By Mohab Hanna, MD Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
Founder, MedPsych Behavioral Health
Are you reluctant to get evaluated psychiatrically? What is your fear? What is your concern? I know for a lot of people going to see a psychiatrist can be a daunting task. It can elicit a lot of fears, a lot of concerns, a lot of worries, and for some people it is outright anxiety. From my perspective as a psychiatrist who has seen thousands of patients in the Northern New Jersey and New York City area, I know that anxiety can directly interfere with getting psychiatric or mental health care and someone’s ability or someone’s desire to even go get evaluated. It is not uncommon for fear to directly impact your perception of whether you need to get evaluated or not.
The reality is, coming to see a psychiatrist at MedPsych Behavioral Health is about getting an evaluation to figure out what some of the issues are that you are struggling with, and what is actually going on. It’s not about being judged or having someone put a label on you. Many people have that fear, which results in their extreme reluctance to seek out a psychiatric evaluation or consultation.
Our goal at MedPsych is to figure out how to come alongside you and help you with whatever it is you are suffering or struggling with- whether that is anxiety, depression, panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorder or ADHD. Our goal is to help you figure out what comes next; what are the next best steps. And that does not necessarily mean psychiatric medications. Our goal is to do what we call a diagnostic evaluation to evaluate and assess the problem. The goal of the evaluation is to identify the nature of the problem in meaningful detail so we can determine with you the best potential solution.
Sometimes the problem is not necessarily psychiatric in nature and in that case, there is no need for psychiatric treatment. As a practice, we don’t believe that one size fits all. Our goal is to figure out what your particular problem is, and to guide you, to come alongside you, and to make recommendations, whatever that might be.
For some people, it’s doing nothing. For other people, it means going to see a counselor or a therapist or even a coach. For other people, it means considering supplements. MedPsych Behavioral utilizes a holistic approach that frequently includes the use of supplements for many people whether kids, teens or adults. For some people, it might be doing some blood work to figure out if there some vitamin deficiency going on or is there something going on with you medically. In that case, we refer you to the appropriate medical specialist who can address what we discover to be the underlying medical problem that is causing your distress.
Getting evaluated psychiatrically does not mean you’re going to automatically get a label and go on psychiatric medications. There’s much more to it than that. As a practice, we think from a holistic perspective. We think that by looking at you comprehensively, we can determine what is the best thing that you need to do in order to thrive in all different areas of life. This approach applies to kids, teenagers and adults.
You can schedule free consultation about our services on our website, or by emailing [email protected].
