Conditions We Treat

Sentara ensures that patients and families looking for behavioral health services have access to exceptional care that will improve their quality of life. If you or someone you know needs help, don’t be afraid to reach out.

An important first step in understanding mental health is learning when to get help. Mental health issues do not need to be “serious” in order for you to reach out for support. If you’re starting to feel concerned about your mood or behavior, seek help sooner rather than later. Symptoms may become more serious if treatment is delayed.

Our continuum of care supports adults and their families with community resources and hospital- and home-based services regardless of where they are in their treatment and recovery journey. Treatment varies by the individual and by diagnosis and may include: medication, counseling/therapy, community and social support, and education. People with mental health problems can get better, and many recover completely.

If you or someone you care about are in an immediate mental health crisis, call 9-8-8 (the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) or go to the nearest emergency room.

We specialize in the treatment of the following conditions:

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Anxiety

Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure.
People with anxiety disorders usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may avoid certain situations out of worry. They may also have physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, dizziness, or a rapid heartbeat.
Anxiety is not the same as fear, but they are often used interchangeably. Anxiety is considered a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat, whereas fear is an appropriate, present-oriented, and short-lived response to a clearly identifiable and specific threat.
Understanding Generalized Anxiety Tip Sheet:

Depression

Everyone experiences sadness at times. But depression is something more. Depression is extreme sadness or despair that lasts more than days. It interferes with the activities of daily life and can cause physical symptoms such as pain, weight loss or gain, sleeping pattern disruptions, or lack of energy.
People with depression may also experience an inability to concentrate, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.
Depression is the most common mental disorder. Fortunately, depression is treatable. A combination of therapy and antidepressant medication can help ensure recovery.
Understanding Depression Tip Sheet

Dementia

Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning — thinking, remembering, and reasoning — to such an extent that it interferes with a person's daily life and activities. Some people with dementia cannot control their emotions, and their personalities may change. Dementia ranges in severity from the mildest stage, when it is just beginning to affect a person's functioning, to the most severe stage, when the person must depend completely on others for basic activities of daily living, such as feeding oneself.
Dementia affects millions of people and is more common as people grow older (about one-third of all people age 85 or older may have some form of dementia) but it is not a normal part of aging. Many people live into their 90s and beyond without any signs of dementia.
There are several different forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common.

Grief and loss

Mood disorders

A mood disorder is a mental health condition that primarily affects your emotional state. It’s a disorder in which you experience long periods of extreme happiness, extreme sadness or both. Certain mood disorders involve other persistent emotions, such as anger and irritability.
It’s normal for your mood to change, depending on the situation. However, for a mood disorder diagnosis, symptoms must be present for several weeks or longer. Mood disorders can cause changes in your behavior and can affect your ability to perform routine activities, such as work or school.
Two of the most common mood disorders are depression and bipolar disorder.

Schizophrenia

Seasonal affective disorder

Seasonal affective disorder, also known as SAD, is more than just the winter blues. It is a type of depression that lasts for a season, typically the winter months, and goes away during the rest of the year. Symptoms of SAD are the same as those of depression. They can vary in severity and often interfere with personal relationships. Symptoms include fatigue, pervasively sad mood, loss of interest, sleep difficulty, or excessive sleeping, craving, and eating more starches and sweets, weight gain, feelings of hopelessness or despair, and thoughts of suicide.
Understanding Seasonal Affective Disorder Tip Sheet

English

Personality disorders

Personality disorders are conditions in which an individual differs significantly from an average person, in terms of how they think, perceive, feel or relate to others.
Changes in how a person feels and distorted beliefs about other people can lead to odd behavior, which can be distressing and may upset others.

Common features include:

Being overwhelmed by negative feelings such as distress, anxiety, worthlessness or anger
Avoiding other people and feeling empty and emotionally disconnected
Difficulty managing negative feelings without self-harming (for example, abusing drugs and alcohol, or taking overdoses) or, in rare cases, threatening other people
Odd behavior
Difficulty maintaining stable and close relationships, especially with partners, children and professional carers, sometimes, periods of losing contact with reality

Symptoms typically get worse with stress.
People with personality disorders often experience other mental health problems, especially depression and substance misuse.

Schizoaffective disorder

Schizoaffective disorder is a chronic mental health condition characterized primarily by symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hallucinations or delusions, and symptoms of a mood disorder, such as mania and depression.
Many people with schizoaffective disorder are often incorrectly diagnosed at first with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Because schizoaffective disorder is less well-studied than the other two conditions, many interventions are borrowed from their treatment approaches.
Schizoaffective is relatively rare, with a lifetime prevalence of only 0.3%. Men and women experience schizoaffective disorder at the same rate, but men often develop the illness at an earlier age. Schizoaffective disorder can be managed effectively with medication and therapy. Co-occurring substance use disorders are a serious risk and require integrated treatment.

Substance use and addiction

Substance abuse is a pattern of compulsive substance use marked by recurrent significant social, occupational, legal, or interpersonal adverse consequences, such as repeated absences from work or school, arrests, and marital difficulties.
Addiction is a state of psychological or physical dependence (or both) on the use of alcohol or other drugs. The term is often used as an equivalent term for substance dependence and sometimes applied to behavioral disorders, such as sexual, internet, and gambling addictions.