PS526AB

Introduction

Many are the times when terrorism leaves people with no option but to always worry about what will happen next. Also, some of the terrorist attacks may leave some people in shock and as a result, the individuals may not heal fully. Even though someone’s personality matters and the event may occur and make the person change drastically and even living in fear of factors that are not real this is according to Gray, (1987). One’s personality may defend him from doing certain activities or even learn some of the courses that are relevant to life. In this case analysis, the patient chosen is Alison who is 33 years old. She lives in fear and more so she is afraid of some factors that may be considered to be necessities such as driving. In this case analysis, we shall consider her experiences in life as well as the social and personal life. Many are the times when we consider the fear to be part of the personality, but we fail to understand that it is heightened by events in life.

The reason as to why I have chosen this case study is because it goes hand in hand with some of the aspects of psychology. Also at the beginning of the text, Alison admits that she needs to see a psychologist due to her behaviour of anxiety which she had managed to control for long. She worries about being the next target of the terrorist attacks. What is even worse is that she considers herself to be part of the situation and what would occur to her. She is always worried and more so not only of one issue but also many and what happens is that at the end she feels exhausted and overwhelmed. A good instance is when she had that cancer can be caused by smoking, and since her mother was a smoker, she becomes worried that she might die. Also, she starts to worry about the rest of the family members since they are passive smokers. Worrying about the family members and her mother was intense for her and as a result, she was overwhelmed.

Another instance is when she was afraid of driving and even after she learned how to drive she was involved in two accidents. This is contributed by fear, and more so she is anxious about everything. It is out of this anxiety and fear that she has difficulties when it comes to sleeping, she cannot fall asleep on her own, thoughts race in her mind and as a result, it takes long before she can fall asleep. The worrying condition did not start while she was grown up, it started when she was young, and she would walk around the house to check if all the appliances have been unplugged. Also, she did not have friends while growing up; her parents were not close to her and if anything, she felt that the father was distant.

With such situations, then she was in a position to trust anyone, and therefore she would not be involved in any romantic relationship. How a person is brought up may determine a lot, Allison developed this fear due to her mother telling her how the world is dangerous. Her mother was suffering from agro-phobia, and it is out of this that she told her of how the world was dangerous, and even she was showing terrible things especially if caution was not taken. The surrounding contributed and as a result Allison developed anxiety that she could not control.

Her social life is not surrounded by friends, on the other hand, her siblings were totally different. The first were boys and due to this then the relationship between them was cold, her last born sister does not care, and therefore the two are in different worlds. Living with the fear that something will happen is not pleasing at all if anything the outcome is not pleasing both to you and the people at the workplace. Since she is not having the expected sleeping time, then she may affect her health and more so when she becomes worried she gets worked up.

Summary

Growing up calls for sacrifice from the parents as well as interacting with some of the friends who are of the same age. However with Allison things were different, she felt that her father was distant, and it is out of this that she was not in a position to express what she feel to him. Also, she did not have friends and thus she could not share her world with anyone which contributed to her state of anxiety and fear. When she was an adult, she even started dating a pilot since he would understand her anxiety. However, the man crushed her world by breaking up with her after she had moved to Seattle. All this shows how much she has been disappointed and as a result, then she was fully disappointed.

Conclusion

When it comes to both physically and emotionally, fear poses a huge threat and more so it may be due to bad experiences in life (Sinclair, & Antonius, 2012). In this case study, Allison is anxious about everything in life, starting from the assuming issues such as what would happen if she is involved in an attack. She may have been in a position to hide all that for long but currently she needs to see a psychologist, through that way she will be helped and therefore she may continue working as well as control her anxiety. Since she is an adult, she may take care of herself, unlike when she was young, therefore she may manage her anxiety especially after visiting the psychologist.

References

Gray, J. (1987). The psychology of fear and stress. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press.

Sinclair, S. & Antonius, D. (2012). The psychology of terrorism fears. New York: Oxford University Press.