Sleep can be challenging and elusive yet necessary for your best mental health. It is often the first symptom / warning sign of mental health problems and can trigger and/or exacerbate underlying mental health problems. First, you need to characterize your sleep problems and sleep patterns. For example – is it difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep, or are you waking up too early? If you wake up at night, is it difficult to fall back asleep. We recommend keeping a sleep log next to your bed or on an app on your phone.

To best address your issues with sleep, is essential that you and your healthcare provider identify the cause of your sleep problems, which may involve a physical examination, laboratory studies, and additional testing. It is essential to develop and implement behavioral, psychological, and social solutions to improve your sleep. Lastly, you may require interventions such as a Cpap machine and/or medications to improve your sleep quality.

Couples counseling is a type of psychotherapy that can help couples with a variety of concerns or areas of stress in their relationship and life. Many areas of a romantic relationship can be confusing or stressful to manage, such as communication, finances, roles, beliefs, emotional and physical intimacy, chronic illness, relationships with family, child rearing, and more. Therapists can help couples build healthy habits and skills with one another, increasing relationship satisfaction and functionality of the relationship and family.

Neuropharmagen® enables providers to identify the safest psychotropic medication protocol for patients based on their genetic markers and other relevant factors. Finding the right medication for mental health conditions can often be challenging for patients and providers. Being able to quickly discern specific treatments and dosage amounts for antidepressants and other psychoactive drugs may increase a patient’s adherence and chance for a positive outcome.

Sweetgrass Psychiatry is proud to offer an educational mindfulness course about how teens and parents of teens can manage anxiety using evidence based mindfulness techniques. This educational group is specifically for teens and their parents to help foster improved communication and a positive, healthy relationship. Using an evidence-based combination of intentional focusing, nervous system regulation and self compassion, participants will be equipped with realistic skills to more effectively handle the stress in their lives.

When other traditional treatments for depression are not working, such as psychotherapy, medications (SSRIs, SNRIs), exercise, and healthy eating, there are other great treatment options. At Sweetgrass Psychiatry in Mount Pleasant, SC, we are pleased to provide our patients with treatment resistant depression HOPE. One evidence based, safe treatment option is Intramuscular (IM) ketamine.

At Sweetgrass Psychiatry in Mount Pleasant, SC, we are passionate about helping individuals that are struggling with ADHD. We believe it is a brain based illness that can negatively impact one’s functioning and prevent people from achieving their full potential if left untreated. We also believe that ADHD can be over diagnosed, therefore, we carefully evaluate patients’ symptoms and history, review past records, and obtain definitive neuropsychological testing when indicated.

One of the most effective ways to treat depression and anxiety is through psychotherapy. Research continues to show that it is not the type of therapy that matters most in treatment outcomes - it is the relationship you build with your therapist. I compare finding your therapist to like dating - it has to be a “fit.”

Sometimes we may find that our thoughts feel overwhelming, we get wrapped up in them, or that they may tend to dictate how our day goes. We may find that our thoughts change the ways we behave, which may lead to a cycle of negative behavior or feelings. Uncomfortable thoughts may be seen in people experiencing anxiety, depression, and a variety of other mental health concerns. It is possible to find detachment from our thoughts with the practice of cognitive defusion.

Behavioral Activation (BA) is a therapy skill that can be done with or without Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is a type of therapy highlighting how thinking, behavior, and feelings are all inter-related and directly involved with one’s mental health. BA specifically focuses on the behavior portion involved in our mental health.