Lowcountry Psychiatric Associates
General Psychiatry & Psychotherapy
Office 843-757-4737
Fax 843-757-4585
Mailing address for all correspondence, payments, etc:
Lowcountry Psychiatric Associates
25 Clarks Summit Drive
Suite F201
Bluffton, SC 29910
Office Hours
Monday - Thursday 8:30am to 4:00pm
Friday, Saturday, & Sunday CLOSED
We have 2 offices for your convenience:
Bluffton Office
25 Clark Summit Dr Suite F201
Bluffton SC 29910
Directions:
Our Bluffton office is located in The Plaza at Belfair. It is next door to The MRI at Belfair. We are in the building directly behind the water fountain on the second floor.
The Plaza at Belfair is located on HWY 278 across from Sheridan Park and between the Kroger shopping center and The Crescent neighborhood.
***Leah, Allison & Vicki only see patients in the Bluffton office.
HILTON HEAD OFFICE
19 Shelter Cove Lane
Suite 202
Hilton Head Island, SC 29928
Directions:
Our office on Hilton Head Island is located in Shelter Cove inside of the Waters Edge Buildings. This office can be difficult to find since even a GPS will not get you there. You will need to use the Shelter Cove entrance at the intersection directly across from Palmetto Dunes. From there you will take the 1st right (at the yield sign) and the parking lot for the Waters Edge Buildings will be the 1st left. Our office is in the last building on the right on the 2nd floor (suite 202).
Links to Other Resources
General Health Information
This is a very useful general reference that talks about common medical symptoms and helps you to gather information that your doctor may want to know.
General Mental Health Information
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
: a grassroots, self-help support and advocacy organization of families and friends of people with serious mental illness, and those persons themselves.
National Mental Health Association
: This organization has a helpful list of organizations involved in providing support to those with mental health conditions, as well as for family members.
American Psychiatric Association
: a medical society, recognized world-wide, whose 40,500 U.S. and international physicians specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional illnesses and substance use disorders.
: the National Library of Medicine's search service that provides access to over 11 million citations in MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE, and other related databases, with links to participating online journals.
Expert Consensus Guidelines: Guides for Patients and Families
This website has the most comprehensive and up to date guides for patients and families with a variety of psychiatric conditions, including depression, bipolar disorder, various anxiety disorders, PTSD, etcetera. Some of them are even in Spanish.
Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Other Mood Disorders
The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA)
: DBSA was formerly the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association (National DMDA.) DBSA publishes more than two dozen educational materials about living with mood disorders, all available free of charge.
website is a wealth of information on bipolar disorder, especially the "softer" bipolar spectrum of cyclothymia and bipolar type 2. It includes absolutely free the entire text of his great book: "Why Am I Still Depressed?".
: the Internet's central clearinghouse for information on all types of depressive disorders and on the most effective treatments for individuals suffering from Major Depression, Manic-Depression (Bipolar Disorder), Cyclothymia, Dysthymia and other mood disorders.
McMan's Depression and Bipolar Web
More than 250 articles on all aspects of depression and bipolar, plus news, FAQs, books, forums, and newsletter.
Use of Medscape is FREE, requiring a simple one-time member registration. You can register, by filling out the online form and clicking the "Submit" button.
The Bipolar Disorder Sanctuary
features suggested reading as well as bipolar criteria, self-care information, a chat room, personal stories and support.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety and Panic and Mindfulness Meditation
This is a very useful and interesting site that talks about the use of mindfulness techniques (see below) to help people with anxiety disorders. Lots of information and links.
Amy Saltzman has created a website that is a wonderful resource for those interested in exploring mindfulness meditation. I particularly value the work that she has done bringing the concepts for mindfulness to children. She has a great CD which I often recommend which has short meditation exercises that you can listen to with your children... or by yourself... they are that good.
Self Help Resources
Dieting and Fitness
American Heart Association Fitness Center
This site by the American Heart Association provides all the resources you need to keep physically fit. Tools available include an 'Exercise Diary,' 'Fitness Resources,' and 'My Fitness' that helps you learn what fitness type best describes your lifestyle and how to get the greatest benefit from physical activity in your life.
The most extensive site we reviewed, eDiets, is flexible enough to fit just about anybody's needs. You'll find an avalanche of articles, questions and answers, and success stories. Members start by picking one of 16 diet plans, (we recommend the excellent eDiets plan) and an exercise regimen. You get weekly meal plans, recipes with shopping lists, and caloric breakdowns. eDiets also makes it easy to synchronize a partner with your diet plan. The exercise program has animations that show how to do exercises correctly. The community area is equally wide ranging. On top of chat rooms, scheduled online group meetings, and forums, there's a buddy program called "circle of winners" that lets experienced members volunteer as mentors for newbies or for anyone who needs encouragement. Experts in a number of fields are available to answer members questions. Pricing is a bit complicated. One common scenario is to pay 5 dollars per week for a diet plan and then purchase fitness and recipe options, each costing an additional dollar a week.
Although you can find a lot of information about yoga on the web, the yoga learning center is the first online yoga studio. This site adds a spiritual element to physical health that's refreshing to those who don't care about washboard abs and counting carbs. The YLC has video and audio practices suited to people of all skill and fitness levels.
A library of streaming audio and video content comes courtesy of yoga instructors. You can search by teacher, experience level, media type (audio, audio meditation, or video) and benefit, such as weight loss, back pain relief, or stress reduction. Sessions can be up to an hour long. The site also offers a handful of informative articles and a fledgling forum section. For $17.95 a month you have unlimited access to the site and all its contents. You won't find dietary advice or log calendars, but compared to the cost of attending regular yoga classes or amassing a yoga DVD collection, the YLC's approach is very reasonable.
Weight watchers online serves up simplicity and easy to achieve results in large portions. You can use this site as an accessory to weight watchers traditional meetings or as a standalone service. You won't be isolated from peer support....there are chat rooms that effectively provide this.
The foundation of weight watchers is the point system. Every food has a given number of points, based on calories, fat, and fiber content. Depending on your age, weight, and height, weight watchers tells you how many points you should consume in a day. In addition, you get a number of flex points each week, for when you have to fudge (sometimes literally). You can also earn activity points with exercise to supplement your food points. Weight watchers online is easy to navigate, with practically no commercial clutter. The recipe and restaurant resources are useful, but there is no option for generating a weekly shopping list.
Other Resources
This is a very elegant resource that outlines the basic principles of Aikido. Included are some remarkable video clips that demonstrate powerful relaxation and breathing techniques.
A very useful site for those interested in learning more about meditation techniques.
This site provides a fair amount of free information on how breathing exercises can reduce anxiety. It also provides access to an excellent manual available for purchase.
Progressive Relaxation Program
This is an excellent resource for developing a program of Progressive Muscle Relaxation, which is the foundation of treatment for many anxiety disorders.
This commercial website offers a surprising amount of useful information on how to control anger, and also on the high costs of not doing so.
Answers for Those Dealing with Loss: Beyond Indigo
This is a remarkable internet site that deals in a comprehensive and compassionate way with all of the things that those who are dealing with loss. Beyond Indigo, is the web's leading source of information on grief, grieving, death and dying. Beyond Indigo offers detailed and heartfelt support and well-managed information. It facilitates chat rooms and discussions on various topics.
This website was highly recommended by a group of national mental health experts. It is comprehensive, thoughtfully laid out, and answers legal and psychological questions that come up in the context of this turbulent and potentially traumatic event.
. OA is not a diet-and-calories club. It is a worldwide organization -- men and women, young and old -- who are seeking relief and recovery from addiction to food.
http://area62.org/dist61/district61.php
- The AA website with the comprehensive meeting schedule for Beaufort County.
http://www.usrecovery.info/NA/South-Carolina.htm
- The Narcotics Anonymous website for South Carolina. Also a very complete meeting schedule
- Women for Sobriety is a peer support groups for women in substance abuse recovery. It is non-12-step oriented, but has a very empowering message.
Prescription Medication Savings
This is a site that allows you to compare costs of medications from different internet sources.
This is one of the best of the prescription drug savings cards, it costs about 45.95$ per year for an individual or 49.95$ for a family and allows you to go to any one of 52,000 pharmacies and pay prices that are about the same as the lowest warehouse store price.
This site is a nice source of information about the various programs provided by different manufacturers of medications.