Mental Health
- Address anxiety, mood disorders (such as depression and bipolar disorder) and other mental health conditions
- Navigate life transitions, challenges and relationships
- Adjust to and cope with challenges of injury, illness and caregiving
- Enhance quality of life, relationships, wellbeing and physical health
We believe that individuals are equipped with experiences and strengths that can be drawn from to support mental health. At Endeavor Psychology, therapy focuses on a holistic understanding of individuals – and the way that their biology and physical health, life experiences, family history, social networks, and communities impact their psychological health. Therapy is tailored to help each client achieve mental and physical wellbeing.
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Mental Health
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing and impacts our thoughts, feelings, actions. Mental health affects how we handle stress, relate to others, and make life choices and has a direct impact on our physical health. Many factors contribute to mental health problems, including:
- Biology, such as genes or brain chemistry
- Life experiences, such as trauma, abuse or neglect
- Family history of mental health problems
The good news is that individuals facing mental health problems, including anxiety, depression and other challenges can get better, maintain a high quality of life, and pursue life goals with the help of therapeutic interventions.
There are a number of mental health disorders that can impact an individual’s performance at school or work, relationships, health and quality of life. Fortunately, many of these conditions can be improved through therapy. Experiencing one or more of the following feelings or behaviors can be warning signs of a problem:
- Eating or sleeping too much or too little
- Pulling away from people, interests and normal activities
- Having low or no energy
- Feeling numb or like nothing matters
- Having unexplained aches and pains
- Feeling helpless or hopeless
- Smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual
- Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared
- Experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships
- Having persistent thoughts and memories that you can’t get out of your head
- Hearing voices or believing things that are not true
- Thinking of harming yourself or others
- Inability to perform daily tasks like getting to work or school or taking care of your kids
There are a number of mental health myths that prevent people from seeking the help they need to lead happy, healthy and productive lives. Therapy can be an effective strategy for taking control of and achieving positive mental health. At Endeavor Psychology, we help clients with a broad range of mental health issues develop strategies and skills to:
- Realize their full potential
- Cope with the stresses of life
- Develop and maintain fulfilling relationships
- Improve productivity at school or work
- Make meaningful contributions to their communities
Depression Therapy
From time to time, everyone experiences sadness – for many these feelings pass quickly. But people dealing with depression can feel despair or sadness for weeks, months or years. People who are depressed often feel an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, restlessness, or anger that interferes with their daily activities – like pursuing interests, working, eating and sleeping. People who are depressed may withdraw from or even stop doing daily activities and may experience physical symptoms including chronic pain, headaches or stomach aches.
Depression may be caused by many factors — including biological, genetic, psychological, social or environmental conditions — and is often a sign of a mental, emotional and physical imbalance. Many people dealing with depression are also facing major life transitions (e.g., grief, moving to a new location, transition out of a job or into a new opportunity). Depression also often accompanies injury and illness – affecting people who are learning how to cope with, manage, adapt to and/or overcome major health challenges.
Although not everyone who is depressed experiences the same combination or severity of symptoms, the following are common symptoms:
- Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” mood
- Feelings of hopelessness, pessimism
- Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness
- Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities
- Decreased energy, fatigue, being “slowed down”
- Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions
- Difficulty sleeping, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping
- Appetite and/or weight changes
- Restlessness, irritability
- Persistent physical symptoms
- Thoughts of death or suicide; suicide attempts
(National Institute of Mental Health)
Depression, even in its most severe form, is highly treatable under the care of a licensed clinical psychologist; getting quality depression treatment is critical. If depression is untreated, it can impact and worsen other areas of life, including physical health, relationships, and success at school or work.
At Endeavor Psychology, we use a number of proven psychotherapeutic techniques to treat depression. These include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy and various kinds of talk therapy to help clients:
- Understand and address the psychological, behavioral, interpersonal and environmental factors contributing to their depression
- Set goals and identify strategies to help clients enhance emotional and mental wellbeing
- Disempower negative or disorganized thoughts that may cause feelings of helplessness
- Develop strategies to alleviate pain and prevent later bouts of depression
- Cope with depression that may be affecting a loved one, family member or coworker
We can also refer clients to a medication provider or consult with a client’s current medication provider to help clients explore medication options.
Sleep Disorder
If you have trouble getting to sleep or sleeping through the night, if you wake up too early or have a hard time waking up at all, or if you are overly tired during the day, you may have a sleep problem or sleep disorder.
Sleep can be impacted by a number of conditions including: stress, chronic illness, pregnancy, psychiatric disorders, menopause and aging. While a doctor or health psychologist specializing in sleep disorders can help you diagnose and understand why you may be having difficulty sleeping, the following is a list of common sleep problems, their causes and sleep disorder symptoms:
- Acute Insomnia: Brief period during which it is difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep; often results from life circumstances (e.g., stressors at school, work or life changes) and may resolve without treatment.
- Chronic Insomnia: Disrupted sleep occurring at least three nights per week and lasting at least three months. May have many causes, including environment, poor sleep hygiene, medications, and physical disorders.
- Sleep Apnea: Caused by blockage in the upper airway that interrupts regular breathing for short periods of time, which wakes you up. Can be associated with high blood pressure, risk of stroke and heart attack and can be very serious if left untreated.
- Circadian Rhythm Disorders: Caused by changes in the body’s internal “clock” that drive natural sleep and alertness rhythms; many people experience Circadian Rhythm Disorders in the form of jet lag or delayed sleep phase syndromes (you fall asleep and wake up either too late or too early).
- Narcolepsy: Chronic neurological disorder that affects the area of the brain that regulates sleep. Narcolepsy can cause extreme daytime sleepiness and sudden loss of muscle control, often triggered by strong emotions. While the cause of narcolepsy is not yet fully understood, evidence suggests that genetics and environmental triggers (e.g., viruses) may affect your brain chemicals and cause narcolepsy.
Treatment for sleep disorders varies as widely as the disorders themselves, and may include counseling, medication, and lifestyle changes. At Endeavor Psychology our approach to treating sleep disorders is tailored to meet the unique needs of clients and the challenges they are facing. We draw heavily on a number of techniques that have proven to be effective in managing, resolving and coping with sleep disorders, including:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which focuses on changing behaviors (eliminating naps, implementing regular early exercise, standardizing bedtime) and unhealthy “cognitions” – thoughts, beliefs and fears – that may impede quality sleep. Even for individuals with acute sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy may be an effective part of a therapeutic plan designed to help control emotional stressors that may trigger and/or intensify symptoms.
- Relaxation Training, which teaches the client techniques to calm the body and ready for sleep. Mindfulness, meditation, and guided imagery are all approaches that we leverage to assist clients in dealing with sleep disorders, such as insomnia.
- Psychotherapy, which focuses on helping clients deal with stressors that may contribute to sleep problems and deal with mental and physical health challenges implicated in sleep disorders, including depression, anxiety and adjustment to injury and illness.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are a group of mental illnesses that cause individuals to feel excessively panicked, frightened or distressed in situations where others would not experience those same feelings, or would not experience them at the same level of intensity. While there are many anxiety disorders, the following is a list of the most common disorders and their symptoms:
- Panic Disorder: Characterized by “panic attacks,” results in sudden feelings of terror that can recur repeatedly and without warning. Symptoms of panic attack include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, stomach upset, feelings of being disconnected and fear of dying. Individuals with this disorder may worry excessively about having additional panic attacks and may become ashamed and self-conscious, sometimes limiting daily activities.
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Expressed by repetitive, irrational and unwanted thoughts, obsessions and/or rituals that seem impossible to control. Some individuals with OCD have specific compulsions (e.g., cleaning hands, obsessively organizing, repeatedly checking to ensure they’ve completed a task like locking the door) that they feel compelled to complete multiple times a day in order to temporarily release anxiety about something bad happening to themselves or to someone they love. People with OCD may be aware that their symptoms are not rationale to others, but may believe that their thoughts and fears could be true.
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): When individuals are exposed to or experience a traumatic event (natural disaster, violence, abuse) it is a normal reaction to feel distressed or “on edge.” For some, symptoms can be severe, resulting in nightmares, flashbacks, acute startle responses, or feeling distracted, detached, numb or angry. A person may be suffering from PTSD if these symptoms last for weeks or even months after the event and are so severe that they make it difficult for a person to carry on with daily activities, maintain loving relationships, or “return to normal.”
- Phobias: Acute and irrational fear of something that really poses little to no actual threat. Phobias can center on particular objects (e.g., bugs, dogs) or situations (e.g., flying in an airplane, being in an elevator) that cause feelings of terror, dread and panic. Individuals with phobias often feel intense shame about their fears and focus so much energy on avoiding objects or situations on which their phobia centers that leading a “normal” life becomes difficult.
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Causes a chronic and exaggerated worry about everyday events. Individuals diagnosed with GAD have feelings of worry that last for at least six months, make it difficult to concentrate or carry out daily activities, and often occur for many hours each day. Some individuals with GAD experience physical symptoms of fatigue, tension, headaches and nausea due to the severity of their anxiety.
- Social Anxiety Disorder: Characterized by an intense fear of social situations, often negatively affecting personal relationships at school, work and in social settings including parties and even family gatherings. Social anxiety disorder is often associated with an irrational fear of being humiliated in public. Individuals with this disorder may have symptoms similar to “panic attacks” (e.g., heart palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath) or may experience severe sweating (hyperhidrosis) when in social situations, which may lead to avoidance of those situations.
There are many other recognized anxiety disorders including: acute stress disorder, anxiety disorder due to medical conditions, and substance-induced anxiety disorder. Individuals with other mental illnesses, such as depression, may also have symptoms of severe anxiety as well.
Anxiety disorders may be treated through a combination of psychotherapy, aerobic exercise and medication. While medications do not cure anxiety disorders, antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs and beta-blockers can be used to help keep anxiety under control while you receive psychotherapy. If you are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder you should talk with your physician about medication options or consult with a licensed clinical psychologist who can refer you to a psychiatrist to prescribe and manage your medication.
Whether or not you use medication to manage anxiety symptoms, it is important that you seek the assistance of a licensed clinical psychotherapist who can help you implement strategies to manage your anxiety in the long-term. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered a “first-line treatment” of anxiety disorders. This form of therapy involves helping clients address their fears by modifying the way that they think and respond to stressful events.
At Endeavor Psychology, our approach to treating anxiety disorders draws heavily on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and relaxation techniques, including mindfulness and meditation, targeted to decrease stress and worry experienced by individuals dealing with anxiety disorders. Our approach also helps clients implement healthy lifestyle changes (e.g., healthy diet, good sleep hygiene, and regular exercise) that have been shown to decrease symptoms and improve outcomes for individuals with anxiety disorders.
We can also refer clients to a medication provider or consult with a client’s current medication provider to help clients explore medication options
Mood Disorders
The most common types of mood disorders include major depression, dysthymic disorder (a milder depressive disorder), and bipolar disorder, which causes alternating episodes of depression and mania (elevated mood). Symptoms of mood disorders are often expressed through feelings and behaviors. Individuals with mood disorders experience mild to severe feelings of sadness, helplessness or inadequacy that last a long time or become more intense over time.
Common Mood Disorder Symptoms:
- Prolonged feelings of sadness, hopelessness, helplessness or inadequacy
- Unexplained crying spells
- Changes in appetite and unexplained weight gain or loss
- Difficulty sleeping
- Loss of energy
- Guilt and feelings of worthlessness
- Inability to find happiness or take pleasure in interests
- Unexplained body aches and pains
- Feelings of hostility or aggression
- Difficulty interacting with loved ones
- Recurring thoughts of death or suicide – *This is a life-threatening symptom; if you are experiencing suicidal thoughts and/or believe you are a threat to yourself or others, seek immediate medical care (call 911).
Symptoms of Mania or Elevated Mood that May Accompany Mood Disorders:
- Excessive physical and mental energy/activity
- Decreased sleep, often without fatigue
- Racing thoughts and speech (talking fast or switching topics rapidly)
- Distractibility
- Impulsiveness, reckless behavior, or “poor” judgment
- Feelings of self-importance and omnipotence
- In severe cases, experiences of delusions and hallucinations
Serious/Potentially Life-Threatening Symptoms:
In severe cases, mood disorders can be life threatening. If you or a loved is experiencing any of the following symptoms, seek medical attention immediately (call 911)
- Posing a danger to yourself or others, including suicidal, threatening or dangerous behaviors
- Feelings of wanting to die, suicidal thoughts or expressions
- Delusions/hallucinations, hearing voices or seeing things that do not exist
- Inability to care for your basic needs
Mood disorders can worsen if left undiagnosed or untreated; delays in getting the correct diagnosis and treatment can contribute to personal, social, and work-related problems. Proper diagnosis and treatment can help people with mood disorders lead healthy and productive lives. In most cases, treatment can help reduce the frequency and severity of episodes.
Treatment for mood disorders is aimed at addressing negative feelings, helping you to feel normal, capable, and ready for your daily life. Common treatments of mood disorders include:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to examine the interaction between your thoughts and beliefs, feelings and emotions, and behaviors
- Interpersonal therapy to work on discovering and understanding past and current relationships and their impact on current thoughts, emotions and behaviors
- Identification and treatment of coexisting conditions
- Mood-stabilizing medications and/or antidepressant medications to improve moods
- Antipsychotic medications, if indicated, to treat disordered thought patterns and altered perceptions
- Support groups
At Endeavor Psychology, we use an integrative approach to psychotherapy to help people deal with mood disorders. Our approach focuses on the experiences and strengths of individuals and draws heavily on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) therapy to help people deal with mood disorders. Our approach leverages behavior modification to help clients consider healthy lifestyle changes (healthy diet, good sleep hygiene, and regular exercise) that have been shown to decrease symptoms and improve outcomes for individuals with mood disorders.
We can also refer clients to a medication provider or consult with a client’s current medication provider to help clients explore medication options.