Blog posts, news articles, and other resources from The Center • A Place of HOPE
Fatigue, or lack of energy, is one of the most common symptoms associated with major depressive disorder (depression). Most people with depression report they feel tired or fatigued on an almost daily basis. If you feel fatigued every day, and you don’t have another medical condition that could explain it,...
Eating disorders can wreak havoc on all aspects of a person’s life: their mental wellness, emotional balance, relationships with the people around them, and most certainly their physical body. Recovering from an eating disorder therefore requires comprehensive treatment in order to address each of these areas of a person’s life....
One of my clients had had his marriage blow up in his face only months before. His pornography habit had been discovered yet again--after repeated promises of “I’m quitting now"--and his wife was so fed up she had left the house for a week. (It could just as easily be...
Do you know the difference between fear and anxiety? If you look in the dictionary or ask most people, these words are often used interchangeably. However, there is an important distinction between them. To understand, let’s consider Janet and Marc. The sun was just beginning to peek through the blinds...
If the parenting model you grew up with was fundamentally flawed, you may be at a loss to determine what is normal and what is not, what is helpful and what is harmful.
Did you ever play with wind-up toys as a kid? Remember how if you wound the toy too far, it broke? Well, you are the wind-up toy. You are the wind-up toy, and anxiety keeps winding and winding you up. At some point, anxiety could over-wind you, so you’ll break....
There's something important to remember in the quest for strength and courage, and that's a spirit of kindness. Too often we teach our children the verse, "Be kind one to another" (Eph. 4:32 RSV), and then we forget the admonition as adults. True forgiveness and kindness are cut from the...
“Things are going so well…I’m really nervous. Something bad is bound to happen now!” Have you ever heard or thought something like this before? “The other shoe is going to drop” sentiment is a common pothole on the road to recovery. Sadly, this type of thinking prevents many people from...
Boundaries are an important part of life. They help us see where we end and others begin. They define and protect us. They let good things in and keep trouble away. In a way, they are like a fence around someone’s house or property. Sound pretty good, don’t they? Think about every person you care about. Do you want them to have boundaries?
Have you ever noticed how relaxed you can feel after you've done something physically strenuous? It's possible to relive a little of this feeling by engaging in progressive muscle relaxation.
Stress is not the ideal environment to make the best decisions. Stress skews your priorities and downsizes goals. Desperate, you make short-term decisions that have long-term consequences.
Each time you take time to chronicle a struggle, you contribute to the handbook of how to overcome and succeed the next time. In essence, you write your own self-help book.
Anxieties are progressive, so it seems logical that one of the answers to anxiety would be a progression of a different kind. When a fear starts out small and keeps expanding, the way to combat anxiety is to cut that anxiety down to size. Instead of trying to take on the whole fear, you start small, working your way up your fear, like climbing a ladder.
Anxiety has written a script where you play the part of a frazzled, anxious, suspicious, irritable, short-tempered, and easily frustrated person. How do you want to be perceived by the other players on stage? When you take control of your own script, you determine the part you are going to play and then you act accordingly.
Many people struggle with the environmental and social triggers during the holiday season that may elicit old, destructive eating patterns. Staying committed to practicing self-care throughout the holiday season is your solution to remaining on the path of recovery.
One of the first bricks you need to remove is the one that hides the truth about your relationship with food from those who truly love you. They need to see what this has been doing to you.
Of all the ways we can respond to each other, you can choose love, mercy, and forgiveness. These will first enrich your life, then bless the lives of others.
In the past, you have spent a good deal of time focusing on how your body looks from the outside. Now it's time to look at your body from the inside. What is happening to you on the inside affects how you look on the outside.
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The whole person approach to treatment integrates all aspects of a person’s life: