Freaky Phobias, part deux Hello, people- I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week, I introduced the subject of phobias, and we’ll continue that discussion today. Fear is an important evolutionary tool, allowing humans to survive dangerous encounters and develop appropriate responses to hazardous situations. But when fear becomes debilitating, when it becomes a greater threat than the...
Parasomnias are a category of sleep disorders that involve abnormal and unnatural movements, behaviors, emotions, perceptions, and dreams that occur while falling asleep, sleeping, between sleep stages, or during arousal from sleep. Most parasomnias are dissociated sleep states which are partial arousals during the transitions between wakefulness and NREM sleep, or wakefulness and REM sleep....
Anxiety disorders affect 40 million adults in the United States, making it the most common mental health condition in the country. Untreated anxiety can affect every facet of life, making it difficult to relax, to achieve success in a work environment, to have fulfilling hobbies, and to maintain close relationships with family and friends. While there is no cure for anxiety, there are ways to...
Couples and Conflict One of my foremost jobs as a psychotherapist is to be a listener. All day, every day people come to me to talk about their problems. As you can imagine, many times patients want to talk about their spouses, specifically how they fight with them. So I want to talk a little bit about couples and fighting. Whether it’s about money, children, career, housework, all couples...
Time to Log Off? Technology addiction, electronic addiction, digital addiction, social media addiction, internet addiction, mobile phone addiction…. No matter the name, the common thread in these addictions is that they’re all impulse control disorders that involve the obsessive use of mobile phones, internet, and/or video games, despite the negative consequences to the user of the technology....
In psychiatry, adjustment disorder (AD) is a psychological response to an... Agoraphobia Without a History of Panic Disorder is an anxiety disorder... Not to be confused with agraphobia, agoraphobia is a condition where the sufferer... Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder that can...
Ivan’s Addictions: Alcohol Detox I want to discuss what people can expect when detoxing off of alcohol, inspired by my patient Ivan. He was a long-time patient, though I hadn’t seen him in a while. He was big time addicted to opioids years ago, and he had dragged his sorry butt into my office, barely coherent, begging for help. That’s how we met. I managed to get him clean off of the oxy’s he so...
Slumber, shuteye, repose, siesta, snooze…Sometimes we have a love-hate relationship with it…we love it when it’s good and curse it when it’s bad, but we all need it. Whatever you call it, one complaint I hear from patients day in and day out is that they have difficulty sleeping. It’s so prevalent that I want to discuss how to get better sleep. In my 30 years of practice, I’ve compiled a list...
by Mark G. Agresti, M.D. If you are experiencing a sleep disorder of any kind in West Palm Beach, you can rest assured that you are not alone. A sleep disorder, or somnipathy, is a medical disorder of the sleep patterns of a person or animal. Some sleep disorders are serious enough to interfere with normal physical, mental and emotional functioning and will require therapy. A test commonly...
Dr. Agresti talks about medications for treating Bipolar Disorder that do not cause weight gain. Pregnant women with bipolar disorder should not use these medications. Learn more about Dr. Agresti, a Board Certified Psychiatrist practicing in Palm Beach County for fifteen years. He is a specialist in the psycho-social aspects of addiction. Call (561) 444-7044 or email: info@206.189.200.158...
