Social Anxiety Disorder

Social Anxiety Disorder

Case Study 5: A 28-year-old woman is a rising junior executive in her investment company. Her increasing duties require her to make periodic formal presentations to the senior management of the company. However, she becomes intensely anxious at the thought of speaking in public. When she is forced to give a presentation she begins to feel anxious days in advance of the talk and the anxiety increases as the time for the talk approaches. She is concerned that her anxiety will become noticeable during the talk or that she will do something to embarrass herself.

The patient suffers from Social Phobia or Social Anxiety Disorder. This is characterized by the anxiety and stress of having to perform in certain social situations. People with this disorder also have intense fear of embarrasing themselves in front of others or strangers and not meeting their level of expectations. At times, this fear may be so intense that sufferers will begin to have anxiety days, weeks, or even months before the event is even scheduled to happen. Some patients will even go to great lengths just to avoid the situation all together and to avoid the embarassment they will feel. The patient will have a difficult time at her job because she will constantly have to make speeches in front of others that she does not know and the fear that others will know that she is nervous and the fear of being judged by others may keep her from being able to perform these speeches if she does not receive therapy. A good and successful method of therapy for social anxiety disorder is cognitive-behavioral therapy. With this therapy, relaxtion techniques and certain breathing exercises are taught so as to control the physical symptoms of the disorder. Also, patients are taught to slowly and gradually face their fears instead of avoiding them. The patient could also go through social skills training that will help her learn how to speak in front of others and feel confident while doing so. Through this technique of practicing until feeling comfortable, eventually the patient will overcome her anxiety and be able to perform well at her job.







http://www.mindsite.com/dsm_iv/social_phobia
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/social_anxiety_support_symptom_causes_treatment.htm

Ludwig van Beethoven and Bipolar Disorder

Ludwig van Beethoven

Many famous people suffer from psychological disorders that affect their life either negatively or, at times, the disorders contribute to their success and genius. Ludwig van Beethoven is known for his exceptional gift for composing beautiful music which contrasts to his difficult life at home. Beethoven not only suffered from deafness, but he also suffered from bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is characterized by the shifting between emotional extremes. Sufferers of this disorder go from extreme mania to extreme depression at unexpecting times and cannot explain why they vary moods so often.

Beethoven endured a difficult family life. His father was very abusive, but although this was so, Beethoven's father also taught him continuously about music after he saw that Beethoven took an interest in it at an early age. At this young age, before he even became a teenager, Beethoven had already produced his first work. Beethoven went on to produce sveral more symphonies and operas and other musical creations, while he suffered from bipolar disorder. As he got older, the disease began to affect him more and more. Beethoven often pondered suicide, a common symptom of bipolar disorder, but he also wished for more days like the ones where he experienced mania, or extreme happiness. This mania allowed him to work harder and produce more works because it brought him optimism and confidence and boosted his creativity level. Although Beethoven had days of joy he also had days of extreme depression as characterized by bipolar disorder, which caused him to have rocky relationships because of his explosive arguments and delusions. Eventually, after fighting a cold and other health problems, Beethoven died on March 26, 1827 in the company of his friends.



Although bipolar disorder is a very serious mental disorder and during the times of Beethoven there was not much relief for the victims, I believe that now it is manageable disease. Bipolar disorder may be difficult to deal with at times because of the altering moods experienced and the feelings of extreme depression, but with the help of medicine and medical advances, it is possible to lead a fairly normal life and one can have a much better outllok on life than ones suffering from bipolar disorder in earlier times had.

http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyLudwig.html
http://www.mcmanweb.com/beethoven.html