Blog posts, news articles, and other resources from The Center • A Place of HOPE
Seattle’s winters are known to be dark and rainy. The days are short and gloomy, and many people find their mood negatively impacted. You could even develop depression symptoms that go away when the sun returns in the summer. But did you know the darkness of the winter months could...
Transitions and change mark life. Life transitions, such as changes in living situation, career, or relationship status, are inherently accompanied by uncertainty and stress. And while transitions are a standard part of life, for those living with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), they can become intense triggers for worsening symptoms. If you’re...
Suppose you’re one of the millions of people who live with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In that case, you already know how difficult it can make your everyday life. The unique challenges of living with OCD often extend into the workplace, and many people say their OCD symptoms are even worse...
When people think of OCD, They tend to think of somebody who cleans a lot or likes everything to be perfectly organized. But every person with OCD is unique, and there are as many themes of OCD thoughts as there are people with OCD. One lesser known type of OCD...
Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, affects every aspect of your life. For most of us, relationships are an important aspect of life – and OCD affects this area greatly. When one person lives with OCD, everyone around them can be impacted. Loved ones want to make sure the person with OCD...
You may have heard of OCD. But there is another, lesser-known mental health condition that shares a very similar name: obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Although these two conditions sound alike, they are, in reality, very different from one another. Because people can and do live with both, it’s important to distinguish...
Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, is a serious mental health condition that can become debilitating if left untreated. People with OCD experience two core symptoms: obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are intrusive and unwanted thoughts, and compulsions are repetitive behaviors the person does to try to rid themselves of the anxiety of...
Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, is often depicted as being a mental health condition that causes a severe amount of impairment. We might think of someone who needs to tap every door frame dozens of times before walking through it, or someone who loses hours of their days to rituals. And...
You’ve probably seen the memes and heard the jokes. Someone will say they’re “so OCD” when they have a need to complete a task to perfection. They’ll describe it as “OCD” when they like their surroundings to be neat and orderly or their closet color-coordinated. But in reality, OCD and...
A person suffering from anxiety spends most of his or her time either remembering some frightening event that’s long gone, or imagining ones yet to come. In other words, their minds habitually gravitate to the past and the future, but rarely give any thought to what is happening right here,...
The truth is that anxiety has many sources, can accompany many disorders (such as PTSD), and can wear many faces. Let’s look at the different ways anxiety can present itself in your life. The descriptions below are offered in the spirit of “knowledge is power.” The more you know about...
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition that involves obsessive behavior such as unwanted thoughts and ideas that disrupt your thought patterns and your life and make it very hard for you to focus on other things; and compulsive behavior which involves symptoms where you have to do things...
When people are burdened by fear, worry, and anxiety, they struggle to live productive, happy lives. These same feelings propel them headlong into excesses. Often, they are focused on the negativity associated with their excesses, such as obesity or alcoholism or addiction to pornography. They want help to "just stop"...
Sometimes people will take their feelings of dread and impending disaster and concentrate it into a single area of concern. Pamela was terrified of germs, of unclean things harming her body and making her sick. It was not unusual for Pamela to wash her hands twenty times a day. Public...
To help you identify your patterns of worry and what activities or thoughts they are most associated with, you need to answer the following questions. Take your time to answer these questions and rally think about your answers.
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The whole person approach to treatment integrates all aspects of a person’s life: