Sandra Enders
Trauma Informed Treatment
What is the difference between mental health and behavioral health? These two terms are often used synonymously, however the former is often directed to a psychiatrist and may need psychotropic medications, the later can often be treated with a psychotherapist and may or may not need psychotropic medications.
What does it mean to be trauma informed? Trauma informed care in the medical field may appear to be a buzz word. It means working within a holistic framework of recognizing, understanding, and responding to the effects of trauma in the person. Past trauma is quit commonly found in most aspects of mental or behavioral health problems. A trauma informed therapist will understand the complex impact of trauma on the client's suffering and how it impacts their ability to cope. The feeling of emotional and physiological safety of the client is the priority of the therapist.
Mood Disorders
Mood disorders are a mental health class that health professionals use to broadly describe all types of depression and bipolar disorders. There is no clear cause of mood disorders. More than 15 million Americans a year suffer from depression, an illness that is on the increase worldwide. Depression is a complex disorder that can interfere with concentration, appetite, and sleep patterns; and in more severe cases can seriously disrupt a person’s life. Some types of mood disorders seem to run in families, but no genes have yet been linked to them. In general, nearly everyone with a mood disorder has ongoing feelings of sadness, and may feel helpless, hopeless, and irritable. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years, and can impact quality of life. Depression is most often treated with medicine, psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy, family therapy, or a combination of medicine and therapy. In some cases, other therapies, such as electroconvulsive therapy and transcranial stimulation may be used.
Addiction
Addiction: Substance * Behavior * Food
Addiction is a complex problem that comes in many forms. It is a bio-chemical process with many variables that work together; physiological, psychological, and mixed with social factors. Neurotransmitters in the brain become altered with repetitive use or actions. However, this process can be corrected. There are various theories of causes of addiction, motivational abnormalities, impaired reward center in the brain, and pathological environments. The self-medication theory is most popular, based on the idea that people use addictive substances or behaviors to compensate for underlying physical or psychological ailments that have not been properly addressed or treated. Behavioral science research has concluded that all substances or behaviors capable of stimulating the neurotransmitters in the brain for pleasure can become addictive; and whenever a habit changes into an obligation, it can be considered an addiction.
Researchers also believe that there are similarities as well as differences between substance addiction and behavioral addiction as far as diagnostic symptoms. For instance, the behavioral addiction such as internet addiction is similar to drug addiction except that in the former, the individual is not addicted to a substance but the behavior or the feeling brought about by the relevant action which stimulates the brain is similar so the obsession to continue persists. The physical signs of drug addiction may be absent in behavioral addictions, however behaviorally addicted individuals have certain similar symptoms and will undergo the same social and psychological consequences brought about by the addiction than those who struggle with substance addiction or other obsessive behaviors.
Substance addictions are referred to as “substance use disorders” and fall under that classification. This problem area affects a person's brain neurotransmitters and in turn affects the behavior which leads to an inability to control the use of the substance. These substances can include alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, any prescribed or illicit drugs such as opioids (heroin), cocaine (crack), amphetamines (crystal), or any of the designer drugs (PCP) or hallucinogens (LSD). Although food as a substance is often kept in a separate classification system of its own under eating disorders in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for mental health diagnosing, it is often considered a substance of addiction (sugar) and is often treated similarly as other substance use disorders.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem in the country today. Over 40 million adults in the US (19.1%) have an anxiety problem. There are various anxiety related problems however, all anxiety disorders have one thing in common: persistent, excessive fear or worry in situations that are most often non-threatening. Anxiety is characterized by excessive worry, emotional distress, and intrusive thoughts or fears. General anxiety can also arise from high levels of stress.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition that's triggered by a past terrifying event, whether it is real or perceived as such. It is a life-threatening experience or the witnessing of another having it. Heightened anxiety, nightmares, hypervigilance, or avoidance of people or places are often the result of past trauma. Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is commonly used today to work with past trauma.
