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What are Your Symptoms?Symptoms begin as normal responses to life stressors.When symptoms become too many, or begin to interfere with daily living, it is time to seek some means of symptom reduction. Psychotherapy has been shown to significantly reduce symptoms and to provide people with valuable tools to prevent those symptoms from interfering with life in the future. If you have been struggling with problems for some time, and you are feeling frustrated and stuck, therapy can help you to move on. If your problems are affecting your relationships, your work, or your feelings about yourself, therapy offers an objective eye, support, and strategies for working on the problems. The following symptoms* are grouped based on some of the most common difficulties that people experience: Depression and Anxiety. Depression • Depressed Mood • Diminished Interest or Pleasure • Weight Change • Change in Sleep • Fatigue/Loss of Energy • Feelings of Worthlessness • Difficulty Concentrating/Indecisiveness • Thoughts of Death Anxiety • Pounding or Accelerated Heartbeat • Sweating • Trembling or Shaking • Shortness of Breath/Smothering Sensations • Choking Feelings • Chest Pain/Discomfort • Nausea or Abdominal Distress • Dizziness, Lightheadedness, Faintness • Feelings of Unreality or Being Detached from Oneself • Fear of Losing Control or Going “Crazy” • Fear of Dying • Numbness or Tingling Sensations • Chills or Hot Flushes There are several specific disturbances of the mood, including anxiety, that are associated with different combinations of the above symptoms. Bipolar Mood Disorder contains the symptoms of both Depression and Mania, usually in alternating sequence. Below are the symptoms associated with Mania, which can be very dangerous to you or others if unchecked. Mania • Inflated Self-Esteem or Grandiosity • Decreased Need for Sleep • Pressure to Keep Talking • Flight of Ideas/Racing Thoughts • Distractibility • Increase in Goal-Directed Activity • Excessive Involvement in High-Risk Pleasurable Activities While you may experience some, all, or none of the above symptoms, the most useful and the most basic indicator that you may need to begin psychotherapy is the degree to which your current state deviates from your normal state. If, for whatever reason, you do not feel like your ‘normal’ self and you cannot identify any specific reasons why, psychotherapy can greatly assist you in this process. *Extracted from American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fourth Edition – Text Revised (DSM-IV-TR) Professional Affiliations
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Copyright 2005 Dr. Jonathan Gale, Ph.D. All rights reserved. |
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