Worry, flat mood, and irritability
You may notice a constant hum of worry, a mood that will not lift, or irritability that surprises you. Some people cry more. Some feel nothing. Sleep may be short, or you may sleep and still feel raw. Those are experiences to take seriously. They are not, by themselves, a nutrient deficiency.
Dr. Tara Kohen, D.C. and Dr. Sani Kohen, D.C. ask what changed, including a new medication, a postpartum period, a cycle shift, or a stretch of pain that never lets you rest. Functional Medicine listens for contributors. It does not offer therapy, and it does not diagnose a psychiatric condition.
This is not a psychiatry or therapy practice
FRI is not a psychiatry or therapy practice. If you are in treatment, stay in it. If you are not, and worry or low mood is the main problem, a mental health clinician is the right lead. Crisis symptoms, including thoughts of harming yourself, need urgent local help, not a hormone kit and not a wait for office hours.
What this office can examine is biological context that sometimes travels with mood: sleep, thyroid pace, cycle hormones, gut symptoms, and inflammation. Those are contributors to discuss. They are not a claim that anxiety is only a lab value, and they are not a reason to leave your therapist or prescriber.
Sleep, thyroid, iron, B12, gut, and cycle hormones
Broken sleep makes worry louder. The sleep and insomnia page covers pain, caffeine, and a cortisol curve. A thyroid panel is considered when pace symptoms are present, because a fast or slow thyroid can feel like anxiety or a flat mood. Your prescriber still manages any thyroid drug.
Advanced bloodwork can include B12 and iron when fatigue and mood travel together. Low stores are a medical finding for your physician to treat, not a supplement dose invented here. Gut health enters only if digestion is part of the story. Cycle timing is reviewed when symptoms cluster with the month.
No neurotransmitter supplement recipe
FRI does not hand out a neurotransmitter recipe, a serotonin protocol, or a brand stack aimed at mood. Nutrition and supplementation follows a real finding, such as a lab your physician agrees matters, and it does not replace a prescribed psychiatric medication. Do not stop those drugs for a trial.
Functional medicine at FRI does not replace a primary physician, endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, or mental health clinician. Chiropractic Sports Medicine and Neuromuscular Rehabilitation can treat pain that is feeding the exhaustion. They are not treatment for a mood disorder.
What to expect when you are seen for Anxiety & Mood
A complimentary 20-minute consultation can show whether a contributor workup belongs beside your mental health care. The office is out of network, provides superbills, and accepts HSA and FSA funds. Visits are scheduled Monday–Thursday, 9–6.
You will be asked about sleep, cycles, digestion, and medications, and you will be encouraged to keep your therapist or psychiatrist. Labs are chosen from clues. You will not be given a mood supplement protocol.
Payment
Out of network. Superbill. HSA and FSA. No referral. Bring a medication list if you want labs or if you are here for a systemic symptom. Imaging is helpful and not required for every back pain visit.
Drs. Sani and Tara Kohen are on the about page. The building is on the office page.
Mile Square, a flat grid, and long freeway days
Fountain Valley is flat, which sounds simple and is not. Mile Square Park gives people a long, level loop for walking and cycling. The rest of the city is a grid of Slater, Brookhurst, and Euclid: short drives, a lot of sitting, and jobs that may be in the city or up the 405. A flat park loop is a clean test of walking tolerance. Pain that waits until the car, not the loop, points us at sitting and at the spine rather than at a hill that does not exist here.
Low back pain and sciatica are evaluated with that distinction. Neck pain often belongs to the 405. Knee pain in cyclists around Mile Square gets a bike-and-hip history, not a generic brace.
405 to the 73
Take the 405 south to the 73 toward Mission Viejo, then to La Alameda. About 20 miles and 30 to 45 minutes. The address is 26400 La Alameda, Suite 100, Mission Viejo, CA 92691. Park at the building. Hours run Monday through Thursday, 9 to 6. Leaving Fountain Valley after 4 and expecting a calm neck exam is optimistic. Book earlier.
Phone (949) 312-1754. The complimentary consultation is 20 minutes. Use it if the drive makes you want a smaller first commitment. If you already know you want testing, book the evaluation so we are not talking in circles.
Techniques and medical problems we will and will not own
Neurodynamics and McKenzie Method care are central for nerve and disc patterns. Gait analysis earns its place when the Mile Square loop and the sidewalk tell different stories. Cupping is a decompression tool, not a detox.
We also see metabolic syndrome and diabetes questions beside the physician who manages medication. We do not change those drugs. The city page is the Fountain Valley chiropractor page.
Extra context on Anxiety & Mood
Tell the truth about care you already have. Name the therapist or psychiatrist, the medications, and whether you are in a bad week or a bad year. Add sleep hours and whether worry is worse the week before a period. Mention gut symptoms only if they are real, not because you read that mood lives in the microbiome. Bring iron or thyroid labs if they exist so nobody repeats a draw for atmosphere. If you may act on thoughts of suicide, call 988 now. An office visit is not the right container for that emergency.
A useful outcome is a short list: sleep is broken, a thyroid question is open, iron has not been checked, or none of those fit and mental health care remains the lead. Inflammation can be discussed when a physician is already measuring it, not as a personality. FRI will not translate a hard season into a supplement plan. Chiropractic Sports Medicine can still help the pain that is stealing sleep. The mood itself stays with the clinician trained for it, and your prescriptions stay in their hands. Keep the clinician who knows your history.
Questions patients ask
Can FRI treat anxiety or depression?
FRI is not a psychiatry or therapy practice and does not treat those conditions as a mental health clinic would. You should keep your therapist, psychiatrist, or other mental health clinician. The office can look at sleep, gut, hormones, and inflammation as contributors while that care continues. It will not ask you to stop a psychiatric medication.
Which labs are actually considered?
A thyroid panel is considered when symptoms of pace are present. Advanced bloodwork can look at B12 and iron when fatigue and mood show up together. DUTCH hormone testing is for a cycle or cortisol question, not a default mood panel. Gut testing waits for gut symptoms. Nothing is ordered to chase a neurotransmitter theory, and no reference range is invented here.
Will you recommend a serotonin or GABA supplement?
No. There is no neurotransmitter supplement recipe, no serotonin protocol, and no dose for GABA or similar products on this page. If a lab shows something your physician wants to address, such as iron or B12, that medical plan leads. Nutrition changes are ordinary and specific. They are not a substitute for therapy or for a prescribed medication.
What if pain and mood are tangled?
Pain can wreck sleep and shorten your temper, and mood can make pain feel louder. Chiropractic Sports Medicine and Neuromuscular Rehabilitation can work on the joint or the neck. That care does not treat a mood disorder. Keep your mental health clinician. Functional Medicine may look at sleep and inflammation as contributors. It does not replace either of those other relationships.
Related care for Fountain Valley
Anxiety & Mood is handled at the Mission Viejo clinic, not in a satellite office in Fountain Valley. The related pages below stay on that same visit and add the methods or neighboring problems that usually come up in the history.
- Fountain Valley chiropractor
How people from Fountain Valley reach 26400 La Alameda and what the three pillars cover.
- Anxiety & Mood clinical overview
The non-geographic condition page, if you want the clinic-wide explanation without the drive.
- Functional Medicine
The pillar this problem sits in at Functional Restoration Institute.
- Sleep & Insomnia in this city
Sleep problems have a clock, a chemistry, and often a body part that hurts. Caffeine, a late bedtime, a cortisol curve, thyroid.
- Thyroid Dysfunction in this city
Thyroid trouble is not one feeling. A slow pace can leave you cold, heavy, and constipated. A fast pace can leave you.
- Gut Health in this city
Digestion problems rarely arrive as one tidy symptom. Bloating, stool changes, and food reactions can travel together or take turns. This page.
- Hormonal Imbalance in this city
Hormone symptoms rarely live in one gland. Cycle changes, thin sleep, temperature swings, and uneven energy often reflect how sex hormones, cortisol,.
- Thyroid Panel
A thyroid panel at Functional Restoration Institute can include TSH, free T4, free T3, reverse T3, and antibodies. Each one answers a.
