Mental health conditions are more common than many people realize, yet they’re often misunderstood, overlooked or difficult to talk about.
From persistent low mood to patterns of behavior that feel hard to change, many symptoms have deeper roots and understanding them can play a key role in getting effective care.
Dr. Alberto Tamayo, a psychiatrist with MSU Health Care Psychiatry and assistant professor at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, shares what patients, families and providers should know.
He discusses how to tell the difference between everyday stress and a mental health condition, what comprehensive psychiatric care can look like, and the most common symptoms and treatment options for conditions like depression and anxiety.
He also shares how care is tailored to each individual’s needs and why seeking support early can make a meaningful difference.
How can people tell the difference between everyday stress and a mental health condition that may need professional support, and when should they seek help?
If you are having thoughts of suicide or a hopelessness that will not lift, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. If you ever catch yourself thinking you’d rather not be here, don’t wait. That’s a problem for today, not tomorrow.
For everything short of that, watch two things: how long it lasts and how much it takes from your life. Stress has a reason and an end. It fades when the deadline passes, or the argument resolves, but a mental health condition stops needing a reason to keep going. The low mood or worry stays for weeks. Sleep changes and no longer helps. Food stops mattering. You quietly stop answering the people you love.
A psychiatrist’s training is built for exactly this gray area. We help you sort out what the symptoms mean and decide what happens next. If you are questioning whether you need professional support, seek it out. Don’t second-guess it. You don’t have to be certain before you decide to call. Call our office at 517-373-3070 to get started or ask your doctor for a referral.
What does comprehensive psychiatric care look like at MSU Health Care, and how do you work with primary care providers or other specialists to support the whole person?
MSU Health Care Psychiatry treats children, adolescents and adults. We treat the person experiencing the symptoms, not just the symptoms themselves, so the plan accounts for your medical conditions, your medications and what is happening at home and at work. We build it with your primary care physician, your therapist and other specialists, so everyone treating you is working from one plan instead of guessing separately.
We are also a teaching clinic. Patients see a resident psychiatrist, a DO or MD who has finished medical school and can write prescriptions, now completing specialty training under a board-certified faculty psychiatrist who reviews every visit. You keep the same resident for the length of their multi-year training. When they graduate, you transition to the next one with a warm handoff, so you are not retelling your story to a stranger each time. The wraparound care model, combined with two sets of eyes on your care, helps the clinic stand apart from other mental health practices in the area.
Depression and anxiety are widely discussed but often misunderstood. What are the most common symptoms you see, and what treatment options are available today?
As thinking, breathing human beings, we are supposed to experience a wide spectrum of feelings and thoughts in our bodies, even the ugly ones. The trouble starts when the feelings take the wheel. Sometimes this happens fast. More often, it creeps in and takes root. Depression drains the color out of daily life.
Anxiety is the opposite problem: the mind sprints ahead to next week’s disasters while the body braces for one that never comes. One often fuels the other, and patients are often surprised by how physical the sensations can be. The chest stays tight. A stomach will not settle. Sleep itself becomes harder to find, and our brains have trouble turning off when they should.
Medication can raise the floor enough so that the rest of the work becomes possible. Individual therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) retrain our brains, and sleep and exercise do quiet chemical work on their own. When depression won’t lift, we have newer tools like intranasal ketamine. Tailored treatment plans and honest assessments help get life back on track.
There are many ways to treat mental health conditions, from therapy to medication to lifestyle changes. How do you tailor care to fit each patient’s needs and preferences?
Care starts with a thorough history, the whole story rather than the symptom list. After all, you can’t open a book in the middle and expect to know where it’s going next. Each person’s story guides the treatment, and what they want out of life helps us plan the next chapters.
Everyone is different, and the best plan on paper isn’t worth much if it’s left on the table. Some people want a safe place to vent what they hold inside. Others want the shortest road back to functioning without a tour of their childhood. Both are legitimate.
Everything shapes the plan: the time you have to make appointments, routines that get in the way of taking a pill, side effects, financial strain and personal values. We put the real options on the table with their tradeoffs and decide together. When something isn’t working, we change it. A plan you believe in carries you further than one you quietly drift away from.
Many people hesitate to seek mental health care. What would you say to someone who is unsure about reaching out, and how can early care make a difference?
Most of us wait longer than we have to before seeking care for our mental health, because asking for help feels like admitting something is broken that we can’t fix. That isn’t the case, but it’s hard to reason with yourself at 2 a.m. when the anxious thoughts boil and the emptiness festers.
If pain started in your chest, how long would you wait? Your brain deserves the same urgency. It loves autopilot, and the longer low mood or anxiety runs the show, the deeper the grooves it cuts into your sleep and the way you talk to yourself.
Early care matters, and you don’t have to be in crisis to deserve it. There is no better day than today. If you are in crisis, 988 answers any hour, by call or text. If you or someone you love could benefit from care, please contact our clinic.
To learn more about MSU Health Care Psychiatry, visit our website. If you or a loved one may benefit from mental health support, call our office at 517-373-3070 or ask your primary care provider for a referral to our clinic. Fax referrals to 517-884-1817 or use our global referral form.
This Ask the Expert originally appeared on MSU Health Care.
