Help for anxiety can come through medication and non-medication options. Medication The mainstay of medication treatment for anxiety disorders is the serotonin-enhancing antidepressants like the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (Prozac, Lexapro, Zoloft) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (Cymbalta and Effexor). Even though these medications are anti-depressants, we also use them to treat anxiety disorders like Generalized […]
The Connection Between Anxiety and Stomach Problems
There’s a bidirectional relationship between gastrointestinal disorders and anxiety. This relationship is thought to be controlled by a gut-brain connection. Research studies have concluded that there is signaling between the gut and the brain that affects the way we think and behave. So what does this mean? It means that having a disorder like GERD […]
How Food Affects Your Medication
Food has varying effects on your medications. They can reduce how much of the medicine is absorbed, they can INCREASE how much is absorbed or they can delay when the medication is absorbed. Reduced absorption means you don’t get as much of the medication into your bloodstream and therefore it may not work as well […]
Is It Normal To Keep Cycling on Bipolar Disorder Medication?
Combination therapy is very common in bipolar disorder because different medications have different purposes. The medication that gets you better, may not be the same medication that keeps you better. Typically, people with bipolar disorder require a combination of medications that you take at the same time. Why? Because the medications treat different aspects of […]
Two Tips for Health Anxiety
The clinical term for health anxiety used to be hypochondriasis, but now it’s been split into two disorders, somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder. With health anxiety you are oversensitive to body sensations and fear you have a serious illness. The fear of having that illness overwhelms you and leads to you engaging in […]
Can You Have Bipolar Disorder + Borderline Personality?
Can you have bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder at the same time? I’ve been asked this question several times and the answer is yes. In fact, some people will refer to this as borderpolar. This isn’t an official term but one that’s coined by professionals in the field. One of the key places bpd […]