1. Do you think Adnan has poor mental health? Explain.

Ans:
A person is said to be abnormal when they are experiencing a personal distress such as
anxiety, depression and prevents them from living their regular lives properly.
According to the stated psychological conditions of Adnan, it can be identified that he is
experiencing poor mental health. It is very clear that Adnan is showing abnormal
behaviour as he is experiencing distress and this is significantly making him unable to
function normally in his daily lives. To be specific, he is experiencing a psychological
disorder, the symptoms as mentioned in the case about ‘intense concerns relating to
various stressors, ‘losing his mind’ and frequent inability to concentrate. Such
psychological symptoms are also linked with physiological effects such as ‘
sitting uncomfortably, tapping fit, feeling like having a heart attack and other noticeable
factors such as social withdrawal, prolonged fear or anxiety.

It is also seen that Adnan reached out for medical help from a therapist due to the
severity of the problem he was experiencing and in hopes of discontinuing such distress
through the therapist’s help. Therefore, such factors clearly portray the fact that Adnan
is experiencing a poor mental health condition.

2. Which psychological disorder matches with his mental health condition?

Justify your answer.
It has been identified that Adnan is experiencing a psychological disorder as matched
with his behavior. As per the mentioned factors, it can be said that he is experiencing
Panic Attack, which is a type of anxiety disorder which results in a sudden rise in
anxiety for a period of time and then goes away. Moreover, a person feels like he is
losing it , has heart palpitations, sweating, shaking or trembling and dizziness. These
stated signs of Panic attack matches with Adnan’s occurrences, which he experiences
in his daily life. According to the case, Adnan experiences feelings of distress about
things such as finances, and his relationship with his girlfriend. Moreover, he feels as if
something is going to happen to him and expecting some kind of disaster to occur to
him. Another symptom was that they feeling would come within a second and go away
after some time.
Another disorder is experiencing Somatic symptom disorder which means a
psychological disorder leading to physical symptoms. His experiences of physical
symptoms like having a heart attack, fidgeting, insomnia and breathlessness were also
mentioned.

3. Does he need professional help? Why?

Yes, Adnan required professional help due to the level of anxiety and distress he was
experiencing. A person should seek help if the distress is prolonged and gradually
turns into a long-term feeling. Also, inability to cope up with the distress is another
reason why help should be sought, which is why Adnan had sought medical help from a
therapist in order to solve the problems he was facing, which shows the severity of the
problem. In addition, distress may lead to chronic physical problems which is another
sign for seeking help. Lastly, inability to cope up with social life, such difficulties in
interaction and coping up with friendship and loving relationships, are considered
symptomes for seeking professional help. As for the case of Adnan, his anxiety and
distress was increasing gradually. Moreover, this was leading to physical effects such as
heart palpitations, fidgeting, discomfort, breathlessness, etc. Also, him turning down
social invitations and finally, most importantly not being able to function normally in his
daily life. Such reasons justify why it was important for Adnan to seek professional help.
4. What are the stressors in Adnan’s life and how is he coping with them? *
Stressors are circumstances or situations which results in threats to our well-being.
The stressors are what leads to responses from a person, causing stress, worry about
satisfying his clients. Generally, the stressors can be categorized into three types:
Cataclysmic events, personal stressors, and background stressors or daily hassles. In
case of Adnan, his stressor can be classified into background stressors or daily hassles.

Adnan’s stressors are such as worrying about his health, work life such as fear of
pleasing clients, his relationship with his girlfriend, his finances such as investments, his
best friend, traffic noises. These stressors fall under background stressors or daily
hassles as they are events happening on an on-going basis and are not major events
rather minor-events or situations happening or existing in his daily life.

Coping techniques are efforts made to control, reduce or learn to tolerate the factors
that are causing stress to a person. In case of coping techniques used by Adnan, he
used some techniques during his period of distress. One of them is Avoidant coping,
which involves eliminating or avoiding situations or factors from one’s life that are
causing distress. This was visible in Adnan’s case as he turned down social invitations,
Work opportunities, watching movies for recreation and staying home to avoid
interactions. However, this strategy is known to be the least successful strategy in
coping stress and such was the case of Adnan as it didn’t help him cope with his stress
either. However, Adnan did seek out for Emotion-focussed coping strategy later on
although he avoided sharing about his distress with friends or family but he visited a
therapist. One of the elements of Emotion-focussed coping strategy includes talking out
about emotional distress to a therapist in hopes to reduce the reactions to the stressors.

5. Describe what personality traits characterize Adnan. *

Personality is what differentiates a person from another their behaviour is what
Makes them unique.
According the Big Five Personality Traits there are 5 personality traits, which are:
openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

In case of Adnan, his personality traits has been classified as follows:

In terms of extraversion, people who are low in this trait, tend to be more
reserved and avoids social settings. Adnan’s case of anxiety has made him behave like
an introverted person, as it was mentioned of him avoiding social invitations, quitting
his weekly movie watching events and also turning down work opportunities to avoid
social interactions.
In terms of neuroticism, it is characterized by emotional instability, insecurity, anxiety.
Adnan has been seen to be suffering from anxiety and thus suffering from instability in
his emotional well-being, feelings of insecurity as if something bad was going to occur to
him. This proves that he is high in neuroticism trait as opposed to emotional stability.

6. How can you provide mental health support to Adnan? *

As a non-professional I can also provide mental health support to Adnan which
can help him ease his distress. Firstly, I need to asses the possibility of self harm or
suicide and then person experiencing mental health problems, in this case of Adnan,
needs to be heard off non-judgmentally. This means, the patient needs to be
acknowledged that he is there for what they are and no moral judgments should be
made about their condition, which is avoiding comments based on their condition which
can hurt them more emotionally. Next, is showing empathy through putting oneself in
the patient’s shoes. This will allow me to understand what they are suffering through
and reflect back on the feelings he is experiencing. This way the patient will also feel
consoled and understand that the person he is expressing to, understands their distress
and experience a sense of comfort.