Behavioral healthcare is a broad term for an entire discipline that deals with mental health, counseling, psychiatric care, addiction treatment, and any habits that may be negatively impacting your physical or mental well-being. In this field, healthcare providers need to have a deep understanding of how cognitive habits can affect the emotional, social, and psychological well-being of their patients.

Though Inspire Medical Group of California helps patients cope with many mental health disorders, two of the most notable examples of behavioral health issues include the following:

• Eating Disorders: Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating are considered both mental health and behavioral health disorders. This is one of the most dangerous behavioral health issues because of its direct connection to physical health. Eating disorders can be treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques such as learning how your feelings affect your eating patterns. Cognitive factors such as negative body image and behavioral factors such as food restrictions or purging both need to be taken into consideration during treatment.

• Addictions: Just like eating disorders, addictions are very connected to both behavioral and mental health. Those who struggle with addiction whether that be to sex or illegal substances are usually looking for a way to deal with their negative feelings towards life. The reliance on addictive substances trains your body and mind to constantly feel the strong need for relief from any type of negative emotion. Cognitive-behavioral therapy will teach patients to understand the connections between their emotions, feelings, and addictive behaviors.

Although there is a heavy link between behavioral health and mental health, they are a little bit different. Behavioral health disorders lead to unhealthy habits such as gambling, sex addiction, and reckless behaviors. These habits typically occur alongside a mental illness such as bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, or any other mental illness that can affect behaviors. These behaviors often stem from the desire to cope with life and mental illness without having the right toolset to do so.

Having access to behavioral and mental health care gives people the chance to learn how to healthily cope with their emotions instead of turning toward bad habits. A behavioral health care specialist can:

• Teach you the importance of healthy habits
• Help you understand why you’re engaging in self-sabotaging behaviors
• Find the deep-rooted cause of your unhealthy habits
• Provide you with safe, healthy coping mechanisms
• Treat underlying mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, insomnia, and addictions
• Refer you to other specialists depending on your mental health needs
• Prescribe medications to help control negative thoughts

If you or a loved one is suffering from a mental illness or needs more support in their day-to-day life, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Inspire Medical Group of California. Our team of experienced therapists can be reached at any time to help you engage in better behaviors. We understand that everyone needs help sometimes whether that is because of a new life stressor or an old unhealed trauma coming to light. If you have any additional questions regarding our behavioral health specialist, we would be more than happy to answer them for you. Request an appointment online or give us a call and we can give you the information you need and help prepare you for your first appointment. We look forward to guiding and counseling you through your mental health journey! We serve patients in the Bay Area from Sunnyvale, CA, San Jose, CA, Los Altos CA, Santa Clara CA to Cupertino CA, and beyond.