Psychological Disorders Essay

1. Does Katherine’s description meet the clinical criteria for a panic attack? Substantiate your  answer. A panic attack is described as an unexpected period wherein the person suffers intense fear that occurs without warning or any reason.   It is characterized by shortness of breath, palpitations, chest discomfort, trembling, choking feeling, intense sweating, nausea, dizziness, feelings of being detached from oneself, fear of going crazy, dying fears, numbness, and cold or hot flashes.   For an episode to be considered a panic attack, the person has to meet four of the symptoms.   In Katherine’s case, she described four of the symptoms to having a panic attack.   She said that she felt dizzy, had difficulty breathing, was feeling nauseous, and felt like she was detached from herself.   From this, I believe Katherine had a panic attack. 2. Does Katherine meet the criteria for a dissociative disorder? Explain. Dissociative disorders are related to anxiety disorders in the sense that they are also reactions to stress and anxiety factors.   A dissociative person often exhibits changes or losses in consciousness, memory, identity or environmental perception.   In this case, the anxiety factor is clearly the visit to the parents’ house.   For some unknown reason, the visit awakened buried memories.   Although Katherine did not exhibit memory loss or shift, she experienced a change of perception in her environment. Based on how Katherine described her symptoms, I believe she’s suffering from a dissociative disorder.   Although Katherine does not display the usual memory loss and split  personality symptoms typical of dissociative disorders, she has, however, described that she felt  separated from her physical self, like she was outside looking in.   She said that even if she was aware of driving the car, Katherine also felt like a different being who was just looking at another being driving the car.   This seems to be a case of Depersonalization disorder. 3. What other disorders does Katherine appear to have? Analyze. It’s not clear whether Katherine was abused at a young age.   But based from the way Katherine pictured her father coming up from behind her to assault her, it would seem that a similar event had occurred to her in the past.   Either her father did the same to her as a child, or a man who resembles her father or has qualities similar to her father had done the same to her.   As a result Katherine developed an acute stress disorder long after the traumatic event occurred. She went into panic on her way to her parents’ house.   Apparently, the drive to her parents triggered unpleasant feelings.   Perhaps the assault on her person happened in her parents’ house or in the nearby vicinity.   Her avoidance of her parents, her admission of feeling estranged from them, and not letting them know about her plans support this assumption.   Katherine uses avoidance to keep the panic attack at bay.   Her avoidance is typical of others who are suffering from acute stress disorder.   Katherine’s troubled sleep, irritability, and nightmares are the result of a traumatic event that she probably has buried in her consciousness.