The patient, a 16-year-old male high school student, presents with worsening compulsions, he can no longer enter through a doorway without touching the top of the door casing and excessively grooms his hair because it has to be “just right”. Both of these compulsions place considerable stress on the patient and results in a loss of time throughout the day. Upon speaking to his mother to ascertain a time line for when the compulsions began, she stated that she had noticed his compulsion as early as 12-years of age, but they were not causing stress and time lost was minimal. She did make comments that in recent months her son had seemed “not himself” and often slept for very long periods. During the primary interview with the patient, the patient agreed with his mother’s comments and mainly attributed his altered mood to a breakup that occurred at the same time as the increased compulsions and sleep/wake alterations.
In order to determine the origin of the compulsions the patient was asked to recall a certain event …show more content…
Since the patient first recalls his compulsions as “good luck charms” for competing in athletic events, I believe that his compulsive behavior stems from the behavioral perspective of psychology. In which they state that that people happen upon their compulsions quite randomly when they coincidentally coincide with a reduction of fear/stress in a high stakes situation (Comer, 2010). Utilizing this psychological perspective, I believe that the best course of actions would be to begin exposure and ritual therapy immediately. This therapy requires the patient to be subjected anxiety-arousing thoughts/situations that would normally illicit the compulsion, the patient will then be prevented from completing the task and be shown that completing these tasks are not the source of his good performances in difficult
In order to determine the origin of the compulsions the patient was asked to recall a certain event …show more content…
Since the patient first recalls his compulsions as “good luck charms” for competing in athletic events, I believe that his compulsive behavior stems from the behavioral perspective of psychology. In which they state that that people happen upon their compulsions quite randomly when they coincidentally coincide with a reduction of fear/stress in a high stakes situation (Comer, 2010). Utilizing this psychological perspective, I believe that the best course of actions would be to begin exposure and ritual therapy immediately. This therapy requires the patient to be subjected anxiety-arousing thoughts/situations that would normally illicit the compulsion, the patient will then be prevented from completing the task and be shown that completing these tasks are not the source of his good performances in difficult