Psychopathology: The Bear's Embrace

Reactions Paper
PSY 546: Psychopathology
Kutztown University
Bill Schaeffer

The Bear’s Embrace The Bear’s Embrace is a first person account of events after being a victim of a bear attack. Trish, the author, gave her story about the life challenges that include the physical, social, and psychological effects from the attack. The amount of vivid details of the attack and the after effects gives a full description of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. My initial reaction when reading this story is that it seemed that it took a while until Trish was involved with mental health services. I understand it was important to stabilize her medically before worrying about long term effects, but the psychological effect of the attack

Just processing the events of constant infection going through the body could have been a significant effect to her mindset. Did the infection actually effect her cognitive patterns as a reaction to the infection? Also her credibility with the doctors appeared to drop when she was explaining to them the abscess in her sinuses due to the bolts. How did this affect her relations with others to the effect of she knew what she was feeling but no one would listen to her or react accordingly for an extended amount of time. It was not until a doctor found the abscess and later took out the bolts in her face and found the damage it was causing. During that time period it could have damaged her mental status to the point that she felt like she was going crazy and could have exacerbated her other symptoms. My other concern is if there were side effects from all the prescribed drugs and medications that she had been taking for an extended period of time. For instance right after the attack it seems as if Trish was having hallucinations in the hospital. Could this have been a psychological effect from the attack? Maybe her body’s reaction to the amount of morphine she was on caused the hallucinations? Again there was no denial that she was struggling with the effects of PTSD but my curiosity is extended to the effects of

Adding the abandonment concerns and she meets the minimal criteria for the Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis. Elizabeth’s numerous psychiatrists might not have known about her constant fear of abandonment, or might not have shown other symptoms for her to obtain the Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis. A substance abuse diagnosis could also be possibly looked at from her extreme drug