Week 2: Anxiety Disorders

Case Study 6: A 28-year-old woman was walking through her local shopping mall when she began to feel intensely anxious. The anxiety was accompanied by sensations of choking, smothering, and a sudden sense that the people and stores around her were unreal. She began to fear that she was going crazy and the more she worried about this the more anxious she became. A guard, seeing that she was in distress, brought her to the mall office where she was able to lie down. A few minutes later the symptoms began to subside. She went home after leaving the mall but she did not tell her husband what happened. A week later she had a similar attack while she was walking down the street. She was able to reach her house where she lay down until the attack ended. In the following three weeks she had two or more attacks. Between attacks she was constantly worried about having another attack. The patient was finally forced to tell her husband about the problem because she was so fearful of not being able to get help if an attackoccurred that she would not leave her house alone or travel on public transportation.

It seems as though this woman is suffering from Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia. Evidence can be found in the facts that: the woman feels physical effects of choking, smothering, and irreality, she becomes afraid of losing sanity, she has an attack within a month, she worries that she will have another attack, she has issues leaving her house without a companion, and she fears traveling alone.

The woman should seek some professional help. Her therapist might put her through cognitive behavioral therapy (making the fear seem unreasonable by using logic), or her therapist might put her through exposure therapy (creating a stressful situation and helping patients overcome fear). Hopefully, the woman will be able to resume her normal life without fear of a panic attack.