Mental Health Case
Patricia is a 44-year-old female who reports that she has periods of time 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 Priscilla. Patricia thinks that this is odd because she does not drink, and she is a rather shy and retiring person. However, the man had her correct telephone number and was able to give a good physical description of her. View more instructions on creating a mental health assessment
Dissociative Identity Disorder –
Assessment
This analysis will be based on case 4, where the patient reports not remembering events that she participated in under different identity. The patient receives a call from a stranger who claims to have met her in bar for a party. According to Patricia, she does not drink, and thus she could not have been in that party. However, the physical description given to her by the stranger matches hers and the phone number given is her. The patient is in the clinic due to amnesia, whereby she reports that she has periods of time where she cannot recall what she has done or major life events she participated in.
Patricia current symptoms include amnesia, where she forgets about her daily occurrences, and multiple identities or personalities. The patient does not seem to have historical details about her condition, only that the episodes of amnesia have been reported severally. The current condition can be somehow stressful to deal with and to manage individual daily life functions. The condition is likely to affect individual social life and relation with other people in the society (Ringrose, 2012). The fact that one can act differently with similar people, give two identity to similar people can result to distrust. Some may even interpret it as con business, especially based on the fact that the person involved cannot remember anything regarding his or her behavior when acting with a different identity. Another major issue is that condition can result to legal issues since one can do illegal thing when in possession of a different identity without realizing it, and suffer while in the normal identity. The condition can also result to stereotyping and isolation in the society which can increase mental distress and maybe initiating self-harm behaviors (Ringrose, 2012).
The specific diagnosis for Patricia is Dissociative Identity Disorder previously known as multiple personality disorder. This is a condition which has dissociation central features in normal integrated functions of perception, identity, memory, and consciousness. The condition main symptoms include presence of more than one personality or identities, each with unique pattern of relating and interpreting to the environment (APA, 2013). Patricia recorded two identities as Patricia and as Priscilla. She also recorded two personality as a cool none-party person without alcohol taking record, and as a hyper party-bee with alcohol taking as part of lifestyle. Another possible symptom for this condition is amnesia, which limits how much an individual can recall about daily occurrences and traumatic events (APA, 2013). In this case, Patricia reports several cases of forgetting daily occurrences including the last party incident. This condition is found in the general class of Dissociative Disorders, where the central characteristic of these conditions is dissociation (APA, 2013).
I would recommend the patient to go through a psychiatric assessment to determine the condition scale and start a treatment plan based on the identified scale. The provided treatment plan should start by assisting the patient to accept the diagnosis. The provided treatment plan will focus on enable her to manage her condition, by controlling her changing emotions (Ringrose, 2012). The patient needs treatment for dissociative identity disorder which is mostly done through provision of therapeutic measures, or a combination of pharmacological treatment and therapeutic treatment in severe cases. Some of the therapeutic measures that the psychologist may consider during treatment include psychodynamic therapy and cognitive therapy (Ringrose, 2012).
Individuals suffering from various mental conditions need understanding and support from the family members, especially when their condition can result to self-harm or poor life management. In this particular case, I would engage the family in supporting Patricia during her treatment. The family members should observe closely to identify the trigger to the patient condition and try to suppress them in the future. They should also be there to ensure that Patricia comply with the treatment plan and also to support her while experiencing society judgment and stereotyping (Ringrose, 2012).
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