Abnormal Diagnostic Manual

Agoraphobia 03

About three-quarters of patients with agoraphobia are women, and most of them occur between the ages of 18 and 35. It is quite rare for people as old as Grandma Song to suffer from this disease.The most effective way to treat agoraphobia is exposure therapy, and elderly people like Grandma Song probably can't handle it. Besides, it's fine if Grandma Song doesn't want to go out. There is really no need to force the elderly to go out if they are accompanied by family members It would be nice to be able to walk a little bit, so it was only fitting that the doctor who prescribed anti-panic drugs for the old lady should do so.

Exposure therapy, also known as flooding therapy (Flooding Therapy), is just the opposite of systematic desensitization therapy.Exposure therapy does not require any relaxation training, but instead involves "panic" training, which familiarizes the patient with the symptoms of a panic attack.

For example, in order to find the feeling of dizziness, shake the head from one side to the other for 30 seconds; in order to find the feeling of muscle tension, weakness or twitching, tense the whole body for 1 minute or as long as possible, tense the arms, legs, abdomen and back , shoulders, face and other parts, keep the push-up position for 1 minute and so on.

The next step is to ask the patient to face up to his inner fears. From the beginning, let the patient enter the situation that scares him the most.Generally, imagination is used to encourage the patient to imagine the scene that scares him the most, or the psychologist repeatedly and tirelessly tells the details of the scene he fears the most, or shows the scene that scares the patient the most with video or slide show. In order to deepen the anxiety of the patient, the patient is not allowed to take evasive measures such as covering ears, closing eyes, and crying.

Under repeated fear stimuli, the patient will experience autonomic nervous system reactions such as increased heartbeat, dyspnea, pale complexion, and cold extremities due to anxiety and tension. subsided.Or directly bring the patient into the situation he fears the most. After re-experience, he feels that it is nothing special, and the patient gradually loses his fear.

Although exposure therapy takes a short time and solves the problem more simply, it has a great impact on the patient's body and mind, so it must be used with caution.This method cannot be applied to patients with weak constitution, heart disease, high blood pressure and weak endurance to avoid accidents.

For agoraphobic patients, exposure therapy involves forcing them to go out of the house alone and spend some time in an open space.For example, go out alone for 10 minutes, shop alone in the supermarket for 30 minutes, take the subway for one stop during rush hour alone, go to the cinema alone, etc.

When using exposure therapy, the psychologist should explain to the patient that the anxiety caused by exposure therapy is harmless, and the patient is not allowed to have avoidance behavior, otherwise the fear will be aggravated and the treatment will fail.

At the same time, patients should be supplemented with rational emotional therapy, aiming at the patient's "heart knot" to enlighten the patient so that they no longer feel fear.

In the treatment of Grandma Song, it is necessary to enlighten the source of the catastrophic thoughts in Grandma Song's heart.

Grandma Song's husband died in a car accident that year. The two of them went out to take a car together. When the accident happened, Grandpa Song protected Grandma Song. Grandma Song survived. Grandpa Song passed away. son.

Since then, this little brother has become a taboo topic at home. For 30 years, no one dared to mention it in front of the old lady, so the little granddaughter Song Yi didn't even know the existence of this little uncle.

But this became the old lady's knot.Grandma Song thought it was all her fault, that she was in bad luck, and since then she was reluctant to go out, fearing that it would bring disaster to her children.And it happened that the eldest son also crashed into a car this time, and the old lady suffered from panic attacks. Such an unlucky coincidence, no matter how strong a person is, can't stand it. If nothing serious happened to the eldest son, Grandma Song might have to It fell down all of a sudden.

Qi Yu advised the Song family to enlighten the old lady too much, and not to avoid talking about the death of their youngest son. Some emotions should always be vented. People have misfortunes and blessings, and this is not the old lady's fault.In addition, let the old lady also have some understanding of panic attacks, understand what panic attacks are, how to deal with them, and don't feel panic and fear.

And don't let the old lady alone at ordinary times, you need to ask a caregiver to take care of her at all times.

Song Yi admired Qi Yu so much.

Qi Yu was not interested in the little girl's admiring eyes, because there was a guest at home.

Zhou Nan came to the door with a gift on the sixth day of the lunar new year.

He and Li Wan finally achieved a positive result.Moreover, it still looks quite serious.After all, Li Wan's ex-boyfriend never had the opportunity to step into the door of Li's family, let alone the elders of the older generation.

Zhou Nan dressed up very energetically. The old lady liked him very much when she heard that he was a people's policeman. She chatted non-stop. When did the two meet, what are their plans in the future, and when are they going to get married? They were all red, and Zhou Nan happily answered them one by one.

Qi Yu is happy to see the results, Li Wan is more thoughtful, Zhou Nan has a strong sense of justice, and is an optimist, the two of them are very suitable together.