Marja Bergen

author, mental health advocate, follower of Christ

Category: Living Room (page 17 of 42)

Finding good in the bad

LIVING ROOM MEMORIES  213  (December 27, 2008) I’m having good times when I function normally, alternating with times when I’m deep, clinging to negative thoughts. At times I lose hope. After all, this depression has been going on for three months now. A series of stressful situations started this, Christmas – as usual – being […]

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Moving towards living room (2019)

What was my life like before Living Room? I’ll try to describe briefly. When we married, my husband and I joined a camera club where we became immersed in photography. Before long we both became leaders in the club. It took a while for me to grow the confidence, but it was a friendly group […]

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From Riverview (2019)

After reading the last couple of posts, I can’t help thinking back to when my life with mental illness began. How far I have come! My story wouldn’t be complete if you didn’t understand a little about this part of my life. In 1965, at the age of nineteen, I lived with psychosis for several […]

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Thinking positively

LIVING ROOM MEMORIES  212 (December 12, 2008) In spite of the snow that kept a lot of people from attending our party, we had sixteen people. It was a wonderful, intimate time. Good food and good visiting. We finished all of Janice’s turkey and almost all the stuffing. It was so good. One of our […]

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Ups and downs never end

LIVING ROOM MEMORIES  211 (December 11, 2008) I had a wonderful day yesterday. I started off by baking my first batch of cookies. That energized me. Smelling the Christmassy spices emanating from my oven motivated me to do other things. My husband helped me wash all the dishes that had been collecting. It felt so […]

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Excluded from study group (2019)

At this point I think it’s time I tell you about my greatest source of pain. It was only one of many, but contributed more to later suffering and emotional damage than any other single event. I’m sharing this to illustrate how great and cruel stigma can be and how dehumanizing it is to the […]

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Why is my story important? (2019)

When I was in the ER on November 12, wishing I could die, I realized I couldn’t until my story was told. I wanted to talk about some of the work I had done, raising mental health awareness in the church and founding Living Room. I needed to show how my life had gone tragically […]

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Impossible without support (2019)

In the previous post I talked about the moods people with bipolar go through, like the depression that had been plaguing me for such a long time. “You wonder if you can ever be counted on again,” I told my fellow bloggers. I recognized that “I’ve been fortunate. I’ve had a lot of support – […]

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An endless roller coaster

LIVING ROOM MEMORIES  210  (December 9, 2008) I’ve been on a roller coaster for about two months now – times when I’ve been okay and other times when I’ve felt very down, not knowing how I can continue, wishing I could get off the ride. I’ve heard some people with bipolar say how they think […]

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Leaning on the Lord – comment (2019)

I’m thankful to the friend in my previous post for reminding me that I can rely on God. That I don’t have to immediately go to friends. That I shouldn’t rely on friends to make me feel better. Today I think I need to go back and meditate on those verses from Psalm 37 again. […]

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