Storybook

This is a snapshot story from a storybook that contains clinical presentations of various mental disorders. The characters present maladaptive (and adaptive) psychological features that are associated with their disorders.

A 35 year old male, Paneck was employed as a manager at a beauty salon. This was his 3^rd year at the salon and he had had a troubled experience dealing with the recent issues at work.

Thanks to the marketing team and the staff’s work, the beauty salon had recently gotten a boom of new customers. This obviously required the staff to work that much harder than they normally were used to.

While Paneck liked that the owner, Ms. Rey increased his income, he found it difficult to manage the staff at times. The work hours had become more hectic. As a result, some of the employees had demanded an increase in pay. But Paneck’s duty was only to manage the beauticians. While he could recommend some employees, he was concerned that if he tried to vouch for everyone, the owner of the salon would stop taking him seriously.

And he did not want to quit his job.

A week ago, Paneck was approached by Rey and was scolded that he was cutting corners. Paneck had been taking off from work an hour earlier than normal. But that was only because he had to go home and take care of his mother, who was battling cancer.

However, this had cut short the end-of-day customers. The owner was not happy and she demanded Paneck to stay overtime to compensate for this.

During this conversation, Paneck became aware that his heart rate was increasing rapidly. He also felt his breaths become shallower. In a few minutes, Paneck was reaching out for some chair, doubling over, panting and sweating. Rey called the other employees for help, and a crowd gathered around Paneck. He was offered water. Rey then took him inside her office and Paneck calmed down after about 10 minutes. Paneck apologized but he felt that his heart was about to burst from his chest.

In the week that followed, Paneck experienced these instances where his heart rate seemed to increase drastically in a very short period of time. Each time this happened, he found it difficult to breathe and he had to sit down, separate himself from the environment he was in for a few minutes. After that, he found it somewhat difficult to work, but he tried his best to remain at the salon until it was off-time.

The coworkers were apprehensive. They were generally satisfied with how Paneck conducted affairs at work, but these new problems that Paneck reported feeling made them sure that he needed a break from work. On days where there was greater workload, the employees noticed that he felt more distressed, often leading to these ‘attacks.’

But Paneck wanted to work. He did not understand why he was going through this. All he knew was that at times his heart-rate seemed to shoot up. In fact, he noticed that his heart-rate went up particularly when he was in the lobby of the salon. He was becoming increasingly afraid of the next time he was going to feel this rush of bodily fluctuations. The worst thing was that he did not understand when this would happen. It looked as if it could happen at any time.

Still, Paneck was managing everything. His family needed the money. And he figured that the next time it happened, he would simply have to seclude himself from everyone else, in order to not cause anyone else any problems. Moreover, the way the crowd gathered around him made him even more confused and angry at himself.

Life at work was not really going that well. And Paneck had an idea that this was only going to get worse.