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What Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? (PTSD)
Post-Traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in someone who has experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war, rape, or who has been threatened…
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What is Dual Diagnosis and how is it treated?
The definition of a dual diagnosis is suffering from both a substance abuse disorder, such as with drugs or alcohol, as well as a mental health disorder like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. It has been found to be difficult to…
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What is OCD?
OCD stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Now what is it? It is diagnoses we give to those have intrusive thoughts about needing to do something repetitively. This can be fixation on cleanliness, certain orders or washing of the hands. This usually causes…
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Who likes to gain weight? Usually not most people.
In fact, many of us are actively working against it in a variety of ways from exercising frequently to modifying our diet. Many of us have heard psychiatric medication impacts weight– and many of them do; however, have you ever been so…
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The 7 Stages of Grief – Dealing with Loss and Sadness
Disbelief and Shock: The initial reaction of loss creates a feeling of numbness and doubt. This form of emotional protection can last from days to weeks. Denial: The mind goes into protection mode to avoid the pain and the reality of…
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What are the first signs of dementia?
– Prior to developing dementia a person will develop symptoms of mild cognitive impairment. Mild cognitive impairment often presents with signs of forgetfulness. For example, you may notice that you commonly set things down and forget where you put them. You may…
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What is Chemical Dependency?
In short, it’s the body’s normal response to an addictive chemical. Let’s use an example. If someone has anxiety and is prescribed a benzodiazepine (Xanax, Klonopin, Ativan, Valium, etc), the neurons in the brain will adapt to the repeated exposure and will…
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What is happiness and how do we find meaning in life?
The answer to the question to, “What is the meaning of life?”, relates to the significance of living or existence. But if that is the case, then “What is the purpose of existence?” The answers to these questions vary looking at cultural,…
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Why do we self-medicate?
It appears to be more often that my patients come in telling they self-medicate. Now what does that exactly mean? To self-medicate means to take a substance or medication to help relieve a symptom without the approval of a medical professional. I truly,…
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Learning to Observe – Nonverbal Secret To Success!
The secret to success has everything to do with nonverbal communication. It is not only body language. Nonverbal communication encompasses more than this. It’s everything which communicates who you are in a non-verbal fashion. There is a look of success and there…
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Mission Viejo Psychiatry Office – Employee Appreciation Breakfast
Thank you to Dr. Alva for being a great employer and making our Mission Viejo Psychiatry team breakfast. One of the best things about working at PNS is how much we care about our patients, but also about each other. Thank you…
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When To Seek Treatment For Alcohol Addiction
What are the symptoms of alcoholism? Most of the time the one who suffers from alcoholism has been told by several people they have a drinking problem and they frequently say they have it under control. Generally speaking the symptoms of alcoholism…
Mental health
resources & insights
Expert guidance on psychiatric conditions, treatments, and mental wellness written and reviewed by PNS providers.