What if it is not depression? With Dr. Achina Stien

Women Wired for Wellness hosted by Dr. Nisha Chellam

2020 has been a trying year for all . We begin 2021 with great intentions and a vision for a bright future to al.

Here is my conversation with Dr. Achina Stein a psychiatrist who helps us understand when mood disorders can actually be resolved.

5 Things to Know Before You Visit a Psychiatrist

Are you someone who is frequently experiencing severe mood fluctuations, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, lack of concentration, or other mental health-related symptoms? Perhaps your condition has become painfully unbearable and you are now planning to visit a psychiatrist for help? Well, then this blog is for you. This blog will introduce you to a fascinating approach to look at, understand, and go about finding a resolution to your issue. Not only will it empower you to be in better control of your condition by making a radical shift in outlook toward your health and wellbeing but also potentially introduce you to an elevated and fulfilling life that you never thought existed. So make sure you give this blog a good read before going to your next (or first) appointment with your psychiatrist.

The ‘What do I have?’ Phenomenon

Often if someone undergoes a feeling of depression and feeling low on a frequent basis, they or at times tend to start labeling it as depression or start to immediately start working towards identifying what’s wrong with them and the question they wrap their heads around becomes ‘what do I have?’

What’s wrong with it?

They can’t be blamed for it, after all, we are painfully human when we are trying to figure out the issue so that we can fix it. The problem is that if you only allow yourself to look at your issue from the conventional lens of traditional medicine, then you might never find out the actual cause of your symptoms. All that you will be aware of in your treatment process is the diagnosis that your visiting psychiatrist made based on your system and the medication to manage your symptoms. But is that enough?

Instead, Try The Why and the How Approach

Do you truly believe that managing your condition or symptom is the answer to your mental health issue with understanding the root cause? The problem with the former approach besides the expected side-effects is that there is always a risk of the symptoms to return at the slightest of trigger or if the treatment/ medication is stopped. Why? Because no one actually did the digging to reach, treat, and resolve the root cause. This is also why you should drop the what and instead try the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ approach.

And it’s where functional medicine as a practice comes into the picture. As you work with a functional medicine practitioner alongside your psychiatrist, you peel off your symptoms one layer after another until you arrive at what triggered your condition. Interestingly, you don’t just remain on the receiving end as in the case of the traditional approach but become an active participant in your treatment process along with your functional medicine practitioner. It empowering and almost immediately brings to the driver’s seat and take control of your health.

Everything starts with the gut

As a matter of fact, did you know that nearly 90 percent of the body's serotonin, also known as the Happy Chemical, is made in the gut? Let alone mental health concerns, you take diabetes, most heart conditions, thyroid issues, fatigue, and almost all auto-immune or chronic disease, the source of all them comes down to gut health.

Perhaps, what if it’s not depression?

So, it’s very much likely that your feeling low could have an underlying connection with your gut health and it got trigger by your biological, social, and/ or psychological situation. Perhaps, what you are experiencing is not depression and can be totally resolved provided the right thoughts and lifestyle shift. And the first steps always starters with paying attention to your gut health and noticing if there are any abnormalities there.

Patient Story

14-year-old John*, who was an otherwise charming teenager had off-late started to experience extreme difficulty in reading. Matters suddenly got worse when one day John attempted suicide standing on the edge of the 5th-floor of the building he lived in. It came as a complete shock to his family as they could never gauge-in any symptoms that would indicate that John was facing any challenge that was so severe that it got him to think about committing suicide. John’s mother, who was a psychiatrist herself, in an effort to find out the root cause started navigating for the treatment options. It was then that she came across a well-known functional medicine doctor. It was with his intervention that it was identified that John who had always struggled with constipation and eczema, had inflammation in his body. The onset of puberty, with all the drastic changes happening in the body, triggered his gut issues which severely impacted his mental health along with other symptoms like impacting his vision. John worked with his doctor to learn what he needed to do to get back on track and started practicing it. Subsequently, his gut issues were resolved, he got rid of the mental health issue he was facing and started living a healthy and normal life.

Hope you found this blog helpful and in case you have any questions, please send them to us at [e-mail] or [e-mail] and we will get back to you shortly.

*Name of the patient is changed for privacy reasons.