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During this time of good cheer, bright and colorful decorations, advertisements and commercials showing happy times seemingly enjoyed by all except for maybe you, makes being depressed all that more noticeable to others and to one’s self.  Signs of holiday depression or sadness may bring comments like “Don’t be a Grinch,” or being called “Scrooge,” which certainly do not help cheer you up at all.

Holidays Not Always A Happy Time

The months of November and December may not be in reality so cheerful. The store window dressings, magazine decorating articles, food ads, and holiday shows belie what may really be going on in people’s lives. The end of the year is often extremely stressful trying to plan for the holidays with limited finances, end of year deadlines and responsibilities. In addition, social work events, poor eating and drinking habits, or dealing with increased family stress also occur. Add holiday stress on top of dealing with the loss of a loved one during increasingly cold and dark winter days, and holiday depression finds its way into thousands of lives.

Sadness or Depression

It can be normal to be sad or depressed at any time of the year. The stress of the holidays may trigger sadness or depression for many. Seeing others happy and cheerful, full of generous spirit, may make one feel there is something wrong with them if they do not feel that way. During the months of November and December the stress and anxiety experienced may cause those who are normally content with their lives to experience loneliness, a lack of fulfillment, sadness or depression.

Signs of Holiday Depression

The most common signs of depression are crying, loss of interest in usual activities, fatigue, social withdrawal, feelings of sadness, thoughts of being worthless; additionally, irritability, changes in sleep, weight, appetite, blaming oneself or feeling guilty about a situation or event are commonly seen. These symptoms can come and go during the year. If they become severe or last for more than a couple weeks, it may be more than the holidays causing this. It is time to get professional help, turn your life around letting some joy back into your life.

Statistics of Holiday Depression

Part of feeling depressed can come from being alone, or from having limited support of family and friends. In the U.S. 43% of adults are single and 27% live alone. With senior citizens 17% are single, divorced or widowed over the age of 65 often with health and mobility issues. Women have twice the risk as men for depression. After development of heart disease, depression is the next most debilitating illness for women, 10^th for men.

Holiday Depression Help

Holidays are supposed to be a time of joy and celebration, but some people find them anything but happy times. Call the office for a confidential appointment to determine if you have seasonal affective depression, a bout of the blues, or are clinically depressed. Help is available. Call today.

Many people understand right away when they hear you have ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as the hyperactivity and impulsive components are easily recognized and accepted as part of ADHD. Having ADD however is less likely to be understood – when you take away the hyperactivity or impulsive behaviors what do you have left?

Adult ADD Primary Symptom

With adult ADD the primary symptom is a persistent pattern of inattention that interferes with normal daily life functioning. With ADD the components of hyperactivity or impulsive behaviors are not present. The symptoms of ADD typically are found interfering in two or more areas of a person’s life, such as at home, work, school, or in social situations.

Questions to Ask Yourself About ADD

If you find you are answering yes to the following questions it may be time to pick up the phone and make the call for a confidential evaluation with a qualified mental health professional experienced in treating adults with attention deficit disorder. You may not have ADD; however, if you do answer yes to several of the following questions it could indicate a need for professional help to change what is interfering with living life to the fullest.

Do you:

• Have difficulty keeping your attention on either a work task or fun activity?
• Have trouble remaining focused during conversations, while reading or listening to others?
• Find you are easily distracted by something in your environment or by unrelated thoughts?
• Avoid taking part in tasks that require sustained mental effort or thought?
• Find that your mind wanders off to somewhere else while listening to someone, even when they are speaking directly to you?
• Find that you miss project deadlines, pay bills late, have trouble managing your time, or have difficulty organizing daily activities or tasks?
• Make careless mistakes because you fail to pay good attention to details?
• Often lose or misplace something that needed like your glasses, phone, wallet, keys, etc.?
• Find yourself sidetracked, losing focus and fail to finish chores or duties?
• Have trouble waiting your turn (in line, to talk, etc.)?

Find Help from a Psychiatrist

These are just a few of the more common symptoms of adult ADD. If you have any concerns about your mental health, behaviors, or if your symptoms are interfering with living and going about with your daily life, make the call.

Research published this September in the Journal of Addictive Behaviors shows that young adults, those 26 to 34 years old, are twice as likely to have prescription opioid abuse and opioid disorder as that same age group from one decade ago. In addition to young adults, data show that emerging adults, those 18 to 25 years of age, have shown an even larger alarming increase in use of the prescription opioids for non-medical purposes.

Opioid Abuse Wide-Reaching

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health has released data that also highlight the increasing trend of opioid abuse. The data show alarming and wide-reaching numbers for both the young adults and emerging adult groups. During the past decade, young adults have doubled their odds from 11% to 24%; emerging adults show a 37% increase in developing prescription opioid use disorder.

Opioid Abuse Leading To Heroin Use

The problem of opioid abuse and addiction often does not end there. Research has shown a 4x to 9x increase in movement on to heroin use for both young adults and emerging adults who have been using opioids without an appropriate prescription. Data show that over the past decade that heroin use post opioid use has risen from 2% to 7% for 18 to 25-year-olds, and from 2% to 12% for 26-to 34-year-olds.

Urgent Psychiatric Intervention Needed

With concrete data showing the alarming increases of prescription opioid use disorders as well as increased odds of moving on to heroin use, it is a critical time for public education, changes in the attitude of the medical community, and in development of new health policies. Opioid addiction is treatable – qualified medical professionals are waiting to develop a treatment plan.

Opioid Abuse Treatment

Dr. Hege has decades of experience in successfully treating opioid abuse and addiction. Give his office a call for a confidential appointment and begin to break the bonds addiction has over you.

Many people struggle through life with hidden depression, hiding their depression from others and even from themselves. While help is readily available, many keep their depression concealed, masking their symptoms and putting on a “happy face” or always responding with “I’m fine” when asked how they are.

Reasons for Hiding Your Depression

There can be so many individual reasons for hiding personal depression; however, one reason may be that they do not want to admit or acknowledge the severity of their depression. Other reasons may be that they believe their depression will go away on its own, or may think, “We don’t talk about feeling sad, but push on through life.” It can be a common plight for thousands to believe that having a hidden depression makes them weak and asking for help is the last thing that they should do.

Signs of Hidden Depression

• Unusual sleep, eating, or drinking habits. When a change in the way a person sleeps or eats occurs, it can be a sign that something is not right in their world. For example: they cannot sleep or they sleep far beyond normal every day; overeating may help someone feel less emotionally empty by “stuffing” themselves; drinking may be used as a means to help cover up the feelings of sadness and loneliness. Others may lose all interest in food or drinking.

• Wear a “happy face” or “all is well face” so that others may think that indeed all is fine. In addition to the “mask of happiness,” they may avoid or give excuses why they cannot hangout, go out to dinner, go to a get-together, etc.

• Conversation may turn to topics the person does not normally talk about, with topics tending to focus on what their life has amounted to so far, what the meaning of life is, is life really worth living, would death be a better choice than the life they currently have, is there happiness out there for them, can they change the course their life is on. Hidden depression can change one’s entire outlook on life.

• Put out an attempted “cry for help” by making that appointment to see a specialist, or by letting some of their hidden feelings out to friends and family. These are attempted cries for help however as they tend to not keep that medical appointment, or they just blow off what they had said as having a bad day and that they did not really mean it.

• Those with a hidden depression who are keeping all of their emotions bottled up may find “leakage” of emotion, crying during a movie, commercial, or at family event, where they normally would not reveal that side of themselves. Other emotions may come out unexpectedly like flashes of anger, or becoming overly demonstrative with feelings of love and endearment toward others.

• Exhibit Depressive Realism where they have a more realistic and less optimistic view of world around them. For the most part, it is harder to cover up depressive realism as their viewpoints lack expectation that they will succeed or do well – they may look toward an outcome with a negative foundation that does not fare well for them – for example, they may have applied for a job promotion but say, “I doubt that I’ll get it, let alone be anywhere in the running for it.”

Help for Hidden Depression

Call a local psychiatrist with decades of experience who is ready to help you from taking the first step to recovery to reclaiming the happiness in your life that you deserve.

There are many different mental health disorders and conditions that can be diagnosed and successfully treated by qualified mental health professionals. It may be found during a comprehensive evaluation that a person may have a primary disorder or illness with other psychiatric disorders present that require treatment as well.

Qualified Mental Health Evaluation Critical

Diagnosis of multiple mental illness in a person is not uncommon. In addition some mental illness disorders have components of others in them. Some examples: someone with PTSD who also presents with a depression component or a person who may be diagnosed with depression but who also has suicidal tendencies. Working with an experienced psychiatrist provides you with the skills needed to determine your individual issues and needs.

Common Mental Illness Diagnoses

The more common types of mental illness or mental disorders follow.

• Anxiety Disorders: An anxiety disorder is typically diagnosed when a person’s response is not appropriate to the event or situation — if a person cannot control the response, or if the anxiety is interfering with normal daily life. Anxiety disorders usually come with feelings of fear and dread, physical signs of panic such as sweating and rapid heartbeat. Anxiety disorders do include panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and other specific phobias.

• Mood Disorders: These disorders involve chronic long lasting feelings of sadness, periods of feeling overly happy, or feelings that fluctuate from extreme happiness to extreme sadness. This category includes the most common mood disorders of bipolar disorder, depression and cyclothymic disorder (low and high mood swings not as severe as those seen in bipolar disorder). 

• Impulse Control and Addiction Disorders: With a diagnosis or diagnoses of this type of mental illness comes the inability to resist urges or impulses as well as performing acts that may to harmful to themselves or others. Some examples of impulse control and addiction disorders are compulsive gambling, alcohol and drug addiction, pyromania or kleptomania. It is not uncommon for the person to become so involved with their addiction that they start to ignore their work, home and social responsibilities and relationships.

• Personality Disorders: Those people with personality disorders generally have extreme and inflexible personality traits that cause distress and problems not only to the person with this mental health illness, but also cause disruption at work, school or in social relationships. With personality disorders the pattern of thinking and behavior are often so rigid that they interfere with normal daily living skills. Some examples of this disorder are antisocial personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and paranoid personality disorder.

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): This mental illness usually develops after a traumatic or terrifying event. People who are diagnosed with PTSD typically have lasting and frightening thoughts and memories of the event and often find themselves emotionally numb.

Expert Mental Illness Help Available

If you see yourself in one or more of the multiple descriptions above and are having difficulty with daily life functioning it may be time to take a proactive step; call for an appointment with a qualified mental health psychiatrist for evaluation.

In today’s stressful and high anxiety environment it is not uncommon for many people to suffer from panic attacks, emotional distress, or develop feelings of fear or helplessness after a traumatic event. How can you know if you are suffering from PTSD or some other mental health issue? Below we mention some of the most common signs and symptoms of PTSD; however, it takes a qualified professional to make an accurate diagnosis and develop a treatment plan to meet your individual needs.

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Adult ADHD has three core symptoms: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity — any or all of which may impact a person’s daily life with their various symptoms and complaints. Many may miss out on years of successful treatment by not connecting the “dots” of symptoms and diagnosis. Learning to recognize what ADHD symptoms may look like in everyday life may help thousands get the treatment needed to live a more satisfying life.

Adult ADHD Diagnosis

Having one or several symptoms of adult ADHD does not mean that you do have ADHD – only an experienced health care professional or psychiatrist can make that diagnosis. Use these lists of common everyday symptoms to discuss any of the behaviors seen in yourself with a doctor who specializes in adult ADHD.

ADHD Symptoms of Inattention

What do symptoms of inattention look like in everyday life?

• Frequently lose your keys, phone, wallet, or misplace other necessary items
• Trouble staying focused on work, work is inaccurate, you miss details
• Difficulty finishing what you start at home; projects left in various stages of completion
• Messy, disorganized work, poor time management where you miss deadlines
• Forgetful in returning phone calls, keeping appointments, paying bills on time
• Does not listen closely, often getting incomplete information for work assignment, travel directions, or even time/date of party
• Avoids challenging tasks of preparing reports, monthly budget, detailed job applications

ADHD Symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity on daily basis

• Feeling constantly restless and on the move; fidgets and squirms in seat
• Interrupting conversations or intrudes on others, jumping in to finish others’ sentences
• Difficulty standing in line at the check-out line, staying in seat waiting at doctor office
• Have too much energy to wait your turn in bank line, deli line, etc.
• Talks too much; may be called a “yapper;” people may avoid running into you
• May borrow others’ items without asking permission first

Diagnosis and Treatment Give Relief to Symptoms

Living life with several ADHD symptoms, let alone one annoying behavior can bring added stress to not only your life but the lives of family and friends who have to negotiate through the day with you. Call the office for a comprehensive evaluation and see if adult ADHD is the easily treated diagnosis that fits you.

People with quirky or eccentric personalities may be more interesting or fun to be around, but when their behaviors become too extreme or negatively impact their lives, there may be something else at play, including the possibility of a mental health disorder. In the U.S., about one in five adults, or almost 44 million people exhibit the occurrence of a mental illness every year.

Signs and Behaviors of Mental Health Issues

You may feel that you are unique and different, or even having a personality that is often misunderstood – when do those thoughts change over to questioning if you need to see a psychiatrist? There are certain behaviors and signs that do signal a need to see a mental health practitioner – if you recognize any of the following in yourself it does not mean you are disturbed or crazy, but rather that your life may be able to benefit from an aspect of mental health guidance and treatment.

• Difficulty coping with life on a day to day basis, having irrational fears
• Intense anxiety where every worry is “super-sized” and worst case scenario is expected
• Feeling overcome with sadness, or feeling down or hopeless on a regular basis that affects your ability to function
• Unexplained and recurrent headaches, stomach-aches or a rundown immune system
• Using a substance to cope with daily life; use of alcohol, illegal or prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications or other illicit activities to numb emotional pain
• Have impulsive or obvious mood swings
• Cannot shake the impact of recent or past traumatic events
• Thinking about suicide or hurting one self
• Serious anger issues, significant irritability, hostility, rage and frequent outbursts of anger
• Distorted body image along with a highly troubled relationship with food and eating

Help is a Phone Call Away

While the list above does not cover all the mental health issues or concerns a person may have, it does highlight some of the most common behaviors and signs that a comprehensive evaluation by a skilled psychiatrist may provide a diagnosis for. Mental health disorders are treatable. Call for an appointment.

Depending on the person and the type of psychiatric medication they are taking, the side effects experienced are wide and varied. Some are often an annoyance while others become just too much to live with on a daily basis, making thousands of patients left to decide if the side effects are worth the treatment and management of their disorders or diagnoses. When side effects for psychotropic medications lead to the belief a person is actually worse off taking the drugs, it is time for a full comprehensive exam and medication review by a qualified and experienced psychiatrist.

Unbearable Side Effects

Many people report that their side effects make living with a disorder or mental health diagnosis worse than the struggle through life without any medications. Some of the side effects that lead people away from medication are debilitating movement disorders, intense restlessness and agitation, sexual dysfunctions, or potentially life-threatening health risks. A review of some of the main side effects of the common classes of psychiatric drugs follow:

Common Side Effects of Antidepressants

• Nausea and vomiting
• Weight gain
• Diarrhea
• Sexual problems

Common Side Effects of Anti-Anxiety Medications

• Nausea
• Blurred vision
• Headache
• Confusion
• Tiredness
• Drowsiness
• Dizziness
• Nightmares

Typical Side Effects of Stimulants

• Difficulty in falling asleep or in staying asleep
• Loss of appetite
• Stomach pain
• Headache

Less common effects include:

• Personality changes – appear emotionless or flat
• Motor or verbal tics

Possible Effects of Anti-Psychotic Drugs

• Drowsiness
• Dizziness
• Restlessness
• Weight gain
• Dry mouth
• Nausea and vomiting
• Blurred vision
• Low blood pressure
• Appearance of tics and tremors
• Seizures
• A lowered number of white blood cells

Less common effects related to physical movement include:

• Rigidity
• Persistent muscle spasms
• Tremors
• Restlessness

Common Side Effects of Mood Stabilizers

• Itching, rash
• Excessive thirst
• Frequent urination
• Slurred speech
• Heartbeats that are fast, slow, irregular or pounding
• Seizures
• Tremors or shaking of hands
• Changes in vision
• Nausea and vomiting
• Blackouts
• Loss of coordination
• Hallucinations (visual or auditory)
• Swelling of face, tongue, throat, lips, eyes, hands, feet, ankles or lower legs

Side Effects or Symptoms Requiring Immediate Attention

Call your doctor right away or seek emergency mental health treatment if you experience any of the following:

• Thoughts of suicide or dying, or attempting suicide
• New or worsening depression
• New or worsening anxiety
• Panic attacks
• New behaviors of aggression, anger or violence
• Acting on dangerous impulses
• Unusual changes in behavior or mood
• Extreme insomnia or restlessness

Manage Medication Side Effects Successfully

If psychiatric medications are causing you side effects that are becoming more and more intolerable, call the office for a comprehensive review for medication management of your mental health disorder or concern that will allow you to enjoy life once again. Call Dr. Hege, a local highly esteemed and experienced psychiatrist with decades of successful treatment planning while keeping those annoying side effects to an absolute minimum.

After multiple research studies it has been determined that premenstrual mood exacerbation may be a clinical marker in predicting the display of severe bipolar symptoms in women of reproductive age. The American Journal of Psychiatry reports that women who have both bipolar disorder and experience premenstrual mood exacerbation, PME, tend to have a worse course of illness, a shorter time in which relapse occurs and increased severity of symptoms than women who do not report PME.

Mood Exacerbation

Women with premenstrual exacerbation and bipolar disorder typically had more severe depressive and mood elevation symptoms over the course of a year with women reporting a greater symptom burden.  Women with PME and a bipolar diagnosis also exhibited more depressive mood episodes overall than women without reported PME. Study data showed that although there were considerably more depressive mood episodes with PME, women did not exhibit more episodes of mania or hypomania when compared to those women who did not suffer from premenstrual exacerbation.

Bipolar Relapse Time

For women with bipolar disorder and PME the median time to relapse was 4.5 months compared to 8.5 months who were diagnosed with bipolar disorder but who did not suffer from PME. This is a significant finding that indicates mental health professionals working with women need to track their menstrual cycle as well as the appearance and severity of premenstrual exacerbation in order to provide optimum care and treatment before, during and after the menstrual cycle. PME points to a more severe course of bipolar disorder suggesting further evaluation and the need for an adjustable treatment plan.

Complications to Treatment Plan

The Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital report that hormonal changes associated with the menstrual cycle and menopause can complicate the treatment and course of disease. It is possible for hormonal changes to impact mood as well as impact the way mood stabilizing medications used in treatment of bipolar disease work.  Working with a psychiatrist who understands PME and its relationship with bipolar disorder is necessary for consistent treatment and management of the disorder. Call Dr. Darvin Hege for a confidential appointment today.