Marja Bergen

author, mental health advocate, follower of Christ

Category: Coping with Mental Illness (page 9 of 15)

Your light will rise

…if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. Isaiah 58:10 In the early days of Living Room* I spoke much about what I called other-centeredness – the opposite of self-centeredness. This […]

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My pain

  Graham Thornicroft, in his book Shunned: Discrimination against people with mental illness said this: “Once a person has been defined as mentally ill, his or her protests are often discredited or, even worse, labelled one more ‘symptom’ of his or her illness.” I have – for a very long time tried to reconcile with […]

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Fifty years later

Essondale Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Proverbs 3:3   My husband and I recently celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary, something many who know our story marvel at. I’m amazed when I look back and remember our many struggles – especially […]

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Shunned: Discrimination against people with mental illness

  This book by Graham Thornicroft discusses the following:  “People with mental illness commonly describe the stigma and discrimination they face as being worse than their main condition. Discrimination can pervade every part of their daily life – their personal life, working life, sense of citizenship, their ability to maintain even a basic standard of […]

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Intimacy with God

  The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17   A long time ago, as I was reading Traveling Light by Max Lucado, I noted how he said […]

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Another sermon – more to share

  It must have been God at work today. Of all things, the sermon was on Lamentations and the speaker spoke a lot about how much art, writings, etc. has come to us as the result of trauma in people’s lives. I can totally understand why that is. If you’ve been reading here you will […]

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The good in rapid cycling

LIVING ROOM MEMORIES  279  (May 7, 2010) You know, I’d rather be into rapid cycling than in a solid depression, as I was at this time last year. The lows I go through now only last a few hours. The depression only got alarmingly low one day. That was followed by a high the next […]

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The good in bipolar

LIVING ROOM MEMORIES  278  (May 2, 2010) Almost every day over the past while I wake up feeling awful. As the day progresses things usually improve. This morning it happened again. I felt so depressed. But as I sipped my coffee and looked out over the yard, the patio, and my favourite chair, I thought […]

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My great shame

LIVING ROOM MEMORIES  268 (March 11, 2010) I’ve come to a place where I haven’t been before, at least I don’t recollect having been here before. I hate having this disorder and lacking the control I would like to have over my feelings and subsequent behaviour. Last week I was hard on a person, blaming […]

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Do you want a cure or healing?

LIVING ROOM MEMORIES  266  (February 10, 2010) At Living Room on Friday we’re going to discuss the difference between cure and healing. Jesus asked the blind Bartimeus, “What do you want?” “I want my sight,” Bartimeus said to Him. And Jesus healed him. There are so many stories like this in the Bible. On Friday […]

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