The mother made an appointment being not so sure about what her daughter’s problem is. She said the daughter is lacking confidence, or something is wrong with her, but the mother isn’t sure what it is.

This patient was doing A-Level at College A. She later said the course wasn’t so good and so she wanted to transfer to College B. So the parents went through a lot and completed the application and helped her to do the transfer. Everything went well for the following months. Till about one month ago, the patient told her mother that she wants to transfer back to College A again. The mother wasn’t happy about it but still she asked for the reason. The patient said she isn’t making any friends in College B, all her friends are in College A, she wants to go back there. The parents think it’s not a good decision so they continued to persuade her to stay on, and encouraged her to take part in some societies/organisations in order to make new friends.

The patient then stopped attending classes, when her request wasn’t fulfilled. She stayed home all the time, keeping to herself, not responding to mother when the latter speak to her. She isn’t even answering her friends’ phone calls (well, we thought she wanted more friends?). It does appear that she’s rebelling. But other than that she’s also losing the ability to make decision, to be assertive about what she wants and doesn’t want. When the mother asked whether she wanted to go back to College B, as the college has been calling the mother, she just stayed quiet.

This was continued with another two weeks till the mother came to us. The mother doesn’t know what to do. The mother consulted doctor on behalf and brought the medicine back to the daughter. She was very eager for the daughter to get better, to return to college and sit for her exam in two weeks.

So the mother gave us a call every two days, asking us what to do with her daughter, asking why her daughter still couldn’t make any decision, keep to herself, not going back to college, asking when she would get better…… She tried to push the daughter further and further, and of course, in such short period, she gets no results, but probably have made things worse.

What do you this girl’s problem is? Perhaps some underlying psychological worries? Depression? Social phobia? Agoraphobia? Laziness?! Avoidance, avoiding what? Some obsessions, obsessed with what she wants? Or is she a perfectionist? Someone who tolerates no imperfection? So when a bit of problem shows up she just avoids it?

What do you think?