Elena experiences an overwhelming fear of contamination and germs. Because of this, she spends up to eight hours a day scrubbing her home with industrial-strength cleaners and washing her hands.
Elena is deeply unhappy and cries daily because her skin is raw, bleeding, and constantly painful, and she is devastated that she cannot bring herself to hug her young daughter. Recently, she mixed bleach and ammonia in a confined, unventilated bathroom to sterilise the floor, creating toxic fumes that caused her to collapse and lose consciousness.
Describe how distress and danger could be used to diagnose Elena as having a mental health disorder.
Practise Edexcel A Level Psychology Content with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 1,059 questions covering Diagnosis of mental disorders (4 Ds), Classification systems (DSM and ICD), Schizophrenia and one other disorder, Treatments for the two disorders, Individual differences, and Developmental psychology, matched to the Edexcel A Level Psychology (9PS0) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.
