I wrote the following in May 2021, at a time when I was working very hard to make the voices of people with mental health conditions heard. The injustice of being ignored by the world when we had important things to say angered me. I tried and tried but I was never sufficiently heard. […]
Read More...Photo by Rohim Ullah I recently read an article entitled The Architecture of Rohingya Exclusion by Shafiur Rahman, published in the September 16, 2025 edition of United Against Humanity. The following is an excerpt. It is a statement I wish I had seen earlier so that I could have commented on it before the September […]
Read More...I have been closely following the Rohingya story since February 2025, hearing through LinkedIn the reports from Rohingya refugees themselves as well as multiple news stories about them. Stories about the suffering of a people who have, for decades, faced some of the worst discrimination the world has seen. They are stories that haven’t reached […]
Read More...MY PASSION: • As a person who knows what it is to suffer I cry out to the world to wake up to the grave injustices that are occurring yet ignored by those who don’t have the courage to stand up for what is right. • I cry out to all who remember that love […]
Read More...ROHINGYA ARE NOT MADE TO BE VICTIMS At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of […]
Read More...IN THE NAME OF JESUS This is what people with mental health challenges want to tell us: We are looked down on. We are not understood. Our truths are not believed. We are shunned rejected, excluded. We are made to feel ashamed. Our abilities are often underrated. Our opinions are not respected. We are […]
Read More...LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF THOSE WHO LIVE WITH IT Trying to reduce stigma by having educators teach us about mental illness, only serves to show people how we’re different. It’s only by hearing from people who live with it—only by hearing how they’re hurt by stigma and discrimination—that compassion can grow and understanding reached. […]
Read More...THE CHURCH, MENTAL ILLNESS, AND US Jesus came to love and to heal those who are sick. And that should be the Church’s role. Teaching about mental illness is good, but it does nothing to remove stigma or discrimination. It does the opposite. It only serves to point out how our disabilities make us different […]
Read More...MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS IN THE CHURCH After many years of fighting to overcome the stigma of mental illness in the Church, starting with publication of a couple of articles for the Canadian Mental Health Association, BC Division in 2005 and 2006, I’m coming to see that “well” people will never truly understand what it is […]
Read More...The physical proof (sample copy of the book) is at this moment on its way to me. A bit more editing, perhaps then to be published. A book, different from anything I’ve written before. Are you curious? Stay tuned. marja
Read More...© 2025 Marja Bergen
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