Follow up on case study

A while ago, I discussed a case of a 10-year old boy with separation anxiety.
Today I will give a brief report on the status of the case.

The fears are gone and they no longer seem to place limitations on the boy's
life. His parents can leave his presence without the boy having an anxiety
attack. He leaves his parents' presence and goes over other children's houses.
He is able to go on school field trips. He no longer constantly checks to see
if his mother, who teaches at his school, is still there.

With the decrease in fearfulness, there was an increase in physical fights in
school. This started to become a problem and his mother dreaded other teachers
approaching her to report on another fight. There were also fights taking
place on the soccer field. I suspected that the father subtlely encouraged the
boy to be tough and aggressive. If true, then a message from the father that
" You are no longer allowed to fight and must find other ways of handling
things " might work to decrease the fighting.

In fact, this has happened. The boy has not had a fight since we had this
session. The reports from school and home have been very positive. Recently,
I have stopped the sessions with the boy and the father has asked to see me.
He commented that it is so much easier to live with his son, maybe he would be
easier to live with if he addressed some of his issues. The first one he wants
to work on is his temper problem.

This was a tough case. What was the purpose of the boy's anxiety symptoms? It
certainly captured his parents' attention and made them look at how they were
interacting with their son. They reassured him enough that they were not going
to leave him. At the same time, they set a limit on the degree to which they
would be controlled by the anxiety symptoms.

The anxiety symptoms also seemed to play a role in inhibiting the boy's anger
and aggressiveness. When he wasn't afraid so much, the anger in him showed
up more in the form of fights.

I asked him if he thought the EEG Biofeedback helped in anyway. He said that
it helped him with his temper. He continues to be on the Prosac and we will
probably stop it in the summer time.

What role did PCT play in this case? It made me think in terms of purpose of
the anxiety and anger symptoms. It is not always easy to confirm that you have
identified the right purpose. When you hit upon an intervention which results
in the symptoms reducing, it does suggest that the person is experiencing
fewer error signals and that the intervention likely had something to do with
it.

I am pleased with the progress in this case. The boy and his parents are
happier with the way things are now. They said that they had the best
Christmas and New Years ever. The boy was more appreciative of his presents
and was more concerned with whether his parents like their presents. He was
more openly and easily affectionate towards the parents.

ยทยทยท

From: David M. Goldstein
Subject: Follow up on case study
Date: 02/04/96