Another stressor for her is her new job, which she started last September. She was assigned to work with a child diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Janice did not agree with the management style of the teacher when dealing with this child, and she found it difficult to be assertive in dealing with this teacher. Janice says she started experiencing anxiety attacks and insomnia in early December. The idea of Christmas approaching, which she had always enjoyed, now seemed overwhelming, "I wasn't doing well and I had no one to talk to". The time away from work at Christmas break was helpful, and she went back to work in January of this year. By the second week of her work return, she wasn't coping well. Janice saw her physician who suggested she take a medical leave. She also ordered her Prozac 20 mg OD, which she says she takes at HS, and Xanax 0.5mg PRN up to QID. Additionally, she was referred for outpatient group therapy. After six weeks on medication, her mood has improved. Xanax, which she uses BID, "takes the edge off" her anxiety. Insomnia remains a problem.
Janice says that she grew up an only child with an "alcoholic" father and an "anxious" mother. She says she married at age twenty years because she couldn't stand being at home, and she didn't want to live alone. Despite this, she says her marriage is good which she qualifies with, "he doesn't run around or anything. He works hard to provide for us, not like his dad who ran off with another woman".
Janice's goals for group therapy are to learn ways to handle her anxiety without medication, and to learn ways to minimize her depression.
-Brenda, April 2002
Janice states she was feeling "reasonably well" until February of last year when her husband informed her of the likelihood of his being transferred. She says she had developed many friends in the Interior in the five years they had lived there, and she has made few friends since moving to the Lower Mainland. Janice's extended family lives in Ontario, as does her husband's family. Janice says