OCD

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involves unwanted and repetitive thoughts or feelings (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (compulsions). Sometimes your compulsions can be physical actions (like checking a lock, or washing your hands, touching something, etc.) or mental actions (like mentally backtracking your steps, planning everything carefully, counting etc.). Sometimes people with OCD feel “out of control” or incredibly distressed if they don’t do a compulsion in response to an obsession. OCD can feel more intense during periods of stress, and is often accompanied with depression symptoms or other forms of anxiety.

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PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a label we use to describe a range of symptoms you may have after a traumatic event. You might have PTSD if you experience intrusive or unwanted thoughts / memories, a heightened sense of anxiety or alertness, and/or a desire to avoid certain people/places/things/memories that remind you of a past trauma. We don’t quite know why some people develop PTSD in response to trauma while others don’t. People with PTSD often feel like they are a different person because of their trauma.

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Suicide Risk

Suicide is intentionally taking your own life. We usually try to differentiate between suicidal thoughts (sometimes called suicidal ideation) and suicidal actions (sometimes called suicidal behavior or suicide attempts). Not everybody who has suicidal thoughts will make a suicide attempt, but it can be difficult to predict who is most at risk for dying by suicide. People with thoughts of suicide are sometimes hesitant to tell others about it because of a fear of being judged, involuntarily hospitalized, or losing something.

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Depression

Depression is one of the most widely reported mental health conditions. There are a range of symptoms that fit under the umbrella of depression, including a sad or lowered mood, a decrease in your desire to do things, getting less enjoyment out of things, decreased energy, difficulties sleeping or sleeping too much, changes in your appetite, and more. Sometimes depression can be in response to life events or circumstances, but other times we don’t really know why we are depressed.

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Anxiety

Anxiety is a widely reported mental health condition that is becoming quite common. There are a lot of different forms of anxiety, but most of them share symptoms like difficulty controlling your worrying, feeling like you worry too much, restlessness, irritability, difficulties concentrating, trouble falling asleep, and more. We sometimes see people who are both anxious and depressed – something we call comorbidity, which is fairly common.

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Insomnia

A dissatisfaction with the quality or quantity of your sleep is sometimes called insomnia. This can involve having trouble falling, having trouble staying asleep, and waking up too early and not being able to fall asleep again. Insomnia generally needs to persist for at least 3 nights per week for 3 months before we consider it to be clinically diagnosable. Sometimes, people with insomnia also experience nightmares, and it can be a game of chicken-vs-egg to figure out what is causing what. A very large number of people experience insomnia at some point in their life.

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