Thin Tim Case Study Essay

Some of the similarities between these case studies would be that all of these disorders, Mrs. B’s struggle with Sexual Dysfunction Disorder, Thin Tim’s case of Anorexia Nervosa and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Joe’s case of Nicotine Dependency Disorder, Tomas’ issue with Gambling Disorder, and Wanda’s case of Bulimia Nervosa can all be comorbid with Major Depressive Disorder. Something else that is a similarity between the disorders mentioned in all of the case studies would be that all of the clients seem to have a theme of needing control in their lives. These clients all experience a lack control over intrusive thoughts, such as feeling a need for nicotine, gambling and chasing one’s losses, being thin and avoiding becoming overweight,

These cases, along with the Junkie case (Joe), were the only cases that showed significant physical consequences, such as headaches, loss of tooth enamel, feeling fatigue, and possibly leading to terminal illness. Mrs. B’s and Thin Tim’s cases were the only cases where the clients’ intrusive thoughts caused them to avoid a behavior (Mrs. B avoiding sexual intercourse with her husband for fear of disapproval from family or being a “tramp” and Tim’s obsessive cleanliness causing him to avoid social activities at friends’ homes because they are “dirty”). Joe, Wanda, and Tomas all seemed to engage in behaviors despite being aware of the physical and financial consequences. The last difference we believe is important to mention is that Tim is the only client who has significant and obvious signs of a comorbid disorder. According to https://iocdf.org/expert-opinions/expert-opinion-eating-disorders-and-ocd/ eating disorders fall on the OCD spectrum. This is actually quite challenging for clinicians, since they may struggle to diagnose and treat OCD in a client who is in need of treatment for a diagnosed eating

In analyzing these diagnoses it appears that one way the DSM distinguishes between the criteria for each disorder is identifying and noting the interaction between particular clinical features associated with behavior, cognition and/or affect. The criteria may consider the presence or absence of certain forms behavior, cognition or affect as warranting the diagnosis of a given disorder. For example, Bulimia Nervosa includes as diagnostic criteria “Eating, in a discrete period of time an amount of food that is definitely larger than what most individuals would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances (p. 345).” This would obviously be a behavior. The disorder also includes as a criterion “A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (affect) (p. 345).” With Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder the behavior, cognition, affect pattern is present in that the absence of “interest in sexual activity” or the lack of “erotic thoughts” among other key criteria, may lead to a diagnosis of the disorder (p. 433). For Anorexia Nervosa criteria include the “Restriction (behavior) of energy intake (in the form of food) and the “fear (affect) of gaining weight or becoming fat (p. 338).” For Tobacco Use Disorder criteria include “Craving” to indulge in