Taking care of your health is key to leading a happy and healthy life, and going to see your family medicine doctor is part of that. It is typically recommended, in most cases, to see your family medicine doctor at least once a year for an annual check up and to take your children in just as frequently to see their pediatricians. If you suspect a health problem in your own body or with your children, you should also consult your family medicine doctor or your child’s pediatrician as soon as you can to schedule an appointment.

For instance, low testosterone is a common problem among adult men, so common, in fact, that it affects up to thirteen million men here in the United States alone. Unfortunately, it is actually estimated that up to ninety percent of these men never have their testosterone problem diagnosed for various reasons. But consulting with a family medicine doctor can certainly help, as the typical family practice doctors are more than capable of treating a hormone deficiency like testosterone deficiency with various hormone treatments.

Emotional problems can also typically be assessed by a family medicine doctor. However, if it is suspected that you might be dealing with a mental illness like an anxiety disorder, depression, or even ADHD, it’s likely that your family medicine doctor will refer you to a therapist and psychiatrist first. In some cases, medication will be prescribed but in others behavioral therapy will be the first course of treatment attempted. Some mental health patients even end up acquiring an emotional support animal to support their therapy.

Doctors will also likely refer cases of drug addiction to a specialist doctor who has experience in the detox process, as the process of detoxing from drugs can be incredibly difficult – and can even be dangerous. For many a family medicine doctor, the experience to deal with the rehabilitation process of someone who is addicted to drugs can be far out of their realm of expertise.

Take a look at alcohol addiction, for instance. It’s been estimated that up to twenty percent of withdrawing alcoholics will have withdrawal symptoms that are so severe that they might end up being life threatening. In any case, they will need close medical supervision throughout the entire process of withdrawal. As the majority of people with alcohol addictions and dependencies don’t end up actually receiving treatment until they are years into their addiction (eight years, on average), it’s likely that the addiction will be a very serious one and equally as serious to withdraw and detox from.

And alcohol is far from the only addictive substance that has grabbed hold of many people all throughout the United States. So too have opioids, so much so that an opioid epidemic has been declared, sweeping throughout the country with little discrimination (though some parts of the county have been found to be more susceptible than others). In fact, the data shows that up to twenty million people in the United States who were at the age of twelve or above had a substance abuse problem by the time that we had reached the year of 2015 – a number that has only grown in the years that have passed by since. And of that number, it was found that millions were specifically addicted to opioids, be they prescription painkillers or heroin, two common addictive substances that are found throughout the United States.

Withdrawing from heroin and other opioids can be an incredibly painful thing, though it is not necessarily dangerous in the way that some alcohol withdrawals have proven to be. A home detox can be so difficult that it leads directly into another cycle of drug usage, so it is very much recommended that you find a doctor specializing in the process of withdrawing from the drugs that you have become addicted to in a way that your family medicine doctor is unfortunately not experienced in.

But from detox doctors to family practice doctors, all types of doctors play a very important role here in the United States, and this role should not be one that is discounted. If you need a doctor, you should certainly contact one ASAP.