Anxiety and Panic Attacks
Over 40 million American adults are affected by anxiety, making anxiety disorders the most common mental health conditions in the United States. All of us have felt anxious at some point in our lives. Whether it’s right before an important meeting, or while anticipating certain news, anxiety is a normal response. But when this situational response becomes a constant presence in your life, anxiety becomes a crippling source of stress and tension that can impair the quality of your life and your relationships.
Depression
Depression is one of the most misunderstood and ignored psychiatric disorders. Depression can overlap with a lot of other diseases. Often depressed patients themselves do not even notice the changes until they become very apparent, or when their ability to carry out a normal day to day routine becomes significantly impaired, if they even notice it at all.
Typical features of depression include continuous low mood, feeling as if life is pointless or that nothing has any meaning anymore, feeling negative all the time, impaired concentration power, changes in the appetite, constant fatigue and early exhaustion, insomnia or sleeping excessively, impaired memory, etc. Even with support, clinical depression needs to be examined by psychiatrists who are experienced in handling these cases.
Organic illnesses and diseases that can cause depression such as hypothyroidism, must be ruled out or treated before or while treating clinical depression. Missing such medical problems can make the psychiatric problems resistant and more frustrating to the patients and their families.
ADHD
ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder is a condition that first becomes apparent in childhood, although sometimes it may remain undiagnosed till adulthood. With progressive age ADHD symptoms show slight variations that can be attributed to changed lifestyle. For example, while children with ADHD and adults with ADHD have the same complaints of inability to pay attention for prolonged periods of time, focus on work, be distracted easily, but instead of abrupt, rude and hyperactive behavior, adults complain of restlessness, insomnia, anxiety and irritability, constant arguments with spouses or families. In children this problem comes to the forefront more easily when a child’s grades drop or his performance in comparison to the rest of their class, or when his aggressive or out of control behavior cannot be attributed to ‘being spoilt’ anymore.
ADHD in adults generally continues from childhood, where it has not been diagnosed. Impaired attention can be a symptom of many psychiatric disorders. ADHD can also co occur with other psychiatric disorders.
It takes knowledge and experience to correctly classify and diagnose ADHD and ADD. We also make sure that ADHD is not being mistaken for another condition with masquerading symptoms, or to identity ADHD that is being wrongly treated as another condition. Our initial evaluation takes into account clinical features, a complete comprehensive history, and neuropsychological testing which will help us give every patient the correct diagnosis, to both establish or rule out ADHD and efficacy of medications, specifically stimulants, is as high as 90%. This is on a very top level of chronic illness control in medicine in general.
Insomnia
Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that can make it hard to fall asleep, hard to stay asleep, or cause you to wake up too early and not be able to get back to sleep. You may still feel tired when you wake up. Insomnia can sap not only your energy level and mood but also your health, work performance and quality of life. How much sleep is enough varies from person to person, but most adults need seven to eight hours a night.
At some point, many adults experience short-term (acute) insomnia, which lasts for days or weeks. It’s usually the result of stress or a traumatic event. But some people have long-term (chronic) insomnia that lasts for a month or more. Insomnia may be the primary problem, or it may be associated with other medical conditions or medications.
You don’t have to put up with sleepless nights. Simple changes in your daily habits can often help. There are both pharmaceutical and non pharmaceutical treatments for insomnia.
PTSD
Post traumatic stress disorder got remarkable attention because of all the cases of soldiers suffering from it on their return from active duty. While no doubt, it is a considerable burden for them, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD can happen to anyone exposed to a traumatic situation, even children. The causes for PTSD could be anything that puts the person in an unbearably stressful situation, especially one that causes or could have caused serious physical harm.
Take this as an illustrative example. Suppose you’re alone in an elevator and the lights suddenly go out, or the power goes out and the elevator stops midway. It’s not an immediately urgent or fatal position for you to be in, but even if you’re on the first floor or have no history of claustrophobia, your first reaction is of fear and panic, even though you know you’re safe. Now try to equate that with a situation where physical harm in inevitable, like a war zone where shelling is going on, or a child who has survived a school shooting, or a woman who has survived rape. These are all situations which leave behind intense emotional scarring- which causes PTSD.
The symptoms of PTSD can include flashbacks of the event, they tend to visualize the whole situation over and over again, and spend hours analyzing the way things should have been, or could have been. Severe emotional responses to normal, otherwise non stressful situations can occur, with physical symptoms like palpitations, accelerated heart beat, sweating, tremors and panic attacks, accompanied by severe social anxiety. Patients of PTSD also may have insomnia or recurrent nightmares of the event, which adversely affects their quality of life even more. In some cases, PTSD patients block out the entire event from their memory altogether, but that does not always help with the symptoms that develop regardless.
Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar Disorder is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression).When you become depressed, you may feel sad or hopeless and lose interest or pleasure in most activities. When your mood shifts to mania or hypomania (less extreme than mania), you may feel euphoric, full of energy or unusually irritable. These mood swings can affect sleep, energy, activity, judgment, behavior and the ability to think clearly.
While the average age of onset of bipolar disorder is around 25 years of age, it can affect teens and adults of all ages. Around the world, over 46 million people are affected.
Every person with bipolar disorder will have unique symptoms, and mood swings between mania and depression can vary in length and intensity. There are several types of Bipolar depending on the intensity and the timeline of the symptoms . Types of Bipolar include Bipolar 1 disorder, Bipolar 2, Cyclothymic disorder.
Bipolar disorder is considered a lifelong condition. Meaning, treatment for bipolar needs to consist of a lifelong plan of action. Treatment typically consists of medications and therapy. Medication can include mood stabilizers and other drug classes.
Personality Disorders
People with personality disorders suffer from long-term maladaptive patterns of unhealthy and inflexible thoughts and behaviors. As such, they often have trouble dealing with everyday problems and have difficulty to maintain stable long term relationships. In fact, people with personality disorders may not realize they have a disorder, and they often blame others for their problems.
Personality disorders are often caused by genetics and childhood experiences. Symptoms range from mild to severe and are usually treated with talk therapy and sometimes with medication.
Adjustment Disorder
Adjustment disorder is an abnormal and excessive reaction to a particular stressor – such as a single event (a natural disaster, marriage, divorce), multiple events (marital problems or business problems), or recurring or continuous events (financial difficulties, spousal abuse, financial troubles) – that can significantly affect one’s social, occupational, or academic functioning.
Symptoms of adjustment disorder include sadness, a sense of hopelessness, frequent crying, difficulty sleeping, lack of appetite, an inability to concentrate, withdrawal from social support, avoiding important tasks, and suicidal thoughts or behavior. Usually, these symptoms start within three months of the stressful event and last no longer than six months after the end of the event. Persistent or chronic adjustment disorder, however, can last longer if the stressor is ongoing.
Psychotic disorders (Schizophrenia, Delusional disorders and others)
These are a group of serious illnesses that affect the mind. They make it hard for someone to think clearly, make good judgments, respond emotionally, communicate effectively, understand reality, and behave appropriately. People with these disorders have abnormal thoughts and find it difficult to tell what’s real from what isn’t.
When symptoms are severe, people with psychotic disorders have trouble staying in touch with reality and often are unable to handle daily life.