Question

Vanna, a middle-aged woman, complains to the medical assistant of having regularly interrupted sleep patterns.  When the MA encourages her to talk more about it for her medical history, Vanna states that she has repeated nightmares of being capsized from a boat at sea during a severe storm.  In her dream, she swims desperately to the surface for air, but she always awakens before she reaches the surface.  She says this is similar to a real-life boating accident in which she nearly drowned and two people close to her died.  She assumes there is a connection.  What is your response?

Answer 1

I think that there is definitely a connection. She probably hasn't gotten over the deaths that happened with that accident and is trying to avoid their deaths from occurring.