Mental Health Specialists

What is Mental Health?

Mental health is a very important aspect of your well-being that often gets overlooked in favor of your productivity at work, your relationships with friends and family, and other parts of life. It encompasses your emotional, behavioral, and cognitive well-being, and is equally as important as your physical health. In fact, conditions associated with your mind require individualized attention and treatment, just like chronic conditions of your body. 

Your mental health affects the way you think and the way you perceive the world. However, it doesn’t stop within the confines of your mind: It affects the way you behave and maintain relationships with others, and can prevent you from enjoying life entirely when it reaches a negative state.

What are Some Mental Health Conditions and Their Symptoms?

At Virginia Family Medicine, the team treats numerous mental health conditions and helps you form a long-term plan to manage your symptoms. If you experience the symptoms of these or other mental health conditions, you should schedule a visit to start getting your mental health back on track. 

The Virginia Family Medicine team can help you manage:

• Anxiety: Anxiety is a mood disorder that makes you feel excessively nervous or restless. In some instances, it causes episodes called panic attacks that physically feel like heart attacks riddled with terror, nausea, shaking, and sweating.
• Depression: Depression, also called major depressive disorder, is a condition that affects your mood and the way you think. It makes you feel sad or empty, but it isn’t just run-of-the-mill emotions. It can cause you to lose interest in regular activities, burst out in anger, and even have memory problems.
• Eating Disorders: Some people mistakenly think of eating disorders as a physical condition. Rather, the physical malnutrition that comes with an eating disorder is merely a symptom of a mental health condition. You might have an eating disorder if you’re severely underweight, are obsessed with food and its caloric content, or experience drastic weight fluctuations.

How Can I Manage My Mental Health?

At Virginia Family Medicine, the team works together to provide you with numerous approaches to restoring and maintaining your mental health. Many mental health conditions stay with you for your entire life, and you must learn to manage them in order to alleviate your symptoms and live normally. Your mental health treatment plan may include:

• Counseling
• Dietary changes
• Herbal supplements
• Prescriptions

The team wholeheartedly believes that medications aren’t the only answer to mental health and shouldn’t be used exclusively. With lifestyle interventions, talk therapy, and other approaches, you can work through periods of poor mental health, even if it feels impossible.

To get started on improving your mental health, call or click to book an appointment at Virginia Family Medicine today.