Clinical Reasoning Cycle, Case Study of Alison

Running Head: CLINICAL REASONING CYCLE, CASE STUDY OF ALISON
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Clinical Reasoning Cycle, Case Study of Alison
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CLINICAL REASONING CYCLE, CASE STUDY OF ALISON
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Clinical Reasoning Cycle, Case Study of Alison
Considering the situation of the patient
The case study presents an interview with Alison who is a 38-year-old woman who has
visited the GP with feelings of being fed up with life. Alison has revealed that she was referred
to the GP by her sister after she observed her peculiar behaviors. Alison is a single mother with
two children, one at the age of eleven while the other at the age of nine. Career-wise Alison has
revealed that she works in a supermarket. Alison has reported that she was divorced some four
years ago and that it was the first time to go through similar feelings. Alison has also explained
that she has a boyfriend by the name Dave whom she met at the workplace.
Collecting Cues
Alison has revealed that her first encounter with similar experiencing was when her
husband left her. Although four years ago, she has narrated that the experience made her attempt
harming herself (Fried & Nesse, 2015). As she has revealed, the situation motivated her to take
an overdose of paracetamol hoping that the following day she would have died. However, that
did not happen but only made her fall sick. In her current condition, Alison reveals that she feels
fed up with everything; she also perceives her life to be very miserable and finds it very difficult
to cope with different situations. She has revealed that most of her favorite encounters in the past
have turned meaningless to her. She used to enjoy taking her kids out and visiting friends but
currently, she does not find joy in doing them which has made her abandon them fully.
Alison has also revealed that her emotions have currently elapsed to an extent that she
perceives everything in an emotional manner. She has given a recent example of pouring salt
which made her burst into tears (Garnefski & Kraaij, 2018). She feels exhausted always and that

CLINICAL REASONING CYCLE, CASE STUDY OF ALISON
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has made her stop going for work. That has rendered her unable to settle her bills. In addition,
she finds it hard to fall asleep and whenever she wakes up at night, it has always been hard for
her to get asleep again. According to her, before she suffered her current condition had an
appetite but it has declined to the extent of making her lose weight (Oettingen, Mayer &
Portnow, 2016). She finds it hard to concentrate on one thing because she has always faced
disruptions whenever she commits herself to do anything. For example, she has narrated that
whenever she tries to concentrate and watch television, she has always found herself occupied in
mind by other things and hence disrupted. Her sex life with her new boyfriend, Dave, has also
changed abruptly and does not have any interest in the relationship unlike before.
Processing information
Most of the symptoms which Alison has explained to the GP indicate that her mind is
burdened. For instance, she has explained that she finds it hard to sleep at night. In addition,
when she wakes up at night, she is not able to asleep anymore. Also, she has reported that she
wakes up very exhausted in the morning to the extent that she cannot go to work. Additionally,
she has explained her feelings about being fed up and moody always. These symptoms indicate
that her mind has been preoccupied with stress to an extent that it cannot function normally
(Okun, Mancuso, Hobel, Schetter & Coussons-Read, 2018). Being moody and bursting into tears
because petty things like pouring salt is a sign that her mind is fully occupied to accommodate
and contain any small thing that comes on her way. On the other hand, she has revealed that she
has lost interest in most of the activities which were enjoyable to her before like taking children
out and interacting with friends. This also is a sign of a mind which has been preoccupied with
stress.