Dr. Felix Bradley Widlacki, DO

Im sorry that you are dealing with depression.  The good news is that there are many effective treatments available that can help you feel much better.  I think the most important thing for you would be to get started with a skilled mental health provider who could give you recommendations that are specific to you.  The most common treatments for first time treatment of depression would typically be an antidepressant medicine or therapy.  Both are generally good options, and can get you started on the road to feeling better.  As far as which treatment is the fastest, that is hard to say, though I would think ketamine treatments or TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) may be the two fastest treatments.  They are typically reserved for treatment resistant depression (having tried 2-4 medicines without relief), but more and more people are choosing to start with them for a variety of reasons.  Ketamine specifically will sometimes have people feeling less symptoms after only a few treatments.  I hope you feel better soon.

It's very normal and common to worry about health. In fact, I think that is one of the most common things that I hear from my patients that they worry about. It's definitely good that you have been getting your concerns evaluated, and I would recommend you continue to followup with your primary care doctor to keep track of all these different labs and imaging. Anxiety can manifest itself as physical symptoms. If you are not getting relief from your physical problems, and the doctors aren't able to find a cause, then you may consider seeing a therapist to try and identify stressors and reduce anxiety that could be contributing to how you are feeling.

I would recommend you see a doctor. Panic attacks are a symptom of extreme anxiety, and can cause you to feel very distressed. People with panic attacks often feel like they are going to have a heart attack or stroke, and get so concerned they end up going to the ER. Working with a good Doctor and/or therapist can help reduce the frequency and severity of panic attacks, or possibly cause them to stop completely.

I would recommend you see a plastic surgeon to evaluate the scar. They are typically very skilled at minimizing scarring. I don't think that you should try and treat this at home. That could be dangerous and cause infection. In addition, I think that slicing off the excess skin could lead to worse scarring.

The good news is that there are a lot of treatment options for this. Therapy is often very effective for this, especially CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy). A psychiatrist can prescribe medication for this. Often, a doctor would start with a classic medicine, like lexapro or prozac, to help reduce symptoms over time. They may also prescribe an "as needed" medicine that you could take while waiting for the other medicine to take effect. Many people have gotten help from certain specialty books that teach you how to do CBT on your own. One example of this is the book "Feeling Great."

Psychosis onset typically has a “bimodal” peak, meaning that it usually either starts at an early age or late age. Early age onset psychosis, usually around age 15-25, has different causes than late-onset psychosis (after 65). After 65, psychosis is usually caused by something neurological, medical, or medication-induced. Neurological causes may include dementia, stroke, or neurodegenerative disorders (such as Parkinson's or Huntington's disease. Medical causes may include delirium from an underlying cause, such as a urinary tract infection or pneumonia. Medications inducing confusion or psychotic symptoms are extremely common. Older individuals are very sensitive to the side effects of medicine, particularly antihistamines or sedatives, and this should be ruled out first.

Hello, the symptoms you describe could be from a variety of sources.  Anytime there is a change in mental status like that, it is always advisable to have a full medical evaluation to rule out underlying medical issues.  Beyond that, I would say the most likely explanation would be a catatonic type episode brought on by depression or anxiety.  However, it could be other things as well, such as a dissociative episode.  It probably would require a psychological evaluation to have a high degree of certainty, but from what you’ve described, those are the explanations I would initially say are most likely.

Hello, that sounds very frustrating, I’m sorry that you are having to endure this.  Anxiety and physical symptoms often go hand in hand, with one affecting the other.  These physical symptoms are very often stomach and digestive problems.  It is very common for panic attacks to be triggered by physical symptoms, and often with time they may come “out of the blue” and seem unrelated to any trigger at all.  Many people turn to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as a first line treatment for this, and it can be quite effective.  If you have already tried this, or if therapy is not an option for you, panic attacks often respond quite well to psychiatric medications.  A board certified psychiatrist should be able to help you get these panic attacks to be less intrusive to your life.