If you’re living in Panama City, Florida, and you’re struggling with a mental illness without help, schedule an appointment with Dr. Roman Nation and the experienced team at Nation’s Best Family Health Care. We offer a wide variety of family, urgent care, and mental health services to help you cope with your needs.

Here are some common mental illnesses we can address:

Bipolar Disorder

Also known as manic depression, this is a condition that causes severe mood swings in the form of extreme emotional highs (hypomania) and lows (depression). The manic episodes include feeling euphoric, irritable, and energetic, while depressive episodes include listlessness and feelings of worthlessness. There are several types of bipolar disorder:

• • Bipolar I: at least one manic episode preceded or followed by a manic or depressive episode
  • Bipolar II: At least one depressive and one hypomanic (less extreme than manic episodes) episode without a manic episode
  • Cyclothymic disorder: at least two years of hypomanic of many periods of hypomania and mild depressive episodes
  • Related disorders: Other factors can cause bipolar episodes such as certain drugs, alcohol, and various medical conditions like Cushing’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke.

People with bipolar disorders don’t often see the effects their emotional instability can affect those around them. Severe manic episodes can lead to psychosis or severe depression.

Clinical Depression

Depressive disorders affect 6.7% in people 18 and older per year and can affect people of any age. Clinical depression is a severe type of depression marked by depression that lasts most of the day with symptoms present for at least two weeks. People with clinical depression often experience fatigue, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, indecision, impaired judgment, insomnia, excessive sleeping, weight loss, weight gain, and thoughts of suicide.

Depression can be triggered by major life changes (job changes, retirement, etc.), relationship conflicts, and emotional, sexual, or physical abuse. Women are often at a higher risk for clinical depression and are often underreported in men.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

People who experience GAD suffer from severe, continuous worry and anxiety so bad that it interferes with their ability to perform normal daily activities. You can develop GAD as a child or adult, and it has symptoms similar to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, and other types of anxiety. These symptoms include overthinking situations, seeing threats in every situation, indecisiveness, fear of making the wrong decision, being unable to relax, and difficulty concentrating. GAD can be caused by genetics, changes in brain chemistry, chronic illnesses, and traumatic events.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

This is a condition triggered by traumatic events and used to be known as shellshock and combat fatigue because of the effects it had on soldiers traumatized by war. But anyone dealing with a tragic event can be affected by PTSD, and people dealing with it may experience flashbacks, nightmares, uncontrollable thoughts about the event, and severe anxiety.

Symptoms can last for years and interfere with your ability to perform everyday activities. The condition is grouped into four types, and symptoms can vary over time from person-to-person. Stress or things that remind you of the event can cause PTSD to recur.

You can be dealing with these conditions undiagnosed and not realize you have it. This can make your personal life more difficult and directly affect how you relate to others. Coping with this alone can be difficult, and seeking help is vital to treatment. If you’re dealing with any of these mental illnesses and need help, make an appointment with Dr. Nation and Nation’s Best Family Health Care.