Anxiety and Phobias Paper Summary

Benchmark- Anxieties and Phobias Paper
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Stress and phobia disorder 
Actor Tony Shalhoub plays the character of Adrian Monk in the Monk series. Monk, a detective in the San Francisco Police Department, is known for using unconventional means to solve the department's most puzzling cases. Monk's wife, Trudy, passed away, and he suffered a nervous breakdown, while he did not want to leave the house until he got psychological help. Monk has phobia disorder such as the fear of germs, crowds, death, heights, needles, milk, puppets, frogs, bees, dentists, crowds, and elevators. Mr. Monk pays attention to minute details, which helps him to solve many cases and disagree. He finds connections between cases and people, and so on. Nonetheless, he still faces a challenge trying to unravel his wife's death, and even as he is obsessed with finding out the truth, he fails to uncover this.
Monk exhibits alert responses that result in distress as he has various phobias that cause him to avoid the situations that make him extremely fearful. The fears are feelings of apprehension and danger people experience when they face unknown life situations or those for which they feel that they are not prepared. Fears have an adaptive function, and stress refers to situations where there are warning triggers and responses (APA, 2013). Stress is a normal physiological reaction of a defensive nature that allows people to respond to changing situations, but it is pathological where stress is intense anxiety and is accompanied by physical and psychological symptoms. The reactions are associated with the desire to avoid situations and inhibition.
Irrational or abnormal beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors displayed 
The series mostly shows Mr. Monk exhibiting of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) when interacting with others and the environment. His fears are irrational, and while somewhat of a caricature, he has more than 100 fears. Even though there is humor and entertainment at times, he goes about his work trying to avoid germs, his behavior limits his ability to interact with others and live a normal life. When Monk's wife died, he isolated himself for a long time, and his unusual behavior worsened obsessions and phobias that interrupted his daily functioning and routines. Monk admits to feeling hopeless and unbearable, unlike other people who do not face the same fears as him.
Monk is somewhat eccentric who has problems with social interaction, and is unable to forge any strong relationship with other people. Monk engages in handwashing countless times, and everything in his house and life has to be in a certain order, and if not, it triggers him. Monk's behavior represents some of the common stereotypes of people suffering OCD as he has developed a set of rituals and has phobias that limit his participation in daily activities. Mr. Monk knows his behaviors make his life more difficult, but he cannot stop himself from acting the way he does. Monk’s failure to face the situations that generate discomfort and cause anxiety makes it more challenging for the character to make positive changes and interact more often.
 Monk's fear of germs meant that he avoided greeting people by ha...