Psychiatry is a specialty focused on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders caused by environmental or medical challenges. The problems can be sudden, such as a panic attack, frightening hallucinations, thoughts of suicide, or hearing “voices.” Or they may be more long-term, such as problems focusing, impulsiveness, sadness, hopelessness, or anxiousness that never seems to or causes problems in everyday living. The doctor will consider a variety of treatment options including “talk” therapy, psychosocial interventions, and psychiatric medications to help one regain control of their lives and feel better.
Individual Therapy also known as psychotherapy/”talk” therapy, a collaborative effort between client and therapist to create change and growth to improve one’s quality of life. It addresses trauma, past experiences, or current stressors that have caused barriers with an individual’s mental wellness and self-esteem.
Play Therapy is a specialty treatment that helps children ages 3 through 11 express their troubles through toys and play. Research supported, it creates a natural, self-guided healing process for children since their verbal language is limited.
Child and Adolescent Therapy is a specialty treatment for students up to age 24 demonstrating challenges in behavior, adjustment, anxiety, mood, social interactions, impulsivity, choices, and high risks behaviors.
Couples/Family Counseling is therapy offered in a safe environment that helps partners and family members understand their loved one better, gain skills in communication, change behaviors that are necessary to reconnect, build trust, heal from past hurts, and strengthen their relationship.
Anger management is training for temper control and is the skill of remaining calm and composed. It has been described as deploying anger successfully. Anger is frequently a result of frustration, or of feeling blocked or thwarted from something we feel to be important. Anger can also be a defensive response to underlying fear or feelings of vulnerability or powerlessness. Anger management programs consider anger to be a motivation caused by an identifiable reason which can be logically analyzed and if suitable worked toward.
Anxiety is an emotion characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil, often accompanied by nervous behavior, such as pacing back and forth, somatic complaints and rumination. It is the subjectively unpleasant feelings of dread over anticipated events, such as the feeling of imminent death. Anxiety is not the same as fear, which is a response to a real or perceived immediate threat, whereas anxiety is the expectation of future threat. Anxiety is a feeling of fear, uneasiness, and worry, usually generalized and unfocused as an overreaction to a situation that is only subjectively seen as menacing. It is often accompanied by muscular tension, restlessness, fatigue, and problems in concentration. Anxiety can be appropriate, but when experienced regularly the individual may suffer from an anxiety disorder.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, similar to hyperkinetic disorder in the ICD-10) is a neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorder in which there are significant problems with executive functions(e.g., attentional control and inhibitory control) that cause attention deficits, hyperactivity, or impulsiveness which is not appropriate for a person’s age. These symptoms must begin by age six to twelve and persist for more than six months for a diagnosis to be made. In school-aged individuals inattention symptoms often result in poor school performance. Although it causes impairment, particularly in modern society, many children have a good attention span for tasks they find interesting.
Bipolar disorder, also known as bipolar affective disorder or manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of elevated mood and periods of depression. The elevated mood is significant and is known as mania or hypomania depending on the severity or whether there is psychosis. During mania an individual feels or acts abnormally happy, energetic, or irritable. They often make poorly thought out decisions with little regard to the consequences. The need for sleep is usually reduced. During periods of depression, there may be crying, poor eye contact with others, and a negative outlook on life. The risk of suicide among those with the disorder is high at greater than 6% over 20 years, while self-harm occurs in 30–40%. Other mental health issues such as anxiety disorder and substance use disorder are commonly associated.
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person’s thoughts, behavior, feelings and sense of well-being. People with depressed mood can feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, ashamed or restless. They may lose interest in activities that were once pleasurable, experience loss of appetite or overeating, have problems concentrating, remembering details or making decisions, and may contemplate, attempt or commit suicide. Insomnia, excessive sleeping, fatigue, aches, pains, digestive problems or reduced energy may also be present. Depressed mood is a feature of some psychiatric syndromes such as major depressive disorder, but it may also be a normal reaction to life events such as grief, a symptom of some bodily ailments or a side effect of some drugs and medical treatments.
Work–family conflict occurs when there are incompatible demands between the work and family roles of an individual that makes participation in both roles more difficult. Accordingly, the conflict takes place at the work–life interface. Conflict between work and family is important for organizations and individuals because it is linked to negative consequences. For example, conflict between work and family is associated with increased occupational burnout and job stress, and decreased health, organizational commitment and job performance.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an mental illness that can develop after a person is exposed to one or more traumatic events, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, terrorism or other threats on a person’s life. Symptoms include disturbing recurring flashbacks, avoidance or numbing of memories of the event, and hyperarousal, continue for more than a month after the occurrence of a traumatic event.