Individual Determinant of Health Question 2022

Running Head: INDIVIDUAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH0
Individual Determinant of Health
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INDIVIDUAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH1
Question 1:
The subject of the case study has been portraying many behavioural symptoms including
ignorance towards her health, irritability towards almost everything, and a great deal of anxiety.
Her being irritable and anxious almost all the time, has made her garner an overall negative
outlook on life, which has in turn made her lethargic, and unsocial, and in general uninterested
with everything that is happening around or to her. She has thus lost her focus on her studies, her
best friends who were a good influence on her and has strained her family ties even further. This
has made her even more sad and depressed, leading her to become ignorant about her health
(Buratti & Allwood, 2018). She stopped attending her physical education classes which she used
to love, making her even more lethargic. It has also been observed that she has become very
forgetful about taking her asthma medications, making her asthma condition worse and also
preventing her to physically exhaust herself. Most of the symptoms she has been portraying can
be either directly or indirectly linked to her excessive alcohol consumption every weekend.
Studies have showed that anxiety, irritability and lethargy are directly related to excessive
alcohol consumption (Connor, Haber & Hall, 2016). After the consumption of alcohol, the body,
in order to eliminate the alcohol from the system, drops the body sugar level to divert it to the
excretion process of the booze, instead of allowing the body maintain the healthy glucose levels.
Low blood sugar makes the person feel nervous and anxious. This is because, the alcohol is a
depressant and a mood mediator, which chemically provides the feeling of happiness and
assurance, for a short period of time, after which the negative emotions like anxiety and
irritability tend to heighten (Godlaski & Giancola, 2009). Alcohol processing in the body also
leads to inflammation, which can also play a role in changing the mood of the abuser and even
cause several memory issues. Alcohol affects several neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin,

INDIVIDUAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH2
glutamate, and GABA and NMDA receptors directly, by inhibiting their neuronal signalling and
causing a misbalance of the brain’s functionality (Banerjee, 2014). After the accident and her
knee injury, she had to restrict herself from attending her physical education classes; she also
stopped socialising with her old friends, and upon questioning revealed that she was being
bullied at school. These clearly made her unhappy, and must have been the reason for her alcohol
abuse.
Question 2:
a) Rob being the general physician of Lauren, the case subject, has been a very attentive listener
to her issues and has been seen to have actively tried to understand the reason as to why she
has been facing such problems. Rob in treating or recommending activities to Lauren to help
her with her issues, has taken a holistic approach. This approach helped him understand the
key reasons as to why Lauren was portraying negative behaviours like irritability, anxiety,
un-mindfulness, lethargy, and ignorance towards her health. The first helpful approach of
Rob was to allow Lauren to talk about the issues she has been facing, and what has made her
behave the way she is behaving. The second activity which can be considered as helpful is
him emphasizing the importance of the content of the pamphlets and letting Lauren take them
to help educate her. He, after understanding that she has a drinking problem and has become
very socially detached and lethargic, recommended her to start exercising, which would help
her body release dopamine, that will chemically help her fight against the depression and
stress she has been garnering for months (Giesen, Deimel & Bloch, 2015). He commended
her to walk before and after school, and to engage in some physical activities in the
weekends (Hallgren, Vancampfort, Giesen, Lundin & Stubbs, 2017). He repeatedly
recommended her to take her asthma medications on time to avoid her feeling lethargic all