This story tells – and will continue telling – things that need to be heard. It tries to show the many ways in which stigma, emotional abuse, and rejection can affect a person with mental illness. You are reading about an example, a tragedy in the life of one individual. Within a brief period of […]
Read More...I have a friend who was very important to me, in many ways. This friend helped shape me into the person I’ve become, guiding me, mentoring me spiritually, giving me comfort when I needed it. I never had anyone I admired so greatly nor felt closer to. How sad it was when changes happened to […]
Read More...Looking over the previous blog from 2009 I see how the degree of wellness I had during my Living Room days had not been as great as I remembered. I had a lot of instability. Long periods of depression and then highs when I started planning and organizing far more than I could manage. Today […]
Read More...As in the post I wrote in 2009, I wonder: Am I like the person I used to be? I do think I’m starting to get there and what a wondrous thing that is. Is this for real and will it continue? In November 12th last year, I lay in an emergency room bed, waiting […]
Read More...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 […]
Read More...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 […]
Read More...LIVING ROOM MEMORIES 191 (September 23, 2008) This morning someone going by the name Warrior Princess left a comment on an article I have online right now at canadianchristianity.com. The piece tries to show how mental illnesses are illnesses like any other – diabetes, heart disease, etc. etc. I was trying to educate, to eradicate […]
Read More...LIVING ROOM MEMORIES 187 Canadian Christianity has another excerpt from A Firm Place to Stand up. The title is Misconceptions and in it I outline the problem many Christians have, spiritualizing mental health problems like depression. I spell it out really well. But, lo and behold, someone comments – compassionately enough – but totally NOT […]
Read More...LIVING ROOM MEMORIES 186 (September 4, 2008) Someone approached me having difficulty accepting her diagnosis of bipolar disorder. This prompts me to share an excerpt from my first book, Riding the Roller Coaster. Throughout the writing of this book I held in mind the people who were newly diagnosed and how hard it is to […]
Read More...LIVING ROOM MEMORIES 152 (April 18, 2008) Often I feel like an alien in the world, and even at church. As a teen I had social phobia, and it crops up again every now and then. In searching the internet I found that often social phobia is linked with mood disorders. Research published by Cambridge […]
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