30 Things You Can Do When Someone You Love is Clinically Depressed

When you love someone that is experiencing deep depression it can be exhausting and frustrating.  You want to encourage your loved one but don’t want to push them too much. Encouraging them to “push through” but knowing when not to do so is a delicate balance.  You might even find yourself feeling the depression emotionally.  No doubt caring for someone who is in the depths of depression can feel as though life is being sucked out of you.  You can end up having no idea as to how to help or encourage your loved one.

Read More »

Choosing Hope in the Face of Hopelessness

Why would there be a small ray of hope following my diagnosis?   After all, usually people see the diagnosis of bipolar disorder as the difficult thing to accept. Well, it was because of the people around me who helped me to see that the diagnosis and treatment of my bipolar disorder were a way back to having a future. It was the idea that the bipolar could be treated and I could have a future poked a small pinhole of hope into the darkness of hopelessness. It was not an easy journey, but it was more than worth it.

Read More »
Faith and Mental Illness

Mastering the Art of Self-Distraction

Being focused is essential for getting a lot of different types of tasks done in this life.  However, sometimes being intensely focused or “stuck” in our thinking about something is not good and we end up needing to be distracted from it.  We need to be interrupted! There are times we can become intensely focused, ruminating over and over on something negative. It’s at that point that we need to interrupt and distract our thinking.

Read More »
Fresh Hope for Mental Health

SUPERFLUOUS ABUNDANCE

One of the biggest challenges we face is the misconception that positive feelings denote good mental health while negative feelings indicate a problem or disorder.  This strictly Western phenomenon, says Kutcher, is leaving parents (and by extension their children) susceptible to the idea that there’s something wrong with them if they’re sad, or disappointed, or upset.  Instead of teaching them that life is often hard, that negative emotions are a normal response to difficult situations, and that adversity breeds resilience, we have begun pathologizing typical experiences by too quickly throwing out labels. 

Read More »
Bipolar

7 Tools for Overcoming Bipolar Impulsivity

“Bipolar mania, and the less intense hypomania, is associated with increased risk-taking behaviors like drug use, promiscuous sex, over-spending money, and other poor decisions. To compound the problem, mania brings increased energy, increased distractibility, less need for sleep, and elevated moods, which make the risky behaviors happen with increased frequency.”

Read More »
Depression

Positive Friends Impact Depression’s Effect by Rick Quall

The Bible offers practical advice on developing and maintaining good friendships.

Good friends take time for each other. Friendships don’t occur in a vacuum.  “Be devoted to one another…” Romans 12:16. Spending time together doing activities that you enjoy or working on projects together create opportunities to build relationships.

Read More »

Forgiveness: The Power to Heal by Jamie Meyer

How were you hurt at the hands of another? Were you bullied, made fun of, or stigmatized because you were different from your peers? Maybe you were hurt, or continue to be, in a relationship. They didn’t understand so they said hurtful things, ignored you, or walked away, leaving you feeling abandoned and alone. I’ll let you fill in the blank.

Read More »
en_USEnglish

SIGN UP AT THE TOP RIGHT OF THE WEBSITE

Webinar "How Churches Can Facilitate Access to Mental Health Care"

Register Here to Watch Free!

Webinar "What I Wish My Pastor Knew About Mental Health"

Register Here to Watch Free!

Take the First Step in Starting Your Own
Fresh Hope Support Group

Please fill out this form so we can provide you with more details on how to start a Hope Coach Ministry.

Best time to contact

Enter your information and we will contact you about becoming a Hope Coach

Best time to contact

What Your Gift Can Do for
Offering Hope to the Hopeless

For every 32 cents given, we are able to offer hope for a week to one person who has a mental health challenge.

For every $16.64 given annually, we are able to offer hope for one year to one person.

Any amount you are able to give will help bring hope to those who desperately need it.

What type of donation would you like to make?

Enter your information to speak with a Hope Coach

Best time to contact

Thank you for taking the next step
towards hope.

We want to make sure that we send you information that will best serve your needs, so please take a few moments to fill in the information below.

(Please note that your privacy is our utmost concern. Fresh Hope will never sell your data and your information is kept strictly confidential)

Name

Address

Phone / Email

The following best describes me