Anxiety and Depression: Why You Might Need To See a Psychiatrist
Living with anxiety and depression can make every day feel like a huge undertaking. From struggling to get out of bed in the morning to fighting racing thoughts at night, it can feel like you’ll never get a break from your own mind. And even though both depression and anxiety are very common, you may feel alone as you face your daily battle.
Everyone experiences moments of sadness and anxiety in their lives. However, when these feelings linger for long periods of time or are very severe, they can interfere with your quality of life and make you feel hopeless.
If you’ve been living with mental health issues for a long time, it can be easy to get caught in the trap of just trying to get through each day. However, we want to help you discover how to go beyond merely surviving and truly thrive. Seeing a psychiatrist is an important step in your healing journey.
Our psychiatrists at LunaJoy provide online counseling for women from all walks of life. Whether you just started college, became a new mother, lost a loved one, or recently became an empty nester, our compassionate psychiatrists are here to walk you through life’s many transitions and come to your aid when issues arise.
Depression and anxiety can take you by surprise, but they don’t have to control you. We’re here to help.
Ready to make the first step? Make an appointment.
Are Depression and Anxiety More Common in Women?
Depression and anxiety are some of the most common mental health issues affecting women. Approximately one in eight women develop clinical depression in their lifetime. It is most common in women aged 25 to 44 and can be contributed to multiple factors, including genetics, lifestyle, life events, hormonal changes, and others.
Women are twice as likely to experience depression compared to men, and less than half of women who have depression seek treatment.
Anxiety is very common in both men and women and affects approximately 1 out of 5 adults in the United States. Like depression, women are twice as likely to experience anxiety compared to men. There are several different types of anxiety disorders that can affect women including:
Generalized anxiety disorder: This is an anxiety disorder that may cause you to jump to the worst-case scenario and experience excessive worry about everyday events. GAD often cooccurs with depression.
Panic disorder: If you have a panic disorder, you experience frequent panic attacks and may avoid activities or places you fear will trigger an attack. A panic attack can cause an impending sense of doom and immense panic, including both mental and physical symptoms of panic.
Specific phobia: This is a disorder characterized by having immense fear of something that poses little to no real danger and going to great lengths to avoid it. Being terrified of spiders, heights, small spaces, or the dark are all common types of phobias.
Social phobia: This is a common type of phobia that involved being anxious to interact with others or having fears of being judged in social situations.
While depression and anxiety are common in women, they are not considered normal. Your mental health matters and you deserve to live a life free from anxiety and depression dragging you down. Whether you live with constant anxiety, struggle with depression, or have a combination of the two, seeing a psychiatrist can help you find peace and joy in your day-to-day life.
Hormonal Causes of Depression and Anxiety: PMDD and Postpartum Disorders
Hormonal changes can affect your mood and cause symptoms like mood swings, increased irritability, diet changes, panic attacks, sleep changes, and more.
While many women experience premenstrual syndrome, about three to five percent are diagnosed with what is called Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. If you have PMDD, you’ll experience more severe, depression symptoms such as feelings of hopelessness, difficulty concentrating, fatigue and insomnia, and irritability.
While these symptoms normally begin a week before menstruation and end a couple of days after it begins, they can be severe enough that you’ll need treatments like hormone therapy, medication, and psychotherapy.
It is also common for hormonal changes during and after pregnancy to cause mood changes. While almost all women experience what is called the “baby blues” after birth, which is a short period of feeling generally down and fatigued, some women go on to develop serious mental health issues like postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum PTSD, postpartum OCD, or postpartum psychosis.
Unlike the baby blues, these conditions last more than a couple of weeks and can cause severe sleep issues, mood instability, depressed mood, and decreased interest in activities. Women with postpartum depression may have thoughts of harming themselves or their babies.
Postpartum anxiety can cause women to have panic attacks, experience extreme fear of danger to their babies, or have general anxiety throughout the day. Both conditions can make life difficult for new moms and affect their relationship with their new babies.
How Do I Know If I Need Therapy?
Choosing to go to therapy is a very personal decision that no one can make for you. Truthfully, everyone, regardless of their mental health status, could benefit from going to therapy. However, if you are living with severe anxiety or depression, seeing a psychiatrist can significantly change the outlook of your life.
It can improve your relationships, completely alter your brain’s way of thinking, help you identify triggers and develop methods for coping, and provide you with practical tools for handling depressive or anxiety episodes.
Many women who could benefit from therapy avoid getting treatment due to fear of judgment from others or difficulties making appointments with a busy schedule.
Women’s teletherapy helps more women access the care they need by meeting women where they are. With online counseling for women, you can receive care discreetly from home without needing to worry about transportation, babysitting, traffic, or other factors holding you back.
Do I Need Medicine for My Depression and Anxiety?
While medication is sometimes prescribed to help women manage symptoms of depression and anxiety, this is a conversation you can have with your psychiatrist. If you wish to avoid anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medication, you can discuss your option with your mental health provider and explore other treatments that can help.
At LunaJoy, we practice holistic, integrative medicine. While we believe there is a place and time for medication, we combine traditional psychology with holistic approaches. We incorporate positive psychology, mind-body interventions, and mindfulness techniques in our therapy.
We also explore your physical body’s effect on your mind and discuss how adequate exercise, supplements, and nutrition can boost your mental health.
Talk therapy is at the core of our practice, which can involve various critically appraised, evidence-based treatments such as psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and dynamic therapy.
Rather than simply treat your symptoms and send you on your way, we are dedicated to helping each patient discover long-term healing. Most of all, we take a patient-centered approach, which means you’ll be a part of the conversation every step of the way and move at a pace that’s most comfortable to you.
Are you tired of living with depression and anxiety? Learn more about our women’s teletherapy services.
LunaJoy services are available in Florida, Georgia, Alaska, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Connect with us in Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Atlanta, Athens, Macon, Alpharet-ta, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Sitka, Minneapolis, Nebraska, Omaha, Lincoln, Bellevue.