Understanding depression and anxiety
Depression and anxiety are often used interchangeably, though they are two different conditions and may, at times, coexist. Approximately 25% of Americans are believed to have a mental health disorder, which can be overwhelming to those who experience them. It is important to reach out for help when you are struggling with depression and anxiety, and our team at the Connecticut Center for Integrative Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut, can help!
What is the difference between anxiety and depression?
Depression is characterized primarily by certain feelings, such as worthlessness and hopelessness, and can lead to suicidal ideation. On the other hand, anxiety is characterized by fear and extreme worry. While similar, they can often coexist and keep individuals from enjoying and engaging in life and the things that used to make them happy. In fact, a sign of depression is the inability to participate in what was before an enjoyable and fulfilling activity. Anxiety may also cause someone to pull away from what they love instead due to worry that something might go wrong.
What causes mental and emotional disorders?
Every individual is different, though many experience these conditions due to:
How can the Connecticut Center for Integrative Medicine help?
If you are dealing with anxiety and depression, or any other mental health concern, we are here to help. Our team of professionals can evaluate you with assessments, lab work, and medical history to get a proper diagnosis and determine the root cause of the challenges you experience. Once determined, we can offer a long-term, customized treatment plan to improve your mental and emotional well-being. This may include treatment with improved nutrition, prescription medications, nutraceutical supplements, acupuncture, counseling, or mind-body medicine. Our goal is to help you feel yourself again, and no one should be left alone to deal with anxiety or depression.
We encourage you to contact Drs Robert Kachko, Paul Epstein, and Veena Verma-Dzik today to get started learning more about managing anxiety and depression holistically and effectively. Call (866) 320-6402 to request an appointment at our practice, conveniently located in Stamford, CT, at 1200 High Ridge Road, Floor 2. Our office is open to new patients in Greenwich, Bedford, Darien, Wilton, and Fairfield communities.
Importance of brain health and its relationship with anxiety
How to determine the health of the brain?
Hi, this is Dr. Robert Kachko. 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;
– Inflammation
– 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.