Title: Discussion Forum Module 6
Course: NUR 1521C Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing > Section: Module 6

Imagine you are on an overnight camping trip with several class mates.  You are seated around a campfire on the edge of a Cypress Swamp somewhere in Florida.

The fire is dying and talking has ceased. Someone sees a figure that looks like a thick dark log posed near the dying fire. Someone yells, “It’s a cottonmouth!” You know that this is a venomous snake. It is a pit viper known as Agkistrodon piscivorus. It strikes but just misses your bare foot …you should have been wearing hiking boots.

The next morning everyone is still a little shaken but OK. You hike with your classmates back to your cabin. Everyone goes their separate ways but you feel anxiety like never before. You are back in school the next week. You still remember the snake but the anxiety has almost gone away. You remember the extreme anxiety you felt just after you were nearly bitten by the viper. You are glad that your anxiety has greatly subsided.

Imagine that the extreme anxiety you felt that night never goes away. Imagine that you live within that extreme anxiety twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. Sometimes the anxiety subsides a little but it never goes away. It is not a fear of a snake. It is an anxiety that is there all the time and just can’t be explained away. This is how a client diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder lives.

Discuss how this disorder interferes with the client’s ability to function within their role in everyday life. Discuss how certain pharmacological agents can help in the treatment of this disorder. Discuss how “talk therapy” can assist in this client’s treatment.

Respond to at least two classmate's posts.