mood disorders Archives | Oceanside Malibu

Ketamine to Treat Depression?

Ketamine to Treat Depression? There’s a new drug called Esketamine for treatment-resistant depression. This is a type of depression where people basically do not respond to any of the conventional treatments. In the United States alone, there’s just over sixteen million people with depression. That’s just over 6 percent of the entire population of the country, and a third of those people do not respond to any of the treatments offered to them. These individuals are classified as having treatment resistant depression and it’s one of the most horrible things to comprehend. To know that you are depressed, you have a diagnosis of depression, but your psychiatrist just turns around more »

Untreated Mood Disorders & Addiction

Untreated Mood Disorders & Addiction There is a strong and proven correlation between addicts, alcoholics and untreated mood disorders. These disorders are have traditionally been referred to in clinical treatment environments as Axis I & II diagnosis or dual diagnosis, very generally meaning substance use disorder plus a mood disorder. Here are some of the more common forms of mood disorders and the terms used to describe them… Clinical or Major Depression, to be distinguished from feeling down or sad, to the extent that biochemistry may be altered, there is no situational precedent and impairment in cognition may be significant enough to affect daily functioning to include degradation of more »

What It Means To Have A Mood Disorder

What It Means To Have A Mood Disorder A common element seen in many addicts/alcoholics is the existence of a mood disorder. A mood disorder may be primary or secondary, as a main factor in substance abuse or as the result of the chemical dependency and resultant withdraw syndromes. Correct diagnosis, identifying any underlying problems; education, in regards to how the mood disorder coexists in a symbiotic fashion with the addiction; and treatment of both the substance abuse issue and the mood disturbance, are integral to the approach we use at Oceanside Malibu Addiction Treatment Center. In order to define and diagnosis a mood disorder, we must look for a more »

Signs of Bipolar Disorder

Signs of Bipolar Disorder Bipolar disorder is a serious condition where a person’s mood can swing from feeling veryhappy or “up” to very sad and “down.” The “up” mood is known as a manic episode and the “down” mood is called a depressive episode. The fluctuation between the two of these moods can cause a child to be hyper productive one moment and show signs of depression the next. While it can be diagnosed in children, it is usually developed later during the teen years or early adulthood. Bipolar usually lasts a lifetime. There is no known cause for bipolar disorder. Children with bipolar disorder can also have other problems more »

Is It Depression?

Is It Depression? Depression is about much more than sadness. But even if your idea of depression also includes things like hopelessness or apathy, what about irritability or anger? Does depression make you think of overwhelming guilt? What about memory loss? Because those are all symptoms, too. There’s a lot we still don’t understand about depression, especially when it comes to what’s happening on the cellular level. We know that when it comes to the experience of depression, the disorder often shows itself in the form of unhealthy psychological processes. It turns out that some of those thought processes – specifically, self-blame and rumination – can lead to symptoms people more »

Behavioral Addictions

Behavioral Addictions Behavioral addictions occur when someone becomes addicted to a rewarding behavior that does not involve an addictive substance per se, such as gambling, sex, shopping or eating. Sometimes referred to as compulsive behaviors, behavioral addictions involve compulsion to perform an action despite negative consequences. In this way people can suffer from dependence on certain actions, they are reliant upon and/or controlled by these behaviors as their primary way of dealing with life. The difference between behavioral and substance addiction is that behaviors affect the brain indirectly, while substances physically change neurotransmitters. As part of our ability to survive, we naturally experience pleasure from sex and eating. Drugs such more »