At her high school reunion, Emily realizes that several of her classmates have changed: Mark, the class clown, confides that he takes medication to keep himself emotionally stable because he attempted suicide and tried to fly off the garage roof when he believed that he had invented a nuclear umbrella. Alice, the most likely to succeed, washes her hands repeatedly and dries them with tissues, her standard purification ritual, before she will drink the punch. The prom queen, Mary, is not at the reunion because she is afraid to leave her house. The star quarterback, Gary, says he is in charge of the CIA and that a group of terrorists plans to take him hostage. While he is talking, he carefully watches his wife dance with an old classmate and appears jealous. Choose two of Emily's classmates

Question

and make a diagnosis of the psychological disorder each may be suffering from, describe the disorder, and state what symptoms led to your diagnosis.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Mark may have a bipolar disorder, which involves alternating between two emotional extremes. His attempt to fly off the roof and his belief that he had invented a nuclear umbrella are symptoms of mania. His suicide attempt is a symptom of severe depression. Alice may have an obsessive-compulsive disorder, a type of anxiety disorder in which a person becomes obsessed with certain thoughts or images or feels a compulsion to do certain things. Her hand-washing ritual, which she must perform before she can engage in other behaviors, is a symptom of this disorder. Mary may suffer from agoraphobia, a fear of being alone or away from the security of home. She will not leave her house, even to see old friends, and that inability to go out is a symptom of agoraphobia. Gary may suffer from paranoid schizophrenia. His symptoms include both delusions of persecution and delusions of grandeur, and he shows signs of jealousy.