropping out of school.

• General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Panic Disorder

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• Agorphobia

It’s a quiet Saturday morning, and Alex is enjoying coffee in his cozy living room, grading student papers. The sunlight streams through the window, and everything feels calm—until he notices a small shadow on the wall above his desk.

His stomach drops as his eyes focus on the source of the shadow: a spider, no larger than a dime, slowly making its way down the wall.

Alex freezes. His throat tightens, and he can feel his heart racing in his chest. The logical part of his brain tells him the spider is harmless, but his body reacts as though it’s a life-threatening danger. He pushes himself back from the desk, nearly knocking over his coffee, and stands as far from the wall as he can.

• General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Panic Disorder

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• Agorphobia

Patricia is a 44-year-old female who reports that she has periods where she cannot remember what she has done. She reports that after one such period, she received a telephone call from a man who claimed to have met her in a bar where she was “the life of the party.” She had also told the man her name was Michelle. Patricia thinks that this is odd because she does not drink, and she is a rather shy and reserved person. However, the man had her correct telephone number and was able to give a good physical description of her.

• General Anxiety Disorder

• Conversion Disorder

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• Dissociative Identity Disorder