What Is Psychotherapy? Types, Benefits & Techniques
When worry or low mood stops feeling like “a rough patch” and starts affecting sleep, work, or the way you show up with people you care about, it’s natural to wonder: Do I need help, and what is psychotherapy, exactly? Psychotherapy, often called talk therapy, is a structured conversation with a trained mental health professional […]
Generalized Anxiety Disorder : Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
What if worry never shuts off? For many adults and teens, that’s the daily reality of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). While nearly one in three people experience it at some point, most delay treatment, leaving symptoms like constant worry, restlessness, poor sleep, and irritability to affect work, school, and relationships. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) affects […]
Contamination OCD: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment
Contamination OCD is not a preference for cleanliness, contrary to what people sometimes oversimplify. It’s a pattern in which intrusive fears of contamination, by germs, illness, chemicals, “impurity,” or even names and images, ignite intense anxiety.It will also instill habits into rituals such as washing, disinfecting, avoiding, checking, and mental “neutralizing.” Relief is brief, and […]
What Is OCD? Types, (subtypes), Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a common, disabling condition marked by intrusive, unwanted thoughts, images, urges (obsessions), and repetitive behaviors or mental acts (compulsions) that consume time and impair normalcy of life.In DSM-5-TR, it sits under Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, separate from anxiety disorders, and distinct from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), which is rigid perfectionism without intrusive […]
Health Anxiety (Illness Anxiety) Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment
Health anxiety, also called illness anxiety disorder or “health anxiety OCD” by some clinicians, is a persistent fear of having or developing a serious disease even when exams, labs, and imaging are reassuring. People with health anxiety often misread normal and occasional sensations (a fluttering heart, a headache, a tight chest) as signs of worry. […]
Specific Phobias: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment at CPG
Capital Psychiatry Group offers psychiatric care throughout New Jersey, providing in-clinic appointments and telehealth services. This guide explains what a specific phobia is, the full picture of specific phobia symptoms, how clinicians diagnose it using DSM-5 specific phobia criteria and ICD-10 specific phobia codes, and which specific phobia treatments reliably reduce fear and avoidance. What […]
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder: Symptoms, Causes & Care
Many people notice mood and physical changes before a period. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is different. It’s a severe, long-lasting form of premenstrual syndrome that brings marked mood shifts, irritability, or anger, alongside physical symptoms like bloating, breast tenderness, headaches, and overwhelming fatigue.These problems appear in the week or two after ovulation, peak just before […]
Bipolar Depression: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment
Bipolar depression is a mood state within bipolar disorder, unlike MDD, is marked by prolonged low mood, loss of interest, and reduced energy. The key element is its tendency to a constant change of elevated or irritable mood (mania or hypomania). These shifts affect sleep, activity, thinking, and judgment, and they can disrupt daily life. The […]
Postpartum Depression: Symptoms, Screening, and Treatment
Childbirth is a life-changing experience that is filled with powerful emotions. You have the excitement of having a baby, with fear, worry, and anxiety about how life will be after pregnancy. Within days after childbirth, a mother might experience severe mood swings, extreme sadness, and frequent crying, fatigue, guilt, and loneliness.These experiences may be postpartum […]
What is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) & How to Treat It
As winter arrives, days become shorter, and as sunlight reduces, silence becomes too heavy to bear. Many people notice these seasonal changes as their energy fades, with feelings of hopelessness, lack of motivation, and more. Some people feel them deeply, and for them, this seasonal change is more than “winter blues.”This condition or experience, as […]
