The client in the study seems to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as she experiences the symptoms for several years. This diagnosis is made based on the DSM diagnostic criteria (Paris, 2015). It looks as if the woman experiences stress because she is extremely afraid not to be successful enough. There is a possibility that something adverse has happened when she was not able to control herself. The client has repeated indirect exposure to aversive details of the event and each time she may face a failure she cannot control herself. The client has prolonged distress, as she experiences the symptoms for a long time. Moreover, she claims that she is constantly thinking about the lack of money and inability to pay for the child’s education. Her cognition and mood were also negatively influenced and worsened. She believes that she is likely to lose her job and fail to pay for college. She is also blaming herself for being not good enough even though this vision is distorted. The client experiences fear and anger very often. The things that used to interest her do not look attractive anymore and just cause more negative emotions. For now, she is concentrated on the adversity of events and does not have positive emotions. The client became rather aggressive and irritable. She has problems with concentration and sleeps badly. The woman has had such symptoms for a long time already and suffers from distress because of them (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
The information gained from the conversation is not enough. To make an accurate diagnosis based on the DSM criteria, I would like to ask the client about the trauma she experienced. I might find out what she believes to be the reason for the alterations in the behavior. I can also ask if she recollects traumatic experiences (Friedman, n.d.).
It cannot be denied that the experiences of trauma lead to the development of PTSD in some cases, but, as a rule, this does not happen. Of course, people tend to feel anxious or frustrated after some traumatic event, but such symptoms disappear on their own in a relatively short period of time (less than a month) (England, 2009). Whether a person will suffer from PTSD or not depends on different factors. These can be risk ones: experiencing or being a witness to traumatic events, having a mental illness, feeling fear, receiving no support, coping with entailed stress. The resilience factors are quite the opposite. They include: receiving support from relatives and support groups, having a coping strategy, believing in oneself. These factors can affect a person before or after a traumatic event (National Institute of Mental Health, 2015). Moreover, the severity of trauma plays a great role.
There might be alternative diagnoses for the client in the case study. The symptoms that the woman has are similar to those that follow bipolar disorder or depression with anxious distress. It is reported that her mood changes rather often, which entails a range of other symptoms. The client feels irritable and cannot concentrate because she is constantly worrying. She believes that soon she can lose her job and fail to pay for her daughter’s education. The woman is also afraid that she can lose control and act indecently, which is peculiar to this disorder (Medina, 2015).
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
England, D. (2009). The post-traumatic stress disorder relationship. Avon, MA: Adams Media.
Friedman, M. (n.d.). Trauma and stress-related disorders in DSM-5. Web.
Medina, J. (2015). Additional specifies of bipolar disorder & depression. Web.
National Institute of Mental Health. (2015). Post-traumatic stress disorder. Web.
Paris, J. (2015). The intelligent clinician’s guide to the DSM-5 (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.