Issues addressed

Depression/Low self esteem
Depression is on of the most common psychological problems that people experience. Individuals who are depressed often experience feelings of personal worthlessness, helplessness to achieve the kind of life they desire, and hopelessness about their future. Depression has a variety of symptoms such as persistent sadness; a loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities; a lack of energy; appetite changes; difficulty concentrating; self-criticism; withdrawal from social activities; difficulty making decisions; and suicidal thoughts. Periods of sadness are a normal part of life, but if you are experiencing depressive symptoms to the point that they are negatively effecting your relationships with people you care about, your work, or your overall engagement with life, you would probably benefit from seeing a clinician.

Anxiety
Excessive worry is often the hallmark of chronic anxiety. People who are chronically anxious often may feel that it is difficult to break out of a chain of troubling thoughts where one worry leads to another. Anxiety is generally associated with physical symptoms such as rapid heart rate, feeling hot, light-headedness, shortness of breath, and muscle tension. Chronically anxious people often experience apprehension and foreboding about their future as well as restlessness and irritability.

Posttraumatic stress reactions
After experiencing a traumatic event such as a life-threatening situation, physical assault, sexual assault, or witnessing a horrific incident, some individuals develop posttraumatic stress reactions. Individuals with posttraumatic stress reactions often complain of nightmares, flashbacks of the traumatic event, sleeping problems, irritability and jumpiness. In addition, they often begin avoiding situations associated with their trauma and they may become avoidant and fearful of a wide range of situations they handled easily before the trauma. For example, someone who has experienced a bad motor vehicle accident may stop driving and avoid going by the location where the accident occurred. People experiencing posttraumatic reactions often feel unsafe and perceive their world as far more dangerous than they did before the trauma. While these reactions are normal immediately after a trauma, if they persist for longer than a month you would probably benefit from treatment.

Panic attacks
Panic attacks are sudden intense feelings of anxiety or terror. Symptoms of panic attacks include physical symptoms such as rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, trembling, sweating, lightheadedness, dizziness, and hot flashes. Individuals experiencing panic attacks often feel they are going insane, losing total control, or having a heart attack. Some individuals with panic attacks develop agoraphobia, the fear of places or situations from which escape would be difficult or places where they particularly fear having a panic attack. People with agoraphobia often fear busy public places (such as crowded shopping malls), bridges, or being away from their house alone.

Phobias
Phobias are intense fears of specific situations or objects. Common phobias are fear of heights, flying, certain types of animals, elevators, and speaking in public. If you have a phobia you will either attempt to avoid the situations that are the focus of your fear or experience intense anxiety when confronting those situations.

Obsessions and compulsions
People suffering obsessions and compulsions experience recurrent unwanted thoughts that seem irrational to them. Often they will try unsuccessfully to push these thoughts out of their mind. These thoughts are can be highly disturbing and might involve preoccupation with thoughts of contamination, germs, aggression, taboo sexual activity, or bizarre ideas. Often these thoughts are followed by carrying out compulsive actions (repeated washing, counting or completion of some type of purifying activity) in an attempt to neutralize the thought.

Lifelong problems
Often clients come to Dr. Day to help with lifelong problems that affect their interpersonal relationships and seem to have become part of their personality. These sort of problems include feelings inadequacy or defectiveness, loneliness, strong dependency on others, problems choosing healthy partners, or difficulty trusting others. Typically, these type of patterns emerge early in life and effective treatment takes somewhat longer.

Sexual orientation issues
Often people identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and/or queer face a number of difficult issues throughout their lifetime. Concerns related to coming out, identity, homophobia/heterosexism, hate crimes, relationships, sex, HIV/AIDS are approached in a supportive, affirming and respectful manner.