Reduction of the Suicidal Thoughts - Case Study

Joselyn has developed suicidal thoughts after finding out that she undergoes feelings of distress to people she is living with and that her problems keep piling up day by day. Despite the fact that she, has tried to get in touch with her siblings who are in their early teenage life, she has initiated a psychological problem in them causing them to develop feelings of distress like her. She feels that she is that great punishment sent to people from hell and she opts to die to alleviate the problems that she encounters in the world and the effects she causes to the people she lives with. Joselyn needs great help to help her survive her vague feelings of hopelessness and her suicidal thoughts. What exactly does Joselyn need to help her come to reality and accept the fact that the world is full of challenges that need people to be strong enough to handle them?

(i). Listen to Joselyns situation with empathy and understanding

Joselyns life has been a bed of turmoil ever since she was six years. Despite the fact that she has been raised up to her late teenage life by another family, her sexual life was destroyed by her mother who was a cocaine addict who used to allow men to sleep with her daughter for money. I will listen to her confession with empathy by suggesting that there is room for making significant changes in life that will enable her to accept the fact that her addiction guided her mother's wicked things to drugs. Also, i will inform her that if she continues to dwell on Marijuana as her close friend she will definitely be like her mom and will continue in her state of hopelessness. By use of psychoanalytic theory, I will be encouraging the Joselyn to develop an insight into their behavior by the help of their unconscious mind. Apart from that, I will make a free association, resistance analysis and dream analysis with her by use of ink blots to develop a sense of hope for her.

(ii). Inform Joselyn how her problems arise

I will inform her on the initiators of her problems and suggest a solution to alleviate the incidence of fixing the dots of the problems Joselyn encounters. I will inform Joselyn that her problems arise from thinking about the past experiences of her life and the forces that make her maintaining a natural resistance to change.

Anti-suicide plans with Joselyn

I will make a list of the reasons to live by outlining to her that she should live to be a real testimony to her siblings of the kind of life she has passed through whenever they will have grown up to withstand the message and the reason for the isolation they are living in. I will also inform Joselyn that the kind of friends that she associated with is the source of her problems especially the friends who encouraged her to try smoking marijuana. I will inform her that if she regulates her behavior to be in line with the kind of people she lives with in conjunction to avoiding the remembrance of the problems she has passed through will enable her to attain her career life and become independent with time.

My opinion about five reasons for Joselyn to live

(i) She has to live to take over the care of her siblings as soon as she acquires a job and changes her behavior.

(ii) She should live because her siblings will learn best under her as a real example of the kind of life that she passes through.

(iii) The problems that she is encountering for being raised up by helpers might be the problems that her siblings will face whenever they attain her age, and therefore she needs to live to take over her siblings care.

(iv) I will also inform her that it is only in teenage years that the suicidal feelings are usually high and she should expect the feelings to end soon.

(v) Lastly, Joselyn should live to save her siblings from the same sense of suicide after that emanates if she terminates her life.

Five strategies I will apply on Joselyn to enhance her activity

(i) I will probe the past behavior of Joselyn

(ii) I will also provoke her unconscious and her sub conscious impulses to understand her childhood to help her develop a better mindset.

(iii) I will inform Joselyn that her destiny is dependent on her active role in building her career life and that she should quit leaning on her past mistakes.

(iv) I will inform her that the isolation of her siblings from her was to safeguard their morals and that if she changes her behavior, she will get access to them.

(v) I will also recommend to her that the choice of friends is very essential to her mental growth.

Joselyns case through the concept of CBT

By the application of CBT therapy theory, I will match the thoughts to feelings and the unhelpful thoughts of suicide with useful thoughts. I will also replace Joselyns negative self-talk and explore her alternative schemes to streamline her suicidal thoughts to useful ideas that take concern of her siblings. Since problems arise through recurring faulty cognitions results in problematic response patterns, I will help her to avoid remembering her past but rather concentrate on her future. I will initiate a change by changing the contingencies of reinforcement to make her construct desired behavior.

The techniques of Vivo exposure therapy

The vivo exposure therapy helps the patients to get an experience with whatever they fear. The therapy outlines the need for the patient to be passed through an instructional session which prepares them to meet the animal or the situation that they fear in the form of treatment. The treatment should break lose the beliefs that the patient has on a certain episode or animal to free them from the problems of fear about the things they consider to be monsters in their lives. Cognitive changes are expected to occur after a series of trials with the patient.

How the worker delivered the intervention about Vivo exposure

The Therapist asked Miriam to rate her anxiety after a series of treatment with her about her worries about snakes. The narrator informs Miriam that he will stand opposite to her side before turning back to her with the snake but in the real sense, he had no snake in with him. This was to make her get used with the anxiety she had before the real monster she hates brought near her. The therapist makes a conversation with Miriam about the snake, and her fear drops a little bit lower to appoint that she confesses that the snake is a nice one.

Ediths Case Activity

Ediths thoughts are connected to her feelings hence there is a need to link some helpful thoughts to her feelings and help her to replace the unhelpful thoughts with some useful thoughts that are connected to the way they managed to live a better life after surviving the journey of death to America. There is need to help Edith in her old age to avoid clinging to the memories to concentrate on how they managed to achieve their life goals. She should be passed into several questions that will make her get familiar with her anxiety by making her describe what she observed during the times to make the matter to be normal to her.

Therapeutic goals

(i) To modify some particular patterns of thinking that avoid making Edith cling onto memories.

(ii) Provide a relationship model that is displayed during the therapy session to evaluate the structure of the family.

(iii) To make Edith to avoid clinging to the past happenings and to help her to know that in the present situations, such incidents cannot happen.

The most appropriate for Ediths exposure or cognitive restructuring

Edith has to be passed through some form of Vivo exposure therapy whereby she needs to be made to remember of the situations that happened during the war eras by making he watch the episodes in a film after some treatment to make her familiar. Exposure will enable her to avoid nightmares because she will be used seeing the war happenings. The cognitive restructuring will be difficult to occur at her age since the matter seems to have affected her for a long time and hence vivo exposure is the most appropriate.

Beneficial homework assignment for Edith

Edith should try to keep watching the films of the war era and the way people applied survival tactics and reflect on how she was lucky to survive the death. This assignment will help her avoid the feelings of anxiety and nightmares.

Anti-suicide plan for Edith

Edith should be informed of the relevance of her presence to her daughter and son to make her forget the suicidal thoughts. She should also be informed that the war era ended and deaths of her family members were among the thousands of deaths that happened during the period and that her current life is so much important to her family.

Reasons to live

(i) Her daughter needs her emotional support as a mother, and she has to live \

(ii) She should also live to be a living testimony and an agent for peace and harmony to help minimize racial, prejudice and ethnic discrimination.

(iii) I will inform Edith of the gift of life, and that suicide is not a viable solution to her problems.

(iv) If Edith managed to survive the worse situations during the journey of death and yet her people died, then she should enjoy the comfort zone in the current moment.

(v) Ediths life achievements should not allow her thoughts to think of suicide since she has accomplished a lot in her life during and after the war times to the extent of raising her son and daughter to adulthood hence her children would like to live a life of emulating her courage and determination.

Relaxation techniques

Spending time with the grandchildren. Edith should devote more time with her grandchildren as this will help in the reduction of the suicidal thoughts as they will keep her occupied and busy. She should also attend the therapy class to help her recover from the trauma of losing her other family members while giving her time to associate with people who have the same issues as her to make feel she is not alone. Visiting the orphanage, this will enable Edith to feel motivated and appreciate what she has in this life. Since when she tries to compare herself with the children or the aged in the orphanage, she will feel lucky and talented. Hence finding the actual meaning of her being alive.