Mike Mah, MDAnxiety and OCD
Anxiety and OCD are the areas Dr. Mike Mah's practice is built around. Both conditions are extremely common, both are treatable, and both are also frequently missed, mislabeled, or undertreated in the standard model of psychiatric care. This page is a plain-language walk-through of how the practice thinks about each condition and how Dr. Mike Mah approaches treatment.
Anxiety
Anxiety is not one thing. Dr. Mike Mah treats the full range of clinical anxiety disorders in adults, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and illness (health) anxiety. Anxiety is also frequently a companion to depression, ADHD, trauma, and OCD, and it often needs to be addressed alongside those other conditions rather than in isolation.
Not every anxious feeling is a clinical anxiety disorder. Anxiety is a normal, adaptive human experience, and part of a careful evaluation is distinguishing anxiety that is proportionate to what someone is going through from anxiety that has become disproportionate, persistent, or interfering with daily life. The treatment plan follows that distinction.
For clinical anxiety, evidence-based first-line treatments include SSRIs and SNRIs, psychotherapy (particularly cognitive behavioral therapy), and, in specific situations, other medications used with care. Benzodiazepines have a role in specific short-term situations, but they are prescribed cautiously and with a clear plan, not as an open-ended default. For patients whose anxiety has not responded to standard treatments, additional options are considered.
OCD
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is one of the most misunderstood conditions in psychiatry. It is not the same as being organized, particular, or a perfectionist. Clinical OCD involves recurrent intrusive thoughts that are distressful and not aligned with what the person actually wants to be thinking. In clinical terms, these thoughts are ego-dystonic. That distinction matters, because OCD is often confused with other conditions where obsessive thinking is present but the thoughts feel right to the person having them.
OCD also shows up in more forms than most people realize. Contamination and cleaning is one presentation. But OCD can also center on checking, symmetry, harm-related intrusive thoughts (fear of hurting a loved one), religious or moral obsessions (scrupulosity), sexual orientation obsessions, unwanted intrusive thoughts about children (POCD), and purely mental compulsions with no visible behavior. Many people suffer with OCD for years before it is correctly identified.
The gold-standard psychotherapy for OCD is exposure and response prevention (ERP). Dr. Mike Mah handles the psychiatric evaluation, medication management, and treatment coordination for OCD patients, and works with each patient on the right therapy plan. First-line medications for OCD typically include SSRIs at doses that are often higher than what is used for depression, and the treatment course requires patience because meaningful response can take longer than patients expect. When OCD has not responded adequately to standard care, additional options are considered.
Clinical OCD involves intrusive thoughts that are distressful and not aligned with what the person actually wants to be thinking. Many people suffer for years before it is correctly identified. Dr. Mike Mah
How treatment works at this practice
Every patient starts with an initial consultation. That is a 75-minute psychiatric evaluation in which Dr. Mike Mah gathers a full history, understands what is going on now, reviews any prior treatments and current medications, and puts together an initial assessment with treatment recommendations. If a patient is a good clinical fit for the practice, ongoing care follows.
Ongoing care usually involves some combination of medication management, coordination with a psychotherapist, and thoughtful attention to the day-to-day fundamentals of mental health: sleep, nutrition, movement, and the ordinary stressors of life. Follow-up cadence depends on the treatment plan and the specific condition. Anxiety and OCD often require patience during the medication phase, and Dr. Mike Mah gives patients an honest timeline of what to expect from each step.
Medication decisions are treated as clinical judgment calls rather than defaults. Dr. Mike Mah is thoughtful about starting medications, careful about interactions and side effects, and equally thoughtful about safely reducing or stopping medications when the plan should change.
Fees and getting started
The initial 75-minute consultation is $750. Follow-up medication visits are 25 minutes at $400. Dr. Mike Mah does not accept insurance directly, but for patients with out-of-network mental health benefits, the office provides a superbill that can be submitted to insurance for potential partial reimbursement.
Patients who prefer to use insurance can be seen at Century City Psychiatry, Dr. Mike Mah's insurance-based group practice, where a hand-selected team of clinicians delivers care under his direct clinical supervision.