Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder at a Glance

What was once thought to be a rare mental disorder is now known to be quite common. Approximately 2.3% of the population or 3.3 million people between ages 18- 54 suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which outranks mental disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or panic disorder. Help is readily available for those facing this disorder […]

How To Rise and Shine

Whether we are facing depression or anxiety, love to sleep, or are just plain exhausted, we all have days where it is hard to find the willpower to get out of bed in the morning. The rigors of school, work, parenthood, and life may be all too daunting, and we end up staying in bed […]

Outdoor Therapy: Nature’s Cure

When Stacy Bare returned from his deployment to Baghdad in 2006, he struggled with alcoholism, a cocaine habit, and suicidal thoughts. In 2010, a fellow veteran took him rock climbing and things began to turn around. “If I hadn’t started climbing, I’d probably be another sad statistic. The focus it gave me let me leave […]

The Early Indicators of Mental Illness

Just as with other medical illnesses, early intervention can make a crucial difference in preventing what could become a serious illness.  Learning about the developing symptoms of mental illness can lead to possible mitigation or prevention of a mental illness altogether. Earlier this year, I could feel a cold coming on. My throat felt tight, […]

Depression Is Not A Life Sentence

Society has made leaps and bounds in understanding depression; it used to be misunderstood as a common ailment of the weak and a manifestation of their inability to overcome all of the emotions that fell under the once-ambiguous umbrella of “feeling sad and/or tired.” We now know–and have research to boot–that depression is very real […]