1.

After gathering information from scenario 1 and 2 about Mary, it does not seem like she

has a serious case of an illness anxiety disorder per se. Illness Anxiety Disorder is known

as the fear of having an illness rather than the fear of the symptoms.(American

Psychiatric Association, 2013)Mary is well known for being out-going and loves to

interact and play sports with her friend. Recently since the COVID-19 pandemic, she has

withdrawn from doing these activities although she enjoys it. She is taking multiple

precautions to keep herself safe and her anxiety would not be considered a serious case of

the disorder. Although she may be impulsive in terms of how she interacts with the

outside world, she is not overtly trying to cut herself off from it. She is in a good mood

and is willing to contact friends over the phone. In the second scenario,Mary takes the

vaccination to prevent her from getting the virus and she gets back to what she likes

which is playing netball and going out with friends.This meant that once she felt

protected from the virus she was not too worried about it.

2. Although it has been a year after the pandemic started and treatments are available for

preventing COVD-19, Liz is still withdrawn from doing any activities that would put her

in danger.She also obsessively takes preventative measures for protecting herself. Unlike

when Mary was staying at home,Liz is making less time for persons on the phone as she

is heavily consumed with cleaning and washing surfaces that could trap the virus. She

leaves her work for a job that pays less but will keep her at home. This means she is

sacrificing her usual way of living to keep away from the virus. She is filled with anxiety
 when she has to leave the house to buy her necessities and would increase her cleaning

after she returns to feel better. This implicates very obsessive impulses to protect herself

from a virus that has multiple treatments by this time. Unlike Mary, the vaccine may not

assure Liz of being safe from the virus and she still continues to isolate herself and clean

all the time. With these actions, Liz could be diagnosed with an illness anxiety disorder.

(American Psychiatric Association, 2013)

3. Mary does not have as much anxiety as Liz and her problem was solved when she got the

vaccination. On the other hand, Liz is unbothered by the vaccination and still refuses to

go outside and overly protective of her well being in terms of catching the virus. Her

condition is serious as it affects her occupational functionality which means she is not

focusing on every important aspect of her well-being and this could lead to panic attacks

and depression. The first recommendation for treating IAD is to do psychotherapy if it is

suggested by her health care provider. This should help to relieve her of the worry and it

should decrease her overthinking. The other recommendation if symptoms worsen or if it

is prescribed, would be pharmaceutical solutions such as antidepressants. A popular

example of this is serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs).In some cases,

patients may require a combination of both psychotherapy and drugs.(French & Hameed,

2020)

Reference:
1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental
disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596

2. French, J.H. & Hameed, S. (2020, June). Illness Anxiety Disorder. StatPearls[Internet].
Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK554399/