Anxiety Disorder

ANXIETY DISORDER

Case Study 3: Bert is 40 years old and works on an assembly line in a brush factory. He is terribly afraid of being contaminated by germs. He avoids shaking hands with others. He won’t eat in the cafeteria. He has trouble leaving the bathroom because he isn’t sure he has washed his hands well enough.




The Patient, Bert, has obsessive compulsive disorder. On DSM-IV-TR the symptons say the person is so obsessed it takes more time than usual, like an hour or so to wash your hands. The most common obsession is the feeling of being contaminated. The symptoms of OCD for "washers" are that they thoroughly have to clean themselves. They are afraid of germs, which leads to a scarce amount of interaction with people. They live their life being afraid of getting dirty and something bad happening because of it. Since Bert is 40 years old, he already knows he has a problem and thinks its unreasonable. Usually children wont be capable of noticing because of the lack of cognitive ability.

Therapy: Bert should go through psychotherapy. In psychotherapy the patient is exposed to his fear more and more. Take into effect Bert's fear of germs. The psychotherapist would tell him to sit in the most germified area of his house, most likely would be his bathroom. Everyday he would sit in his bathroom for 10 minutes until he gets comfortable. Then he will have to sit in there for 20, and then 30 minutes. The more time he sits in his bathroom, the more he notices nothing bad will happen. Soon the psychotherapist might make him stick his hand in the sink, and not wash his hands for 10 minutes. OCD is NOT curable, but it can be controlled. The more time and effort Bert puts in, the more he can be closer to living his life.

Bert has gone through his life with OCD. OCD is a major disorder as it makes the patient's life hectic. They go through their day with fear and anxiety. Since OCD is not curable, the patients will have to control it. They go through many medications, and psychotherapy which helps them. As they get closer to controlleing their lives, they start not worrying as much. Knowing this, it would be horrible to live your life always washing your hands up to 15 consecutive times, or tapping your front door 10 times. Someties if you forget that you washed, or tapped already, the patients would start over.