Elevator Phobia Therapy - DFW, Frisco, Allen, Garland TX - Mental Health Disorders: Signs, Symptoms and Treatments

Elevator Phobia Therapy - DFW, Frisco, Allen, Garland TX




Hello, I'm psychotherapist Steve B. Reed.
As a specialist in working with anxiety, panic
attacks and phobias, I often have the opportunity
to help people get over a fear of riding in
elevators.
A fear of elevators is often a form of claustrophobia.
Claustrophobia being the fear of being trapped
or confined in a small space. It is estimated
that about 4% of the population worldwide
suffers from this type of phobia.
If you have an elevator phobia, the sight
of those doors closing can trigger an immediate
feeling of anxiety and panic.
You may begin to feel your heart rate elevate
as the elevator begins to rise. Your blood
pressure may go up too. You may feel shaky,
tense and experience rapid breathing.
Even glass elevators, where you can see outside,
can trigger other phobias such as a fear of heights.
These fears happen because the alarm center
of your brain has made a mistake. It is associating
a ride in the elevator as a dangerous activity.
Your brain may have associated a bad experience
in a closed space or in a high place as overwhelming
or painful.
When you are in a situation that feels similar,
your brain then remembers the distress and
causes you to go into a fight-or-flight reflex.
Fortunately, there are effective therapies
and treatment for the fear of elevators. With
help, you can learn to associate calmness,
comfort and relaxation with riding in an elevator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcorfFM8uhY


Mental Health Disorders: Signs, Symptoms and Treatments




There is a wide variety of diagnoses that
constitutes mental healthcare. One of the
main areas I specialize in is what we call
mood disorders. So that would be treating
diagnoses such as depression or bipolar disorder.
Another big area of interest for me clinically
is also the anxiety disorders. And that's
another big umbrella that can include anything
from obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized
anxiety disorder or panic attacks. There are
lots of other psychiatric diagnoses as well
that someone like me as a general psychiatrist
could possibly treat, but those are two of
my areas of clinical interest. There's a mix
of the way that patients present to outpatient
psychiatric care. Oftentimes in some of the
younger patients that I see it's their parents
that first see the signs that they may benefit
from some mental health treatment. Sometimes
with some of the older population, it can
be their kids, their coworkers or their friends.
And I would say about half the time patients
present on their own accord, having noticed
they've had changes to their sleep, their
energy, their appetite and have just become
interested in finding out what options are
available to treat those kind of symptoms.
I think the fact that people present many
different ways with anxiety is what makes
psychiatry so interesting. So there are definitely
types of patients who've will tell you when
you're interviewing them, I've been anxious
as long as I can remember. I was anxious on
the first day of school, I was anxious transitioning
from elementary school to middle school and
so on and so forth. And then there are certainly
patients who find later in life after they've
made transitions easily, may become anxious
related to a big change in their life or some
sort of stressor that's come up. So I think
that patients can present from all walks of
life and in all stages in their life and oftentimes
the symptoms may appear the same despite where
they're coming from. So we definitely feel
in psychiatry that the combination approach
is best. So oftentimes where appropriate,
we can use medications plus therapy. Some
of our anxiety disorders are very readily
treated by therapy and so it's very possible
to get good remission of your symptoms using
only therapy. And part of the role of a psychiatrist
would be to help you differentiate when is
it appropriate for medications to play a role
in your treatment or when should you approach
with simply therap-therapy alone as a first
line option.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSEAmnSxLns