Show:
Personality Disorders
Anxiety Disorders
Mood Disorders
Trauma and Stressor Related
Dissociative Disorders
100
John often questions the fidelity of his wife Ellen. He has installed a GPS tracker in her car and cell phone, and often checks her underwear when she returns home from work. He uses the rationale that “women can’t be trusted” to justify his behavior. He is often in disputes with his friends and employs the defense mechanism projection on them, telling them that they are weak, though internally he feels this way about himself, but must maintain a façade in front of others. He believes that showing weakness is to allow others to “take control.”
What is Paranoid Personality Disorder
100
Kristen has had a successful, well-paying career for the past several years in upper management. Even though she has worked for the same company for over 6 years, she has found herself worrying constantly about losing her job and being unable to provide for her children. The worry has been troubling her for the past 8 months. She has found herself feeling restless, tired, and tense. When she goes to bed at night, it’s as if her brain won’t shut off. She finds herself mentally rehearsing all the worse-case scenarios including ending up homeless.
What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder
100
Jessica has struggled lately with significant feelings of worthlessness and shame due to her inability o perform her work as well as she always has in the past. For the past few weeks, Jessica has felt unusually fatigued and found it increasingly difficult to concentrate at work. Her coworkers have noticed that she is often irritable and withdrawn, which is quite different from her typically upbeat and friendly disposition. She has called in sick on several occasions, which is completely unlike her. On those days, she stays in bed all day, watching TV or sleeping.
What is MDD
100
Last year as a sophomore in college, Trisha was raped by an acquaintance after a frat party. Shortly after she dropped out of school and has been living with her parents ever since. She re-experiences the rape on a daily basis and has not been able to venture out to social gatherings due to the anxious and subsequent depressive moods that she feels.
What is PTSD
100
Jessica had an interview for Geico, when she got in front of the building she walks away and leaves her car. She never attended the interview.
What is Dissociative Fugue
200
Mark, a single 48 year old man, prefers to work the third shift as a word processor for a law firm. His co-workers see him as unwaveringly serious and cold. He does not participate in any social functions, and rarely speaks to any of them. He gives short answers to questions and is unlikely to participate in water cooler sessions.
What is Schizoid Personality Disorder
200
Dolores is a 45 year old married mother of a pre-teen. She was admitted to the psychiatric department on an emergency basis after having a nervous breakdown and threatening to commit suicide. 4 days before, she discovered she was 18 weeks pregnant. This was unexpected, and she felt both shocked an despaired due to her belief that she cannot manage another child at her age. The thought of her life being disrupted by a child was too much for her. She became tense and unable to sleep. She had excessive crying spells, and became easily agitated. While meeting with the psychiatrist, she had a clear conscious and did not demonstrate any distorted perceptions or delusions. 2 days after her release from the hospital, she began to calm down, she began planning for the pregnancy and having an optimistic outlook on the addition to the family.
What is Adjustment Disorder
200
You see Jill (age 24) in the emergency room of a hospital where her parents have brought her for evaluation. They are worried because she is giving away all of her possessions and says she is planning to move to Seattle so she can "save the world." Her parents say that she has hardly been sleeping at all, but she seems very energetic. They say she has appeared to be "in a frenzy" lately. When you interview Jill you notice that she speaks very rapidly. It is hard to get her to be quiet long enough for you to ask questions. She seems agitated, and has difficulty sitting still.
What is Bipolar I Disorder
200
Stanley obtained his driver’s license in May. In July he was involved in a three car collision in which a passenger in another vehicle was killed. For two weeks Stanley had vivid memories of the accident and refused to drive. By the beginning of the third week, Stanley was driving again, although he felt some unease behind the wheel the first few times after the accident.
What is Acute Stress Disorder
200
Beverly is a daycare teacher/nanny. But when she wakes in the morning she has provocative clothes on and doesn’t understand why.
What is Dissociative Identity Disorder
300
Cary believes that she is a clairvoyant and can “see” things that others cannot. Although she is an American born Caucasian, she speaks with a heavy West Indian accent. She also believes that she has the mental power to “change” things around her. These beliefs have isolated her from other people, who perceive her to be weird.
What is Schizotypal Personality Disorder
300
Kristen has had a successful, well-paying career for the past several years in upper management. Even though she has worked for the same company for over 6 years, she has found herself worrying constantly about losing her job and being unable to provide for her children. The worry has been troubling her for the past 8 months. She has found herself feeling restless, tired, and tense. When she goes to bed at night, it’s as if her brain won’t shut off. She finds herself mentally rehearsing all the worse-case scenarios including ending up homeless.
What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder
300
Elise is a 35 year old architect. She comes to you in great distress, feeling that she is unable to work, and generally unable to function. She says that she feels tired all the time, to the point of feeling completely exhausted. She says that she cries easily, and almost every day. She is having difficulty sleeping, and has lost 20 pounds in the last 2 months without trying. She says that things have been "real bad" for the last 2 months; she doesn't enjoy doing anything and thinks frequently of suicide. However, she also says that she has never been a very happy person. She says that things rarely go right for her, and she has given up on expecting good things to happen for her.
What is MDD
300
Joanne, age 32, is involved with the first man that really counts in her life. As the couple has become more intimate, Joanne has started to have flashbacks about an uncle who touched her sexually when she was only eight years old. She is distressed to find out that she is shutting down feelings about her boyfriend and distancing herself from him. Although she has been sexual with other men, she says she can’t stand to let herself be sexual with someone she loves and trusts. She startles easily and reports a general increase in anxiety. She is very angry that she has to deal with the feelings about the incidents with her uncle that happened so long ago. She says that she thought she had gotten beyond all that.
What is PTSD
300
Maria was in a car accident and is unable to recall any of the events leading up to the accident. She reports that her memory starts when she sees the red lights of the ambulance.
What is Dissociative Amnesia
400
Shana seems to always be involved in dramatic relationships and situations. She appears to thrive off of these situations. She is often uncomfortable within her group of friends when she is not the center of attention and will often dramatizes her stories in order to command an audience. At times she will also dress provocatively and use sexual suggestions, though when called upon her actions, will appear surprised at being called out.
What is Histrionic Personality Disorder
400
Hannah, age 55, was in a major car accident 20 years ago during a cross country trip. Ever since, she has been unable to drive on major highways. Although she does drive, she goes to great lengths to travel only on back roads and scenic routes. She is able to go where she wants but it often takes her much longer to get there than it should.
What is Specific Phobia
400
A school therapist is asked to evaluate a 10-year-old female student who has been exhibiting irritability, low self-esteem, and distractibility for the last year.
What is Persistent Depressive Disorder
400
A 4-year-old child is brought to therapy by her foster parents. When the therapist enters the waiting room, the child runs up to her, wraps her arms around the therapist’s legs, and says, “Am I going home with you?” The foster parents are embarrassed by this behavior and say, “We’ve only had her for 2 weeks, but she does this with everyone!”
What is Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder
400
Maria was shot in the head and because of it she couldn’t remember her name, family or anything in her past.
What is traumatic brain injury
500
Paula believes that she is the best thing since sliced bread. She believes that she is the smartest student in her class and feels that the professor should recognize her greatness and give her an automatic A just for showing up. She has a secret fear of rejection and loss, so when she received a C in her course, she was completely devastated and complained to the dean about her grade, and trumped up allegations against her professor.
What is Narcissistic Personality Disorder
500
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 attack occurred that she would not leave her house alone or travel on public transportation.
What is Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia
500
A mother brings her 9-year-old son in to see a therapist due to ongoing temper tantrums and outbursts at home and school. The mother reports that the tantrums have been going on for the past two years and that when he isn’t having a tantrum he appears very irritable and angry. The mother tearfully states that these outbursts occur more often than not and that this morning he started aggressively throwing books at the wall after learning that he couldn’t go to a friends house.
What is Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder
500
Dolores is a 45 year old married mother of a pre-teen. She was admitted to the psychiatric department on an emergency basis after having a nervous breakdown and threatening to commit suicide. 4 days before, she discovered she was 18 weeks pregnant. This was unexpected, and she felt both shocked an despaired due to her belief that she cannot manage another child at her age. The thought of her life being disrupted by a child was too much for her. She became tense and unable to sleep. She had excessive crying spells, and became easily agitated. While meeting with the psychiatrist, she had a clear conscious and did not demonstrate any distorted perceptions or delusions. 2 days after her release from the hospital, she began to calm down, she began planning for the pregnancy and having an optimistic outlook on the addition to the family.
What is Adjustment Disorder
500
1. A therapist on an inpatient unit conducts an intake with a 40-year-old man who was transported to the hospital by the police after an altercation in a park. He is unable to provide a medical or social history and reports having no memory before he arrived at the hospital. A police check reveals that he is an executive of a large company in a nearby city who was laid off a few days ago. At the end of his weeklong stay in the hospital, he has recovered his memory.
What is Dissociative Amnesia with Dissociative Fugue