What is a Mental Health Condition?
Mental Health Conditions
Mental health conditions affect how you think, feel and behave. They are different from the normal ups and downs everyone goes through. A change in mood or behavior becomes a mental health condition when it is severe enough, or lasts long enough, to affect your ability to function (1).
Living with a mental health condition can be extremely hard. It can strain your relationships, your schoolwork and your job. It can make it harder to connect with other people, leave you feeling alone, and affect every part of your life.
If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or are in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or call 911.
How Common Are Mental Health Conditions?
Mental health conditions are very common. About 1 in 5 U.S. adults experience a mental health condition each year, and about 1 in 20 live with a serious mental illness (2).
They are also common in young people. About 1 in 6 Americans ages 6 to 17 experience a mental health condition each year. Half of all lifetime mental health conditions begin by age 14, and three-quarters begin by age 24 (2).
What Are Some Common Types of Mental Health Conditions?
There are many recognized mental health conditions. Some of the more common ones include:
Anxiety disorders. People with anxiety disorders react to everyday situations with fear and stress that are out of proportion to what’s happening. These reactions can be hard to control and can cause both physical and emotional symptoms. Anxiety may be generalized, may cause panic attacks, or may involve specific fears or phobias.
Mood disorders. These involve trouble keeping emotions steady. People may feel deeply sad, unusually elevated or irritable, or swing between the two. Mood disorders include depression, bipolar disorder and cyclothymic disorder.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). People with OCD have unwanted, intrusive thoughts that drive them to perform repeated rituals. They often know their fears don’t make sense but still feel unable to resist the urge.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD can develop after a traumatic event. Reminders of the event can trigger intense anxiety and panic. These stress reactions can be disabling and may lead people to pull away from parts of their life.
What Are the Symptoms of Mental Health Conditions?
Symptoms vary from one condition to another. It’s very common for more than one condition to be present at the same time, with symptoms that overlap and make each other worse.
Common symptoms may include:
Deep sadness or low mood
Constant worry or dread
Extreme swings between high and low moods
Sleeping too much, or going long periods without sleep
Trouble paying attention and focusing
Trouble solving problems and planning
Ongoing agitation
Trouble controlling anger
Pulling away from friends and activities
Changes in appetite
Trouble relating to others
Loss of sex drive, or unusually high sex drive
Unusual or magical thinking
Thoughts of suicide
Alcohol or drug misuse
Unexplained aches, pains or fatigue
Feeling unable to cope with daily life
Being easily overwhelmed by stress
Falling behind at school or work
What Happens in the Brain With Mental Health Conditions?
Brain function changes in people with mental health conditions. As with other neurological conditions, specific brain regions and pathways can work differently than usual. These often include the frontal lobe and several areas within it, such as the orbitofrontal, ventromedial prefrontal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, along with the hippocampus, basal ganglia, amygdala, thalamus, brainstem and parts of the cerebellum. Depending on the condition, some of these areas may be less active while others are overactive. In some cases, differences in the size of these structures can be seen on MRI.
The brain works through large networks of regions that work together. Research has linked problems in two of these networks, the default mode network and the salience network, to many different mental health conditions (3).
Changes at the cellular level may also play a role. Research has linked mental health conditions to changes in the brain’s ability to form new connections, to inflammation, and to the systems that regulate stress. Studies suggest that over time, some of these changes may contribute to brain inflammation, reduced blood flow and loss of brain volume in the areas involved (4).
Mental health conditions also involve changes in brain chemicals that nerve cells use to communicate, such as serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine and GABA.
How Are Mental Health Conditions Usually Treated?
Mental health conditions are diagnosed and treated by healthcare providers. Treatment often includes medications that affect specific brain chemicals, such as antidepressants, mood stabilizers, anti-seizure medications or antipsychotics. Many antidepressants work by slowing how quickly nerve cells reabsorb brain chemicals like serotonin, so more is available to send signals. Most treatment plans also include some form of counseling, or psychotherapy. These treatments help many people, and they remain the foundation of mental health care.
How the NeuroRescue Program Can Help
Mental health conditions are complex. Brain chemistry is an important part of the picture, but it isn’t the whole story. How brain regions communicate, how well they adapt, and how they’re influenced by the rest of the body all play a role. Our care looks at the neurological side of that picture, as a complement to your mental health care.
Depression is a good example. Serotonin is made from tryptophan, an amino acid that comes from protein in your diet. Research has shown that many factors can affect how much tryptophan reaches the brain and how it’s used, including other amino acids that compete with it (5), blood sugar and insulin (6), nutrient levels (7), inflammation (8) and gut bacteria (9, 10). Genetic differences can also affect how brain chemical systems work (11) and how people respond to certain medications (12).
Depression also involves how specific brain pathways adapt and communicate (13). Studies of people who developed depression after brain injuries found that many of the injured areas connect with one region, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Reduced activity in this area appears to be an important feature of depression (14). Problems in other areas that connect to the DLPFC may affect it as well, including effects of past concussions (15), the cerebellum (16) and the vestibular system (17).
The DLPFC also helps control a type of eye movement called an antisaccade, which involves looking away from a target. Studies have found antisaccade differences in depression and other mental health conditions (18), and eye movement training has been studied as a way to support mood (19). Physical exercise has also been shown to help with depression (20). Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) targets the DLPFC and is an established, FDA-cleared treatment for depression that hasn’t responded to medication (21). At our clinic, TMS is provided by our psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, who will evaluate whether it’s appropriate for you.
Because so many brain areas can influence each other, we evaluate how your nervous system works across many areas, not just one.
Does the NeuroRescue Program Replace Psychiatric Care?
No. Psychiatric care is part of our approach. We have an experienced psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner on our clinical team. We strongly recommend that everyone under our care for a mental health condition be co-managed by a psychiatric provider, and we coordinate our care with the rest of your team. We’ll provide referrals when needed. Please continue any therapy and medications you’re receiving, and don’t make changes without talking with your prescriber. Above all, we make sure you’re safe and supported throughout your care.
How the NeuroRescue Program Works
Your NeuroRescue Program begins with your Discovery Day. We start with a detailed history of your condition and your life on a timeline. This helps us understand the factors that may have contributed to where you are now, and identify related conditions that may be making it harder to move forward.
We measure how your visual, vestibular and balance systems are working through computerized analysis of your eye movements, inner ear reflexes and balance under different conditions. Our testing includes videonystagmography and saccadometry to measure several types of eye movements, the video head impulse test to measure inner ear reflexes, and CAPS computerized posturography to assess your balance under different sensory conditions. We also use NeuroSensoryMotor Integration testing to evaluate hand-eye coordination and cognition, and Virtualis testing to assess dynamic eye tracking and your perception of vertical in a virtual reality environment.
We combine this with a thorough physical and neurological exam of your sensory, motor, autonomic and cognitive systems. We also review any relevant lab work, imaging and prior testing, and integrate it with our findings.
Together, this helps us understand which parts of your nervous system are working well, which are struggling, and how quickly they tire. We use that information to design your personal NeuroRescue Program, aimed at improving function in the systems that need support and helping them work together. Our testing also helps us decide when to push and when to let you rest.
Depending on your needs and test results, your program may include computerized cognitive training, which has been studied for improving the thinking and concentration problems that often come with conditions such as depression (22); eye exercises to improve gaze stability and accuracy (23); exercises for reflexes involving your inner ear, neck or both (18); balance training (15); vision training that combines several types of input at once; light therapy, also called photobiomodulation (24); and exercises in a virtual reality environment (25). The therapies we recommend are always chosen based on your testing and exam findings.
Our goal is to support the neurological systems that work alongside your mental health care, so you can feel steadier, more focused and more like yourself in daily life.
Your Next Step
Living with a mental health condition can be hard, but help is available, and you don’t have to figure it out alone. To find out if the NeuroRescue Program is right for you, contact one of our patient care coordinators to schedule your Discovery Day.
It’s never too late to take the next step.
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