We are periodically asked by those not familiar with the array of problems that can accompany a pornography addiction, if wilderness therapy is a bit too drastic of an intervention for an addicted teen. Our answer is quite simply “No!”. While we are not going to make the case that every teen with a pornography addiction needs to complete a wilderness therapy program, we hold a strong belief that wilderness therapy is a needed intervention for pornography addiction under certain conditions. Listed below are four conditions that require an intensive out of home intervention stemming from an addi ..read more

Video gaming is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States today. Research firm, Newzoo has forecasted total video gaming revenue worth $24.05 billion for 2015, with mobile games generating $7.2 billion and console games representing $11.1 billion. While these figures reveal the gaming industry’s major role in the economy, excessive use of video games has an alarming impact on young minds. Several research studies have found signs of depression and violence among adolescents exposed to violent video games. According to the research firm ChildrenNow, a majority of video games in ..read more

There is an amazing beauty about being able to empathize with others. Why? Because we like to know that those whom we look up to are human as well. When others are vulnerable with us, we become vulnerable to them which allows us to be more open to listen to their advice. However, this is contrary to what society wants us to believe. Society wants us to believe that we have to put on our best face in public and not show our fears, anxieties and failures. That is why I am writing this series on anxiety and depression. At the age of 12 I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I won’t l ..read more

If you are just starting this series on this post, please be sure to check out any previous articles in this series. Hope. Probably one of the most powerful feelings we have as human beings. Hope is what keeps us going from today to tomorrow. It keeps dreams alive. It gives us the feeling that we are contributing to the world. We hope for others, and we hope for ourselves. Hope is that tomorrow will be brighter than today. To me, it is the essence of why we want to live. Mental illnesses are dangerous because the first thing that goes is hope. You see, someone who is experiencing mental issues ..read more

You have heard the corny phrase that time is the best healer? Well… it’s the truest sentence that has ever been uttered from human lips. From personal experience, it has been true with breakups, with failed tests, with the loss of a sports game and, yes, even with mental illness! When I am asked to speak to groups or meet with individuals, I find that the most frustrated people are those who expect a fix-all solution. I remember one particular friend I had who also (like myself) experienced OCD. He was frustrated because he expected that he would learn a tactic from a therapist and, after one ..read more

The OCD I struggle with is I have a hard time believing I am a good person. It is difficult to explain and put into words and it wouldn’t do any good to go into detail, but I often feel like I am worse than what I really am. The feeling of worthlessness and constant guilt was difficult to have as a kid, and it was even more difficult to believe that these thoughts were irrational and false. As I have grown up and spoken with more and more individuals who suffer from anxiety and depression I have found this to be the most common form of OCD among those I have met with. The irrationalities I hav ..read more

Being one who constantly deals with OCD thoughts, I am pained when I hear people say in casual conversation that one can just snap out of mentally ill thoughts – as if the person enjoys drowning in their irrational thoughts and can just jump out of those thoughts immediately. Now, as much as I hate this kind of thinking, a response I can’t stand even more is from those suffering from mental illness who say that is just the way they are and it will never change. Then they don’t do a thing to try and get better! When I was 21 I was living in England and I had two roommates, both of whom suffered ..read more

In the last post, I talked about how you can’t just sit still and hope that depression and anxiety goes away but rather you have to get up and do something about it. Depending on the severity of the mental illness those steps will vary, but the step of love is absolutely essential for overcoming any mental struggle. DISCLAIMER: I am not saying those who have depression and anxiety don’t know how to love! In fact I have found that is quite the opposite. Hear me out for the rest of this post and I think you will get what I am trying to say. When I was in the darkest moments of my OCD I was seein ..read more

When I was 17 or 18 I was having a rough month in my OCD thoughts so I scheduled an appointment with my therapist who I had not seen in years. When I went into his office we talked and caught up and he asked me what was going on inside my head. I told him all that I was thinking and after maybe five minutes of talking he stopped me and said, “Do you hear yourself?” I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. He proceeded, “All of your sentences are beginning with the words ‘What if?’” I wasn’t sure where he was going with this. He continued, “The words ‘What if?’ are the most debilitating words a ..read more

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who love and thrive being around people, and those who find it exhausting. I have always been the one who is the life of a party. I am loud and constantly seeking for attention or looking for a laugh. As a teenager who had anxiety and depression, I was still my loud and usual self because it was who I was and I refused to let that go. However, there was a great quality I learned from those who are introverted. That quality was setting a time in the day to just have time to think and be alone. Taking time for yourself can come in many ways! You ..read more