Flinders University NURS1007: Case Study of Tom's Mental Health

This case study delves into the mental health of Tom, a 19-year-old man experiencing altered perceptions and exhibiting symptoms consistent with situational phobia, likely exacerbated by substance abuse. The essay explores the concepts of mental health and mental illness, focusing on phobias, their different types, and their causes, including traumatic experiences and substance use. It examines the effects of cannabis and alcohol on perception, highlighting Tom's distorted views and behaviors. The study also addresses the connection between mental and physical health, emphasizing the interplay between the mind and body. It suggests interventions such as guidance, counseling, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and cognitive therapy to aid in Tom's recovery, alongside the importance of health professionals' awareness and skills in treating mental disorders. The case study underscores the need for health professionals to stay informed and to advocate for increased resources in mental health care.

MENTAL HEALTH CASE STUDY 1
ALTERED PERCEPTION CASE STUDY OF TOM
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Introduction
Individuals will always have different perception about a particular thing, event or even another
person depending on the experience they had with that particular issues, or even what they have
heard concerning it. We encounter different judgments from one person to another according to
their thoughts in that specific field in question. This essay will address on of the mental health
condition that makes one have altered perception and fear about a particular scenario that is
phobia (Blagg, 2018). It also discusses in details the understanding of aversion as well as types
of phobia, outline the rationales that can be helpful in this case, explain the relationship between
mental and physical health, strategies to be applied to bring about recovery to the victim,
highlight the literature prescriptions about the treatment of such phobia as well as interventions.
Furthermore, the essay will discuss on the implications to the health professionals on the
knowledge and skills they have to employ when dealing with kind of phobia and conclusion
about this case study.
Mental health and mental illness
Mental health is simply what we feel towards ourselves, cognitive and affective state of our
minds as well as all-round wellness regarding socialising with other people will mental illness
means a broad area of disorders that influence emotions, thoughts and perceptions as well as how
one behavior (Banarsee et al, 2018). Phobia is one of the anxiety disorders which refers to
increase and unreasonable fear of particular event or experience mostly brought about by a
negative exposure to such event or condition before that makes one develop a lousy perception
towards that thing (Erceg-Hurn, and McEvoy, 2018). From the age of nine years to nineteen
years, Tom has been having difficulties in his employment, and since those early years of his
life, he has been learning negative attitudes towards jobs, and therefore his negative perceptions

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make him think that his employer has set cameras to observe him as he works. The most
surprising thing is that he ends up resigning from work due to the fear of cameras.
Kinds of phobia
There are different kinds of phobia known which includes: natural phobia which entails the
panics towards nature things like water, moon, rain and all-natural things. Another type is
mutilation phobia that involves the distress in things that can make one be hurt or feel pain. The
third type is the animal phobia where one is afraid of some specific animals which another
person may not be having the similar feeling. Lastly, we have situational phobia also known as in
Agoraphobia (Morgan, 2018) this case a person build fears towards situations like being in
public, learning, and listening to music and so many other conditions. Tom has got situational
phobia which is manifest where we see him yelling at his boss claiming that he cannot persevere
the abuse of being watched by the camera in the car whereas there were no cameras at all. These
hallucinations thoughts are not only by his early struggles and challenging experiences in
employment but also by his drug abuse habits that are using cannabis and alcohol use (Pellecchia
et al, 2018).
Effects of cannabis and alcohol on perceptions
Cannabis also is known as marijuana is one of the worst drugs that causes complete destruction
of mind of an individual. The most famous effect of cannabis is the distortion of sense as well as
short-term memory (Treloar Padovano, and Miranda, 2018). This aspect of loss or destruction of
the short-term memory in Tom's case is manifested where he tells one of the customers at work
that his car might not be available at any time since the vehicle was bearing surveillance photos
that were being reviewed by the CIA which in real sense is not a good reason that question.

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Cannabis interferes with an individual's way of imagining things and makes one have imaginary
things that seems to be existing yet they are not even anywhere in the world. Similarly, it makes
one feel like he has got all the time in the world to do what he wants and therefore time makes no
sense to such kind of a person.
On the other hand, alcohol brings about feeling of satisfaction and makes one not to think of
anything constructive. It also harmful to one's health as with Cannabis too. Tom's consumption
of these two drugs has contributed significantly to his behaviour and mental illness that he is
experiencing at the moments though himself he is not even aware of his condition. Other known
causes of phobia according to the studies included.
Certain events or distresses where one might have had an experience that scared him or her for
the first time of the encounter. Tom in his early childhood was involved in distress starting from
the death of his father and being engaged in stressing jobs while young.
Exposure to long-term stress that causes on developing the feeling of the inability of handling
tolerating certain conditions in life as we see Tom felt that he could not endure being watched by
the camera's that he thought his boss had installed in the car. In the current world, almost all
working centers no matter how minor they are they have got CCTV cameras that take videos of
everything that is happening. Now let has imagined somebody with this kind of phobia and
where can he or she be employed than with this kind of disorder.
Learnt reactions towards a particular situation. It can be behaviors learnt or acquired in the
background a person has been brought up in. Parents are the most influential factors towards the
kind of responses that one depicts in life. If the family members had such kind of phobias based

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on a specific incident, one is mostly going to draw such perceptions towards that thing
(Ballantyne, 2018)
Genetically. Research done on this field shows that particular kind of genetics is more prone to
acquire phobias than others. These areas, however, have not entirely clearly explain concerning
the causes in detail and more studied have been done to discover the truth.
Signs and symptoms of phobias
One can undergo through a feeling of overwhelming anxiety especially when in seeing the
source of the phobia.
The perception that the thing triggering phobia is supposed to be evaded at all means.
Incapability to works appropriately during the moments that the cause of phobia is around.
Agreement that the phobia is illogical, awkward, and inflated joined with an incapability to
function properly when exposed to the trigger (Blampied et al, 2018).
Relationship between mental health and physical health
By the research conducted concerning the relationship between mental and physical health, there
exists a stable connection within the two. Actually, all the functioning of the physical body is
controlled by the mind. If at all there is any complication in mind the physical body responds
accordingly (Widom, Czaja, Kozakowski, and Chauhan, 2018). For instance, an individual
suffering from headache experiences body weakness and becomes uncomfortable and less
functional. In particular, knowledge about this association can help the health practitioners to be
in a better position of handling mental disorder problems. Three pieces of evidence of this
relationship have been outlined which includes (Mousley, and Chaudoir, 2018).

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(a). Individuals who have got persistent physical problems are in the danger of acquiring pitiable
mental health.
(b). People experiencing deprived mental health complications are prone to developing advanced
physical disorders.
(c). complete mental distortion leads to bad conditions of the physical part as well.
Several illnesses are as a result of the condition of the mind whereby diseases such as heart
attack, respiratory system illness and also gastrointestinal problems.
Generally, all that comes out of an individual is as a result of the mental effects that is one's
feelings, ability to remember, the ecological surroundings and how one perceives things. This
link between what goes on in our mental and physical being is known as the psycho-emotional
foundation of health and illness.
Intervention for the recovery of such a disorder
Tom is a known user of cannabis and alcohol. Therefore, the first step that can be of help to him
is to use strategies that can get him off from this habit of drug abuse. It is well understood that
cannabis makes one loss memory. Then health practitioners are supposed to start with this
problem. He can be assisted through guidance and counselling by psychologists who have skills
on how to handle these skills (Blevins et al, 2018). Though it takes time for an individual to
recover and stop this consumption, it is still the best way to deal with this case.
Another of the most robust intervention method that a health practitioner can use is Dialectical
Behavioral Therapy abbreviated as DBT (Dobson, and Dobson, 2018). This method requires that
the health practitioner uses talk as a way of helping the victim do away with the disorder.

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Research has shown that most of the individuals with this kind of can best be assisted by the use
of this method. Health practitioners can, therefore, accomplish this by having regular
appointments with this kind of client and impact him or her with the required skill that can bring
their mind back to normal and stop negative perception. In this case study, Tom can best be
advised how to control his fears and feelings. (Baharum et al, 2018).
Another applicable method of intervention is cognitive therapy (Yang et al, 2018). In this can,
the client is involved in activities which bring about a feeling of relation and resting that brings
an amendment in the way one thinks. However, for this method to bring about the required
results, it demands a consistent repetition so that therapists can work with the client effectively.
Tom can be helped well using this method because it does not have any harmful or negative
effects (Lamontagne-Godwin et al, 2018).
Implications for the practice of health professional
Every day, mental disorder cases are being the primary topic in health in the contemporary
world. These disorders are very many, and most of them have got related sighs and symptoms.
Therefore, a health practitioner should keep on researching the solutions to handle these cases at
any particular time. The good thing is that all these disorders are treatable and people come back
to their normal life afterwards, and health professionals should be aware of that. Health
practitioners should also think of programs even non-hospital based one to help the community
have individuals who are productive to the country which comes with the development of such a
nation. This increase of mental disorder should imply to the health practitioners to focus on how
they can address these issues to minimise common hospital rooms visit as well as the admission
of the patients with mental related problems. Health professional should also present these issues
to the government so that enough funds can be allocated to this field to help the nurses involved

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have an easy task during their service delivery (Ayala et al, 2018). Health professional should
realise that they are the backbone as long as health matters are concerned. All individual really
on their services and should hence ensure that they provide quality health services.
Conclusion
This essay as addressed issues concerning phobia and expounded more about the causes of
phobia, it has given details about what brings about a specific phobia, categories or types of
phobia have been discussed in this paper. Also, signs and symptoms on how one can discover
that has a phobia or even the ones used by health practitioners have been outlined. Also, the most
intervention for recovery of this client Tom in this case study has been discussed adequately as
well as specific means to bring about the need results out of that patient. Not to leave behind is a
discussion on what this case study implies to the health professional in their field of
specialisation. I recommend that the World Health Organization to plan an effective protocol for
how the specialist in this field of mental health can be supported to make more discoveries on
how to reduce these problems. If one treatment for all mental issues can be found it could be
more beneficial and the one with no side effects together with giving education on how to
prevent these mental disorders.

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References
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