Blog posts, news articles, and other resources from The Center • A Place of HOPE
Anxiety is the most common mental health issue in the world. Some studies estimate that over one billion people across the globe suffer from anxiety. In the US, 18% of the population live with anxiety, rising to an estimated 25% of children between the ages of 13 and 18. It’s...
Being human means experiencing the full spectrum of feelings and emotions, good and bad. But that doesn’t mean you’re powerless to shift to a more desirable mood. Below are 20 ways to get out of a bad mood, all of which are evidence-based (meaning that scientific research has found them...
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...
Anxiety is a mental health issue experienced by an increasing number of people. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults (19.1% of the U.S. population) age 18 and older every year. Anxiety disorders...
You’ve probably heard of the term “narcissist.” The formal term to describe a narcissist is “narcissistic personality disorder,” and it’s an official mental health diagnosis that’s included in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual. Not everyone with narcissistic personality disorder is abusive, and people can and do heal from this condition. However,...
If you are seeking to understand what emotional invalidation is and if it’s a form of abuse, then this article will define the terms, outline the impact of emotional invalidation, and offer ways to heal from abusive experiences. What is emotional abuse? To establish whether emotional invalidation is a...
“Boundaries are a prerequisite for compassion and empathy. We can't connect with someone unless we're clear about where we end and they begin. If there's no autonomy between people, then there's no compassion or empathy, just enmeshment.” — Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart What is enmeshment? The concept of...
Depression can take many different forms. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) publishes a diagnostic tool known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (or the DSM-V) which is the principal authority for psychiatric diagnoses. Within the DSM-V, depression falls into many categories. Some of these are well...
Hyperfixation is a form of intense concentration that lasts for a short amount of time, to the point where you lose track of everything else. It is all you can pay attention to. Another way to think about hyperfixation is that it’s a state of focus. For some inexplicable reason,...
Anxiety is the world’s most commonly experienced mental health condition, one that can take many forms - including separation anxiety. Separation anxiety is a type of anxiety experienced most frequently during early childhood, although older children, adolescents, and adults can suffer from this difficult type of anxiety. This article will...
There are very few of us out there who are able to maintain a perfectly clean home all of the time. Kids’ toys are strewn about, the clean laundry never gets folded, and the dirty dishes pile up. This is all a normal part of adult life. But where does...
It’s well-known that restful sleep is one of the best things we can do for our overall health and well-being. But too many of us aren’t getting the sleep we need; reports show that over a third of Americans aren’t getting the recommended hours of sleep every night (at least...
Have you ever heard that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain? Most of us believed this for many years – but it turns out it’s not the whole truth. Depression is a complex disease affecting over 280 million people worldwide, and a chemical imbalance is not...
You may have heard of cortisol as a harmful stress hormone. But cortisol isn’t always negative; our bodies actually depend on the release of cortisol for several key functions. The problem is when high stress, and cortisol release, are chronic. Humans aren’t meant to live under chronically high levels of...
In this article, we explore what grounding is and why it works. You will find nine of the best grounding techniques for calming panic attacks listed below for you to try, plus a full explanation of the theory behind them. As you will read, everyone is different, so experiment and...
Many people have experienced a form of abandonment in their lives, which can lead to issues around trust, belonging, and connectedness. You’re not alone if this is your experience. According to the American Psychiatric Association, abandonment means: Desertion or substantial leave-taking by a parent or primary caregiver of his or...
Many people who’ve been in a romantic relationship have experienced feeling distrustful of their partners. It could be because your partner has shown themselves to be untrustworthy. But it could also be because you’ve experienced things in your past that have led you to have a hard time trusting other...
If you live with depression, know that you’re not alone. Millions of people across the globe have depression and battle with it every day. Treatment is necessary to make a full recovery from depression. At the same time, there are things you can do to help yourself get out of...
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The whole person approach to treatment integrates all aspects of a person’s life: