Hypochondriac Case Study Essay

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Case Study #1 Analysis

Case Study #1
Dave woke up early one April morning feeling good. While eating his usual breakfast he noticed in the newspaper that a run was being held on Memorial Day to raise money for a charity. Although he hadn't run much in two years, he decided that he would participate in the event and that he would begin training for it that very morning. Dave felt really winded after three miles, but pushed himself to run two more. When he got home, he was sweating profusely, his heart was pounding, and his legs felt shaky and slightly numb. Fearing that he was having a heart attack, Dave began to hyperventilate and had a panic attack that lasted for approximately 20 minutes. Dave went to his doctor and was assured that …show more content…
It is a learned sensitivity with a possible variety of causes. What Dave likely began experiencing is anxiety sensitivity. Every time he overexerted himself and felt these body signals that a normal person would interpret as exhaustion or similar, he perceived them as signs that he was in severe physical harm. This would inhibit him from doing things that might cause this body signal and keep him from doing things he normally enjoys, such as a marathon.
My diagnosis would be that Dave has a mild case of Hypochondriasis. He is interpreting these normal exertion-based body signals as danger signals that something major like a heart attack is occurring. He lacks the ability to rational understand where those body signals are actually coming from.
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Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. It is the displeasing feeling of fear and concern. In either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness, and dread. Anxiety is considered to be a normal reaction to a stressor. It may help an individual to deal with a demanding situation by prompting them to cope with it. - From Wikipedia
Panic attacks are periods of intense fear or apprehension that are of sudden onset and of variable duration of minutes to hours. Panic attacks usually begin abruptly, may reach a peak within 10 minutes, but
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