FINDING A PURPOSE Having a mental illness can make a full life more difficult to achieve than it is for healthy individuals. So far I had only been puttering with life. Nothing I did was serious enough or fulfilling enough. I wanted to do something truly meaningful. For many years I scoured the Help […]
Read More...…in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me? Psalm 56:11 The goal I’ve set for myself is to write devotionals that will build you up and encourage you. We all need that. However, as I sat down to write today, I realized we mustn’t overlook the realities […]
Read More...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 […]
Read More...Problems arise when accusations made by mistreated people with mental illness are discredited – when what they say is not believed. When they’re not treated as “real” human beings. They become fair game for those who hold a stigma. Those who might become cruel. Abusers think: “Why worry about how I treat them? If […]
Read More...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 […]
Read More...My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them […]
Read More...It’s time, really time, to put an end to my story. I’m glad to have found better wellness through the telling. But today I’m tired of thinking about so much sadness and ugliness. I want to start enjoying the new me. And so, I’ll wrap up with this: I strongly believe this account had to […]
Read More...We need to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Philippians 2:5-7 I’m glad to get […]
Read More...I think I’m learning what was at the bottom of my anger during the last years at my previous church. It turns out that much of the depression I experienced during all my Living Room days could very well have been anger turned inwards. I probably had far more depression during that time than was […]
Read More...At the time I wrote the last post my counselor, husband and friends tried to tell me not to think so much about always doing for other people. They believed I should “dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.” (Psalm 37:3) I had been pretty busy with Living Room and looking for ways to […]
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