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.
Fees, referrals, and the doctors
Out of network. Superbill. HSA and FSA. No referral required. We will not change a prescription from your physician. Emergency symptoms, including sudden neurologic loss, go to the ER rather than to La Alameda.
Drs. Sani and Tara Kohen practice at FRI. Their backgrounds are on the about page. The suite and gym are on the office page.
Old Town, the Legacy, and the North Tustin hills
Tustin has three different weeks. Old Town is walkable, with short blocks and a lot of sitting in cafes and small offices. Tustin Legacy, on the old base, is wide, new, and built around a car. North Tustin and the hills toward Foothill are grades, older homes, and a drive down to the 55. A low back from Legacy commuting is not a knee from a North Tustin hill. We ask which one you live in before we guess at a load.
The District and the shopping around the Legacy add standing errands on top of desk jobs. Neck pain and headaches often belong to the screen. Knee pain and hip pain show up when hill residents add steps without a plan. Plantar fasciitis shows up in people whose walking is almost all concrete between the car and a door.
South on the 55
The 55 south to the 73 is the usual path to La Alameda. About 16 miles. Twenty-five minutes is a good day. Forty is a 55 that is not cooperating. Address: 26400 La Alameda, Suite 100, Mission Viejo, CA 92691. Parking at the building. Monday through Thursday, 9 to 6.
Do not book the visit as a gap between school pickup in Old Town and a meeting. The exam needs you present, not halfway back on the freeway in your head. Call (949) 312-1754. A complimentary 20-minute consultation is available if you want to meet the doctors before an evaluation.
Chiropractic, rehab, and labs from Tustin
McKenzie Method work is a strong fit when back or neck pain has a direction that makes it better or worse. Corrective exercise is the homework. Adjustments are used when a specific joint is restricted, after the screen that says a thrust is appropriate.
Functional medicine visits cover thyroid, sleep, and gut health when those are the actual complaint. The Tustin chiropractor page collects the local routes into the three pillars.
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 Tustin
Anxiety & Mood is handled at the Mission Viejo clinic, not in a satellite office in Tustin. The related pages below stay on that same visit and add the methods or neighboring problems that usually come up in the history.
- Tustin chiropractor
How people from Tustin 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.
