INTRODUCTION: Focus on Health

People come to therapy because they have 'issues.' These are types of mental and emotional distress that are seen as symptoms and illnesses in our culture. They can be frightening and debilitating, and they affect lives of millions of people. According to the National Institute of mental Health (NIMH) more than 26%, or one in four, Americans are diagnosable with a mental disorder. If these struggles are so common, should they be seen as illnesses? Do nearly 60 million Americans really have mental diseases? I believe that these issues may be better understood as ways people can grow in their lives. Signs of mental and emotional distress are vitally important to wellness because they tell us that a person is in pain and needs to change in certain ways.

Each of the issues below is defined and discussed in terms of psychological development. In my experience people can grow to a more comfortable state of mind by working with these issues. In the process they become stronger and more confident.

Many of these issues have medical definitions, and some research demonstrates physical causes. Decades of research conclude that psychological distress is BOTH mental and physical. These issues can be helped BOTH psychologically with therapy, and physically with drugs. Some treatments combine therapy and drugs. The research also shows that drug remedies stop working when people stop taking the drugs. Some psychological remedies like Dynamic therapy bring about lasting changes in the physical brain as well as the mental and emotional life of a person.