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.
Insurance and coordination
Many Irvine employers offer HSA or FSA accounts. Those cards work here. We are still out of network and we still give a superbill rather than billing your plan directly. Lab work is quoted before it is ordered. We will not tell you to stop a medication from your Irvine physician.
Drs. Sani and Tara Kohen lead the clinic. Training details are on the about page. If you want to see the rehab gym before you drive the 5, use the office page.
Business parks, village trails, and a city built for sitting
Irvine's villages do not share a body. Woodbridge and University Park are older loops and pools. Turtle Rock and Quail Hill have more grade. The Spectrum and the Great Park are newer and more spread out. The job, for a lot of patients, is a campus along Jamboree, Barranca, or the Irvine Business Complex: long meetings, a badge, and a walk that is only from the garage. Neck, upper back, and headache complaints often start there. Knee and hip complaints often start on the village trails people use to undo the job.
We do not treat Irvine as a single activity level. A cyclist on the San Diego Creek trail and a software lead who has not exercised since a move from Woodbridge need different exams. Neck pain and headaches are common desk presentations. Hip and SI pain shows up when someone adds mileage fast. Say which village and which campus.
South on the 5 or the 73 from Irvine
From central and north Irvine, I-5 south toward Mission Viejo is the simple drive. From the south villages and from many business parks, the 133 to the 73 toll road is often cleaner. About 12 miles. Twenty minutes is realistic off peak. Thirty-five is realistic when the 5 is slow through Lake Forest. The office is 26400 La Alameda, Suite 100, Mission Viejo, CA 92691. Building parking. Monday through Thursday, 9 to 6.
Irvine patients are used to efficient clinics. This one is deliberately less efficient. An exam takes time. If you need to be back on Jamboree for a meeting, book a morning visit and leave a buffer. Phone (949) 312-1754. The 20-minute consultation is the right first step if you are shopping for a style of care rather than ready for testing.
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 Irvine
Anxiety & Mood is handled at the Mission Viejo clinic, not in a satellite office in Irvine. The related pages below stay on that same visit and add the methods or neighboring problems that usually come up in the history.
- Irvine chiropractor
How people from Irvine 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.
