PSYCHOSEXUAL PROBLEMS IN YOUNG PEOPLE (INSTANCE)
Miss R. was 17 when she first attended the clinic and 21 months later had a thick file, having attended 18 times. In retrospect, the professionals should not have been surprised that she wore them down. The counsellor was the first contact and noted that she had been brought/referred by her boyfriend who stayed in the waiting area. The counsellor wrote, ‘Has not yet had full intercourse, would like to discuss COC, has steady boyfriend. Will probably have arranged marriage when older and so ambivalent about starting to have sex, will not want future husband to know that she has been sexually active.’ A nurse took a history, a doctor saw Miss R. and prescribed the COC.
Two months later Dr A. saw Miss R. for the first time. Small, dumpy and childlike, she poured forth an amazing torrent of naive and sometimes bizarre questions. ‘Was this right, was that right, should he ask her to do this, should it last so long?’ Foolishly, Dr A. did not read the counselling notes and tried to deal with these questions as they came, feeling overwhelmed, but unable to interpret to the girl that she, too, was probably feeling overwhelmed by the demands of her boyfriend. Dr A. wrote, ‘Examine next time’, and fled from the patient feeling exhausted. Interestingly, the girl had also complained of being exhausted.
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