Marja Bergen

author, mental health advocate, follower of Christ

Tag: emotional pain (page 1 of 2)

Putting a human face on madness

  OUR PAIN – BEYOND UNDERSTANDING In the 1800’s, at a time when “the insane” were kept in jails and almshouses, they were horrifically mistreated. Social reformer, Dorothea Dix, did much to change this. While touring such places throughout the U.S., she drew the government’s attention to “the state of the insane persons confined within […]

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Who understands?

  He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Isaiah 53:3   I brought you this scripture last Monday, telling you how meaningful it was to me. I believe this […]

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What if Jesus didn’t forgive?

  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13   It would have been so healing if I could have been forgiven for who I am—a person with mental illness. Wouldn’t the attitude towards me have been kinder? […]

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Not for myself alone – part 6

In the days following, I looked for support, calling a few friends to ask for prayer. But no one returned my call. Are they thinking there’s something wrong with me because I was excluded from the group? With support disappearing, I felt like my faith was under attack. I was alone. Abandoned. I said earlier […]

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Not for myself alone – part 3

I recently plowed my way through what must have been a few hundred emails I had sent to my friends during that unfortunate year. As I read, I was filled with shame. “Oh, Lord! How I must have sickened them! Such an imposition! Why couldn’t I have left them alone? What was I thinking to […]

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Not for myself alone: part 2

Time passed. I started going to a new church where I was well accepted, as I had been in my previous church. I grew spiritually and was delighted to make friends with a couple of people who showed me more love than I think I’d ever had. I would call it godly love. They became […]

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Are you hurting?

    (First published in July 2017) “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my […]

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Safe with him

  There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:18-19   I believe all of us live with fears in greater or lesser degrees, though […]

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Was this why the anger? (2019)

I need people. Always have. Many of us, including me, wouldn’t survive our emotional distresses without the support of friends, counselors or the crisis line. Without having someone stay close to talk us through the pain, we might not survive. I might not have survived. It often takes another person to help us look at […]

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Like an outcast (2019)

When I was excluded from the group I had needed so badly I felt like an outcast. Not long after, when I retired from Living Room, I was told I could no longer come back as a peer, I wrote in my journal: “Now I have no group at all. I’m an outsider.” Unwanted. Left […]

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