Depression and Anxiety
You are not alone: Brooklyn and Manhattan in New York, and Stamford in Connecticut doctors are here to help with depression and anxiety
True health is much more than the absence of physical disease. More than one quarter of Americans have a diagnosable mental health disorder, according to the National Institutes of Health. Sadly, social stigmas, feelings of helplessness, and other factors cause many of those people to suffer in silence, trying to cope without help. The doctors at NY Center for Integrative Medicine in Brooklyn offer treatment for disorders such as depression and anxiety.
How do you know if you need help?
Terms such as depression and anxiety are frequently used to describe emotions that everyone experiences on occasion. However, when these feelings become persistent and otherwise unavoidable, medical attention may be necessary. Anyone experiencing persistent feelings of uncontrollable sadness or overwhelm may need care for their condition. Depression and anxiety may also manifest as physical symptoms, such as headaches, digestive problems, chronic pain, and fatigue.
What is the difference between depression and anxiety?
Depression is associated with feelings such as hopelessness and worthlessness, while anxiety is characterized by extreme worry or fear. These are two distinctly different disorders, though they can manifest in similar ways and very often co-exist. The effect of both may be a reduction in engaging with and enjoying life. For example, a person might stop engaging in a previously enjoyable activity. While a depressed person may feel, “why bother?”, someone suffering from anxiety may be thinking, “something will go wrong.” The result – withdrawing from the activity – is the same, but the underlying reasons and emotions are different.
What causes mental and emotional disorders?
The answer to that question is different for every individual. It may be genetics, chemical imbalances in the brain, a reaction to current or past events, trauma, a side effect of drugs (prescription or recreational), or a symptom of a physical illness, among many other causes. For most people, the cause is a combination of factors.
How can NY Center for Integrative Medicine help?
At NYCIM we take a comprehensive, holistic view of mental health care. After a thorough history and assessment, lab work may be suggested to understand the root cause of your challenges. Once this is discovered, we begin a long-term treatment course that will help you to feel better on a mental/emotional as well as physical level. Treatment may include nutrition, nutraceuticals, prescription medications, acupuncture, botanical medicines, and mind-body medicine (hypnotherapy, counseling and biofeedback). Our primary goal is to help you feel yourself again. While the solution may be unique for everyone, one thing is universal – no one should deal with anxiety or depression alone. We can help. Just give us a call to get started.
Importance of brain health and its relationship with anxiety - Dr. Robert Kachko
How to determine the health of the brain?
Hi, this is Dr. Robert Kachko from the New York Center for Integrative Medicine. When it comes to brain health, we have to consider whole-body health and vice versa. A healthier body will always have a healthier brain.
When we consider conditions like anxiety, depression, also memory disorders like dementia and Alzheimer’s, we have to take a holistic view of what causes these conditions.
What is anxiety, and how to address it?
When it comes to anxiety, we know that the feeling that people have when they’re anxious is a signal that we need to figure out the root cause of what’s going on.
Anxiety is nothing but an alarm telling us that something is not going well. To assess the brain’s conditions, we need to do a comprehensive look at people’s blood work and evaluate the brain itself.
What can be monitored through comprehensive bloodwork?
To look at someone’s blood work from a brain health perspective, we have to consider things like;
– Blood sugar and insulin resistance
– Hormonal function like thyroid and all the sex hormones
– Essential vitamin and mineral deficiencies
What are the tools available to make an in-depth assessment of the brain?
We can do an in-depth assessment of the brain itself in our office. In our clinic, we employ EEG technology called the Wavi.
The Wavi brain scan allows us to take an in-depth assessment of the brain. We can look at the brain’s power, speed, and processing time.
We can look at left and right brain imbalances and look for markers correlated to anxiety, depression, dementia, other memory issues, and attention deficit issues.
How do you address the issues found concerning brain health?
Once we’ve done this comprehensive assessment, we’ve got many tools in our toolkit to address a long term healthy brain.
Stress plays a significant role in people dealing with anxiety, depression, and also dementia. We have to take a very comprehensive approach to help people reduce their stress.
We do IV therapy to offer targeted nutrients to the brain to support the required systems.
Similarly, we do acupuncture, a wonderful traditional tool with a lot of evidence for conditions like anxiety, depression, and stress.
Finally, we will employ botanical medicines, high-dose vitamins, minerals, nutraceuticals, and even pharmaceutical medication to help direct brain support.