What Type of Conditions Does a Psychiatrist Treat?
Psychiatrists treat the full spectrum of mental health issues. The most common conditions treated are depression and anxiety. They are typically treated with antidepressants and sometimes anxiety may be treated with Benzodiazepines like Xanax or Ativan. Psychiatrists are often the ones managing and prescribing stimulant medication used to treat ADHD. Psychiatrists are often the only specialists skilled enough to treat conditions like bipolar or schizophrenia which are medicated with mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics respectively.
Won’t My Symptoms Eventually Get Better?
There are instances of depression and anxiety that may be driven more by situational factors such as divorce, job loss, relocation, or the like. Many people do see improvements over time if they are willing to endure the difficult times to get there and eventually acclimate to the changes in their lives. However, you should ask yourself why you would want to suffer unnecessarily when psychiatrists and psychologists are available to help people navigate difficult situations and reduce the length and amount of suffering, symptoms, and time to recover.
There are many conditions that do not get better over time, in fact they get worse. Things like schizophrenia, bipolar, ADHD and some types of depression and anxiety can be life long and need on-going treatment. Often what starts out mild, left untreated, becomes moderate and eventually severe. When conditions are left untreated, they can become quite debilitating and even dangerous or lethal.
What are the Risk of Untreated Mental Health Conditions?
Depression: When depression gets severe many people can become vegetative and not even be able to get out of bed. Others can develop psychotic symptoms with severe depression resulting in delusions or hallucinations. As depression worsens many develop suicidal thoughts and ideation that can culminate in attempts or completed suicide.
Anxiety: Anxiety left untreated can progress to panic attacks, eventual withdrawal from friends and social life, and even agoraphobia where people will not leave their homes. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) can consume and take over a person’s life. Social anxiety can be crippling and leave many people feeling painfully lonely, bringing about depression as well.
ADHD: Perhaps arguably the least dangerous among the mental health conditions, ADHD can nonetheless be devasting for some. Those with moderate to severe cases are prone to high school or college dropout which in turn can have a huge impact on career options and earning potential. ADHD tends to impact relationships with partners often being fed up and resulting in dissolutions or divorce. Even without these consequences many with ADHD simply are working 2-3X harder than they should be to function.
Bipolar Disorder: For many, manic and depressive swings become more exaggerated over time resulting in suicidal periods during depression and mania and sleep deprivation that can lead to psychosis, dangerous or reckless behavior, putting themselves or others at risk.
Schizophrenia: Hallmark to the diagnosis of schizophrenia are delusions and hallucinations which can be crippling, debilitating, lead to hospitalization, self-harm, or even homicidal behavior with command hallucinations. The risks to self and others can be quite high.
Early identification and treatment are key to keeping conditions mild and getting resolution. If you are interested in meeting with one of our psychiatrists to help figure out what is affecting your mental health, feel free to contact IPC so you can schedule an appointment. Please call us now at 763-416-4167, or request an appointment on our website: WWW.IPC-MN.COM so we can sit down with you and complete a thorough assessment and help you develop a plan of action that will work for you. Life is too short to be unhappy. Find the peace of mind you deserve.
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