The Psychological Treatment Plan

Background.

Julia is a 17-year-old girl, a first-year student in college, and is experiencing difficulty relating to others. She grew up in a northeastern suburb town. This girl is experiencing eating disorders, affecting her both socially, emotionally, and physically. She has gained extra 15lbs, and this has significantly affected her involvement in track and cross-country involvement. Her coach advised her to change her diet and watch on junk food she was consuming. Her coach, herself, and teammates’ pressure led her to diet, which would later bring her problems since she was overdoing. The school Dean instructed her to seek professional counseling help; she also experienced pressure from her roommate and mother. Her coping skills are currently not working for her; she is avoiding her family members, roommate, and friends. She has insomnia tough; she is in self-denial about the extent of her problem. Due to this, she started lying to the family and looking for excuses not to go home for a holiday. She has low esteem, and I hypothesize that she has Anorexia Nervosa, severe anxiety disorder, along with insecurity issues. Anorexia nervosa is often detected when a person’s life is hampered due to their behavior around food constraint (which leads to starvation), a persistent preoccupation over body image, and an undesirable mental state connected with these matters.

Behaviorally Defined Symptoms

behavioral indicators can be said to be insistent behaviors that appear strange, disorderly, unsuitable, or cause hitches; they may include hostility, criminal behavior, rebelliousness, substance abuse, unsuitable sexual behavior self-harm, among others.

Some of the behaviorally defined symptoms that Julia exhibited include;

Not able to maintain body weight for her age and height
She had lots of fears of gaining weight and getting fat if though she was underweight
She had a consistent preoccupation with her body image relating to erroneous valuation of her being overweight
Constantly evaluation her self-based on her weight and shape
Persistent denial of her current low body weight
.Telling lies about her eating habits, she would seclude herself to an isolated table or eat inside her room alone.
Not being truthful about the food she was consuming
Partisan view of body shape or weight, for example, Julia sometimes would think she was overweight when she was underweight; she would even go-ahead to wear oversized clothes.
The person thinks they are overweight when they are underweight.
Hardly thing on anything else but food
A strict diet contributed to her severe weight loss.
Finding it difficult to think about anything other than food.
Strict dieting. Severe weight loss
Emotions that reflected anger that turned inwards toward the self.

Define the client’s presenting problem(s) and provide a diagnostic impression.

Presenting problem(s) can be defined as the first symptom that a client presents to warrant seeking medical or professional help. In Julia’s case, pressure from family, friends, roommate, and cross- country coach pushed her to seek professional health. They were concerned about her persistent weight loss, eating disorder, and persistent isolation from people, especially when eating.

A diagnostic impression is used to determine the problem (s) that may affect the patient before treatment management strategies of the patients that would be best for the patient in question. They describe the client’s problems broadly rather than be specific.

Julia’s Diagnostic impression- she has a maladaptive pattern of trying to please her parents and others at her own expense. She would work hard in her studies and sports to please her parents. She also joined sports to shed baby fats because she thought she was chubby; she felt bad about her body weight. Her feeling was that no matter how she tried, she could not meet the Golden standard hence her low self-esteem. Again, her parents were not very nurturing as they had an authoritative parenting style; this style was domineering, always checking on her whereabouts when she was not at home.

Identify how the problem(s) is/are evidenced in the client’s behavior.

Weight loss was evident due to restricting food intake; this significant weight loss was far below her age and height.

Julia was doing excessive exercise that would see her persistently lose her weight.

Insomnia

Anxiety disorders-lack of enough sleep, anxiety related to her academic performance and field events

Loose clothing as she still believed she was chubby

List the client’s cognitive and behavioral symptoms.

Julia had a subjective binge eating, where she felt out of control and took minimal foods.

She also had a habit of eating in the same place, such as in her room or an isolated area in the dining hall.

She religiously avoided social eating by giving an excuse every time not to eat with others.

Julia also has a habit of wearing baggy clothes to hide her body in those clothes.

She usually lied about eating by saying that she had eaten when she has not.

Spending more time reading as a challenge to concentration reduces efficiency.

She had a habit of avoiding certain forbidden food like junk foods, sweets, and any food that would make her add weight.

Cognitive symptoms

Julia was obsessed with food; she would keep on googling to find the food to reduce weight.

Strict rules would mean that she needed to adhere to maintaining her weight, for instance, sticking to salad and avoiding junk foods completely. In a situation where she could not adhere to the rule, she felt so bad about it.

Her obsession extended beyond food; for instance, her strictness was extended even in her studies.

She had difficulty in concentrating and even in making a decision.

She was in denial that she had a problem she sought professional help because of her family. Friend, her couch, and her roommate pressured her.

She was ego-syntonic as she saw her symptoms as free will other than disorder symptoms.

All these symptoms made her anti-social as she was emotionally stressed as she always felt that she was overly overweight.