The 15 Scariest Mental Disorders of All Time Imagine having a mental disorder that makes you believe that you are a cow; or another that you’ve somehow become the walking dead. Pretty freaking scary, eh? Well, while relatively rare, these disorders are all too real. Worldwide, 450 million people suffer from mental illness, with one in four families affected in the United States alone. While some...

The Truth About Gender Dysphoria Gender dysphoria is basically a mismatch between a biological sexual assignment, i.e. the gender one is born into, and what gender they feel they are psychologically and desire to be physically. Until several years ago, it was termed “gender identity disorder,” but, for three reasons, I never liked that nomenclature: first, it was/ is not a disorder, second, the...

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment Today I want to thoroughly explain obsessive compulsive disorder, because it is a seriously life altering condition that is frequently misunderstood. We have all heard people refer to friends or family as “OCD” in a joking manner. An example may be if you’re at a party at a friend’s house and the second someone puts their drink on the...

I’ve been a psychiatrist in Palm Beach, Florida for the past 30 plus years. Being that Palm Beach is all about beautiful people and seeing and being seen, I have a constant stream of patients worrying about their their image. Botox, fillers, face lifts, tummy tucks…the list goes on and on, but there’s only so much a plastic surgeon can do, especially when it comes to the appearance of the body....

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment Today I want to thoroughly explain obsessive compulsive disorder, because it is a seriously life altering condition that is frequently misunderstood. We have all heard people refer to friends or family as “OCD” in a joking manner. An example may be if you’re at a party at a friend’s house and the second someone puts their drink on the...

So I’m at the carwash. My car was a little dirty, and I like to keep it clean, preserve that new car scent. I’m no stranger to this place and I know my mission is the inside-out wash and hand wax. Actually, my mission is to manage to sit through it; I’ve been exiled to the waiting area for two hours. Two freaking hours! It’s a Saturday…don’t all these people have better things to do? As I sit...

Dr. Agresti was interviewed by WPBF Local ABC Channel 25 in South Florida. News Channel 25 asked Dr. Agresti, as a psychiatry expert, his professional opinion on the sex addicts topic. “According to Dr. Mark Agresti, a psychiatrist at Columbia Hospital, ‘the difference with a sex addict is that it’s not an expression of intimacy, but an obsession about the act. The obsession about the act...

Dr. Agresti was interviewed by WPBF Local ABC Channel 25 in South Florida. News Channel 25 asked Dr. Agresti, as a psychiatry expert, his professional opinion on the sex addicts topic. “According to Dr. Mark Agresti, a psychiatrist at Columbia Hospital, ‘the difference with a sex addict is that it’s not an expression of intimacy, but an obsession about the act. The obsession about the act...

Attention Deficit Disorder ADD, Attention Defecit Disorder is a chronic condition marked by issues with attention. It is most often seen in childhood, but can persist into adulthood, and there are 3 million US cases per year. Due to it’s high prevalence, I want to take the opportunity to discuss the diagnosis, symptoms, and treatment of ADD.    ADD has a sister disorder called ADHD, Attention...

(And by ‘Might Be’ I mean ‘Are’) The “Opioid Crisis” is all over the news these days, thanks to cheap heroin cut with fentanyl and heaven-knows-what-else that’s filling up morgue drawers throughout the country. If you think the numbers of overdose deaths are staggering now, medical examiners would be up to their elbows in bodies without Narcan, a drug that scrubs opioids off of the brain’s...