Pandemic-Related Anxiety Case Study
Patricia is an 18-year-old with with no siblings who enjoys her close friendships and gains energy while socializing. Her parents provide a healthy and spiritual environment. They stress the importance of excelling academically and spiritually while actively supporting her sports activities. She excels as a high school student and already takes college courses at the local university. She feels the academic pressure to succeed at the next level. She is known as a natural leader in the classroom and on the soccer field. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the isolation and uncertainty activated feelings of fear and anxiety. The normal routine that helped her manage her emotions was unavailable. Her anxiety steadily increased during the pandemic. Success that came easily with face-to-face interaction turned difficult once school went online. She now fears people are scrutinizing her every move. She doubled down on spiritual disciplines such prayer, Bible study, and reading to numb the negative and painful emotions she feels. She is isolated from her inspirational coaches, teachers, and her pastor. The close friendships she trusts have not been available for interpersonal interaction. Over time these feelings of uncertainty have created a social anxiety disorder. She doubts herself and fears others now see her as a failure.
Patricia deals with pandemic-related anxiety. She has feelings of uncertainty and isolation. How may Patricia be able to cope with this dilemma? Who can she turn to for help? What are the best practices that will help her to put into motion what she hears from God? How does her pastor or respected counselor give counsel and care during this pandemic?
Without an accurate assessment and intervention, a broader and long-term anxiety disorder may develop. Patricia’s parents encouraged her to seek counseling from local pastoral counselor to help her deal with this fear and anxiety. Patricia make an appointment with a local pastoral counselor to discuss her problem. They met together five times and collaboratively came up with a pathway to mitigate her pandemic-related anxiety.
During the initial session, the counselor empathetic listens to connect with Patricia emotionally; and assesses her spiritual connection with God. This created a collaborative environment to accurately assess Patricia’s underlying cause. The counselor learned that she used maladaptive coping skills such as spiritual by-pass and self-blame. She made the comment, “I’ve been blaming myself for things that have happened the past several months.” She felt isolated pivoting from face-to-face contact to virtual learning. Patricia had the inability to describe her negative feelings. She practiced avoidance.
Session two and three, they collaboratively outlined ways Patricia might connect God and articulate her feelings. The counselor reassured her that God is still active in her life and promised to help her make plans that anticipates a hopeful future as she prepares for college. Patricia received reassurance that the counselor would guide her to clearly name the emotions that trigger her feelings of uncertainty and anxiety.
Session four focused on adaptive coping skills. They collaborated to come up with three adaptive coping skills to do as homework. The pastor pointed out that Patricia’s spiritual disciplines needed an enjoyable human element. First, she agreed to connect with church friends to pray and study scripture together at a safe location; and enjoy one another’s company. Second, she wanted to plan and fix a weekly meal for the whole family. The family would share funny stories about their week and find ways to laugh together. Third, she wanted to meet with her mentor and coach to talk about how to improve her soccer skills and possible college soccer scholarship availability.
The final session Patricia reported to her counselor how she implemented her coping strategies. Together, they determined the success of the three strategies. When the sessions started the counselor and Patricia assessed the frequency and severity of her anxiety. She believed she felt anxious daily with a severity level of nine. After implementing the adaptive coping skills, over four weeks, she felt anxious once a week with a severity level of three. She believed that she found a better way to cope in a pandemic environment and journey forward with a hopeful future where she put into motion what she heard from God.