Emotional Functioning
Mental health diagnoses are not discreet, meaning that there is a high degree of overlap among mental health conditions. Often, a close examination of symptoms is necessary to tease apart and accurately identify and label a mental illness. For example, it is the opinion of the MCC psychologists that bipolar disorder should be thoroughly investigated and substantiated via psychological assessment before anti-psychotic, anti-seizure, and/or mood stabilizing drugs are introduced as a treatment. Often, what would appear to by symptoms of a bipolar depression are in fact better explained by substance abuse, a personality disorder, a mixed uni-polar depression, or a combination of conditions. It is the MCC philosophy that accurate diagnosis should always precede treatment.
