Dysfunctional Attitudes And Postpartum State On Vulnerability

Mental State Examination Of Mr. Chung

Mr. Chung, the 35-year old doctor, has a tearful and a flat mood. The doctor has a sad and restrictive affect due to depression. The patient appears weak as he is slumped in his chair.

Additionally, Mr. Chung has rounded shoulders and stares at the floor for extended periods. His attitude is poor as he has a limited eye to eye contact during the interview. His stressful condition has distracted his attention forcing the interviewers to repeat the questions before getting answers. His speech is slowed as he takes a lot of time to answer questions. The patient also has suicidal thoughts.  Dysfunctional Attitudes And Postpartum State On Vulnerability Essay Paper

The mental health examinations indicate that Mr. Chung has clinical depression. Attitude refers to cooperation or rapport between the interviewee and the interviewers (Dowlati et al., 2014). The interviewing physician examines the approach of the patient towards the questions. The health care professional also gauges the answers from the patient. Mr. Chung is depressed; hence, hesitates to provide solutions for his health status. The weak appearance and round shoulders indicate a state of anxiety and stress. A healthy individual maintains eye contact with the interviewing physician. Therefore, the patient shows abnormality; since he is staring at the floor during the interview. An individual with a slowed speech is depressed and require medical attention (Cummins et al., 2015). The patient has repeated suicidal thoughts and feels hopeless and helpless. The patient has a slowed and a purposeful speech. The patient is depressed due to issues like long working hours.

Depression patients have a depressive mood for days, weeks, or even months. The individuals appear sad and tearful. The patient has a depressive mood as he has a flat and tearful mood. Moreover, Mr. Chung has a restrictive and sad affect. The patients also lose pleasure or interest in daily activities. Depression makes patients lose weight due to lack of proper feeding. Additionally, the patients lose appetite; hence, can go for days without taking their meals (Simmons et al., 2016). The information from Mr. Chung indicates that he has lost five kilos in weight during the past month. He has a reduced appetite and has been missing meals. Insomnia is another symptom of clinical depression. The condition refers to the inability of an individual to sleep or to stay asleep during the sleeping hours. Mr. Chung has been experiencing sleeplessness in the past six weeks. He has insomnia and early morning wakefulness at 3 am.

Major Depression Symptoms (DSM-V)

The patients with depression are always fatigued on a daily basis. Chung shows a feeling of tiredness by slumping into his chair during the interview. Depression causes victims to feel worthless in the family or society (Jeon et al., 2014). Mr. Chung thinks that he is responsible for the failure of his medical role at work. He also feels guilty about the condition of the wife and the child thinking that he is responsible for their pain. Depression patients have recurrent suicidal thoughts. The patient has been experiencing fleeting thoughts of suicide for the last week. He is hopeless and helpless and wants to die.

The vulnerability is the susceptibility of an individual towards mental disorders. Persons can have a high or low vulnerability towards the diseases (Hamilton, Stange, Abramson, & Alloy, 2015). Highly vulnerable people cannot withstand excessive stress levels whereas lowly vulnerable individuals can cope with too much stress. Mr. Chung is highly sensitive as he cannot face and conquer elevated levels of stress. An individual’s genetic makeup and life experiences dictate the levels of vulnerability. People with a family history of depression are highly vulnerable to the mental disorder. Additionally, undesirable past experiences can also increase the stress vulnerability. Stress and biological vulnerability are the two components of SVM. Protective factors form the third part of SVM.

Stress triggers or worsens a mental disorder such as depression. Weight is any occurrence that challenges an individual; hence, requiring an immediate adaptation (Qin et al., 2015). The first source of stress for Chung comes at his place of work. He committed a drug error by applying intravenous drug administration where the appropriate route was an intramuscular injection. His long working hours is another source of stress as he has little time with his family. The patient also found his wedding to be emotionally difficult due to the way the event took place.

Mr. Chung felt that the wedding lacked reference to his Chinese culture. The complication during the birth of Charlotte is a source of stress. The Caesarean section procedure has left Harriett with an infection. Therefore, the wife is in pain from the point of birth. Chung also has little time with his daughter due to his long working hours. Stress increases the biological vulnerability towards depression. The state also escalates the symptoms of the mental disease. Therefore, Chung experiences several symptoms such as insomnia and suicidal thoughts. Extreme levels of stress can cause a dangerous relapse.

Stress Vulnerability Model (SVM)

The intensity of mental disorders also occurs due to biological vulnerabilities. The tendency or physiological conditions can make an individual to develop depression (Nixon et al., 2014). Individuals have different levels of susceptibility to diseases. Biological factors at the early stages of development determine an individual’s vulnerability to infections. Additionally, genetic factors are also determinants of disorders. However, Ms. Chung’s depression is not due to genetic or biological factors. His condition originates from the stress at work and home. The patient can rectify his depressive situation by taking appropriate medications. However, the patient should not take drugs or alcohol as a remedy for depression.

Protective factors lower an individual’s stress and biological vulnerability. The factors include appropriate medication and proper coping skills (Ford, Klibert, Tarantino, & Lamis, 2017).  Medications reduce the impacts of the depressive symptoms. The drugs also prevent the re-occurrence of symptoms such as suicidal thoughts. Coping skills are problem-solving techniques and proper communication between the patient and the family members. Friends and family members of Chung should help him develop skills of relaxation. The parents of Harriet should allow Chung to have time with the daughter and his wife. Furthermore, the hospital should reduce the number of hours that the doctor spends at the hospital.

Individuals can recover from their mental health status when stakeholders put specific considerations in place. The society should respect individuals with mental disorders as the victims are like any other patient. The aspect of ridiculing victims only worsens their situation and symptoms. Therefore, the society should involve the victims in decision-making processes. The friends and family members should also give hope to the victims. They should socialize with the victims and cheer them up. Relatives of the patients should tell them that they can recover from the condition. Empowerment is another pillar of the recovery model (Slade et al., 2014). Family members of the stressed individuals should purchase appropriate medication to the patients. Patients should share their experiences to obtain assistance from friends and relatives.

Respect and identity are fundamental aspects of the recovery model. The family members should help Mr. Chung to develop coping strategies. The strategies include self-hope and self-management. People should listen and obey the recovery choices of the patient (Corrigan et al., 2016). The patient can either chose psychotherapy or medication or both remedies to recover from depression. The physicians should also respect the wish of the patient by delivering the best medicine. However, the doctor must enlighten the patient about the types of remedies and their side effects. The parents of Harriett should respect the wish of Mr. Chung and allow him to have time with his daughter and family members. The hospital should also reduce the number of hours that the doctor spent at the workstation.

Mental Health Recovery Model

Empowerment is the second pillar of the model. The component requires the stakeholders to create a positive environment that speeds up the process of recovery (Kidd, McKenzie, & Virdee, 2014). The hospital management should offer enough income to enable Mr. Chung to solve his family matters. Sufficient amount of money assists him to treat the infection of his wife. The Australian government should create a mental health care unit in all health facilities. The psychological care should be free and accessible to all the victims. Empowerment decreases the mental and social impacts of depression. Moreover, an empowered individual develops confidence and can make independent decisions on health issues. Health stakeholders should train victims on how to overcome prejudice and social stigma due to their conditions. Therefore, empowerment speeds up recovery from depression.

Hope is another critical element of the model. Family members should help Chung to find hope in achieving recovery from depression. Additionally, the friends should assist him to nurture the new-found confidence. Hope refers to a feeling of optimism about a situation or a future occurrence (Marino, 2015). Mr. Chung should believe that all is well and erase the suicidal thoughts from his mind. He should be willing to tolerate and persevere the setbacks and uncertainty on his road to recovery. Hope usually begins at a specific turning point; however, it may start and develop at a slow pace. The relative has the responsibility of ensuring that mental health patients gain hope and nurture the feeling. Vital elements of faith include failure, disappointment, and trust.

References

Corrigan, P. W., Bink, A. B., Schmidt, A., Jones, N., & Rüsch, N. (2016). What is the impact of self-stigma? Loss of self-respect and the “why try” effect. Journal of Mental Health, 25(1), 10-15.

Cummins, N., Scherer, S., Krajewski, J., Schnieder, S., Epps, J., & Quatieri, T. F. (2015). A review of depression and suicide risk assessment using speech analysis. Speech Communication, 71, 10-49.

Dowlati, Y., Segal, Z. V., Ravindran, A. V., Steiner, M., Stewart, D. E., & Meyer, J. H. (2014). Effect of dysfunctional attitudes and postpartum state on vulnerability to depressed mood. Journal of affective disorders, 161, 16-20.

Ford, J., Klibert, J. J., Tarantino, N., & Lamis, D. A. (2017). Savouring and Self?compassion as Protective Factors for Depression. Stress and Health, 33(2), 119-128.

Hamilton, J. L., Stange, J. P., Abramson, L. Y., & Alloy, L. B. (2015). Stress and the development of cognitive vulnerabilities to depression explain sex differences in depressive symptoms during adolescence. Clinical Psychological Science, 3(5), 702-714.

Jeon, H. J., Park, J. I., Fava, M., Mischoulon, D., Sohn, J. H., Seong, S., … & Cho, M. J. (2014). Feelings of worthlessness, traumatic experience, and their comorbidity concerning lifetime suicide attempt in community adults with the major depressive disorder. Journal of affective disorders, 166, 206-212.

Kidd, S. A., McKenzie, K. J., & Virdee, G. (2014). Mental health reform at a systems level: widening the lens on recovery-oriented care. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 59(5), 243-249.

Marino, C. K. (2015). To belong, contribute, and hope First stage development of a measure of social recovery. Journal of Mental Health, 24(2), 68-72.

Nixon, N. L., Liddle, P. F., Nixon, E., Worwood, G., Liotti, M., & Palaniyappan, L. (2014). Biological vulnerability to depression: linked structural and functional brain network findings. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 204(4), 283-289.

Qin, Z., Zhou, X., Pandey, N. R., Vecchiarelli, H. A., Stewart, C. A., Zhang, X., … & Hill, M. N. (2015). Chronic stress induces anxiety via an amygdalar intracellular cascade that impairs endocannabinoid signaling. Neuron, 85(6), 1319-1331.

Simmons, W. K., Burrows, K., Avery, J. A., Kerr, K. L., Bodurka, J., Savage, C. R., & Drevets, W. C. (2016). Depression-related increases and decreases in appetite: dissociable patterns of aberrant activity in reward and interoceptive neurocircuitry. American Journal of Psychiatry, 173(4), 418-428.  Dysfunctional Attitudes And Postpartum State On Vulnerability Essay Paper