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Problems helped - using CBT

At Dulwich Psychology Clinic, I help adults with anxiety, panic, phobias, OCD, depression, low self-esteem, stress, burnout, trauma, and more. On this page, I define and describe some of the most common psychological problems. This may help you better understand the difficulty you are facing. Although not all mental health problems are captured nicely by the official psychological classification systems. If you have one (or more, as is often the case) of these, you are not alone. 

Anxiety disorders

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There are quite a few official anxiety disorders. I can help with each of these. Here are the most common anxiety disorders: 

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  • Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) - general anxiety and worry about a range of different things, always worrying or a worrier. 

  • Social anxiety or social phobia - anxiety about social situations, how we will perform and be judged by other people.

  • Health anxiety or hypochondriasis - an excessive fear about being ill, with body checking, consulting doctors or other health practitioners, and worry about the consequences - without clear evidence of illness

  • Specific phobia - fear and avoidance of specific objects or situations such as heights, dogs, spiders (arachnophobia), enclosed spaces (claustrophobia). planes, trains...

  • Agoraphobia - a fear of situations that are difficult to escape from

  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - disturbing thoughts about something bad happening and an associated urge to do something (e.g. checking, washing, mental rituals...) to reduce the chance of that happening, and/or to help us to feel less anxious. I use CBT-informed ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) to treat OCD.  

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - an increase in fear and other emotions after being in a situation where we thought that we could have been seriously hurt or even killed. Symptoms include flashbacks, an exaggerated startle response (being jumpy) and more.

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Get in touch to book a psychology assessment, to understand what caused your difficulties and what maintains them. Then receive effective treatment to help improve things for you.

Low mood disorders

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I've called the second list, low mood disorders, because for me all of these disorders involve low or depressed mood and negative thinking states:

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  • Depression - ​including Recurrent Depression and Major Depressive Disorder

  • Dysthymia - a more chronic or longer-term form of depression, which won't necessarily always be as intense as depression

  • Cyclothymia - mood cycles (hence 'cyclo') between mild depression to somewhat high (manic) - but does not get as low or as high as manic depression or bipolar disorder

  • Low self-esteem - although it's not an official diagnostic label, it is a recognised problem by sufferers and clinicians, where we have a low opinion of ourselves and we worry about being found out. 

Other common psychological disorders

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Here are other common psychological disorders or problems, that don't fit under a pure anxiety or mood disorder. 

 

  • Adjustment disorder - difficulties in functioning in response to a significant change in circumstance

  • Binge eating disorder and bulimia - patterns of eating that have cycle between periods of over restriction, to overeating (bingeing), and probable purging (vomiting, laxatives)

  • Childhood traumas and experiences - life-long limitations following significant negative experiences during childhood

  • Relationship difficulties - problematic patterns in our relationship with others

  • Bereavement - difficulties after the loss of a loved one, or important person in our lives

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What next?

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