The client is a 25-years old White male, homosexual, currently single. He has a medical history of having a severe case of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis for 10 years, as well as clinical depression and anxiety for about 6 years. He is currently being treated for depression and anxiety by a certified psychiatrist; however, he does not receive any medical help for his psoriasis or arthritis. As the client himself has stated, he takes Quetiapine and Sertraline for his depression, and Alprazolam for anxiety.
The client’s assessment first included a verbal consultation to determine his current condition and potential areas of work. After it, the client had taken the anxiety self-assessment questionnaire – it helped determine the severity of the symptoms and the presence of specific signs of other comorbidities. According to Baker et al. (2019), “the Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire (ASQ) is a brief self-report questionnaire which measures frequency and intensity of symptoms” (p. 1). This assessment showed that the client indeed suffers from both anxiety and depression, and that his current medication has little effect on him.
The first nursing intervention worked well on the client: after discussing his experiences with panic and anxiety attacks, he was taught to recognize potential triggers and avoid them. The client was rather self-aware and constantly analyzed his reactions to the external environment in real life, which is why this method worked on him. Another nursing intervention was not so effective: providing reassurance and comfort measures to the client only caused him discomfort. As he himself explained, he is not used to positive affirmation due to low self-esteem, and his family experiences also point to the fact that he was not comforted often as a child. As a result, he feels insecure about his reactions, and thus, cannot cope with his emotions, which only serves to increase his anxiety.
The client stated that he listens to music often, so the first stress reduction technique I proposed was relaxation to music. It worked well on him, as he was able to channel his emotions into songs’ lyrics and work through them in a healthy way. Meditation, however, was not effective for him as a way to reduce stress – the client could not free his mind from thoughts, and his multiple thinking processes constantly took over the forced calmness. In the end, it only brought him more frustration. as he could not complete any of his meditations.
Reference
Baker, A., Simon, N., Keshaviah, A., Farabaugh, A., Deckersbach, T., Worthington, J. J., Hoge, E., Fava, M., & Pollack, M. P. (2019). Anxiety symptoms questionnaire (ASQ): Development and validation. General Psychiatry, 32(6).