What is mental illness?
A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.
Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder. The good news about mental illness is that recovery is possible.
Mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, race, religion or income. Mental illnesses are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing. Mental illnesses are treatable. Most people diagnosed with a serious mental illness can experience relief from their symptoms by actively participating in an individual treatment plan. -
National Alliance on Mental Illness
I loved Robin Williams. One of the most inspiring movies to me is Dead Poets Society.
Brilliant. And who didn't love Mrs. Doubtfire? And Aladdin?
Robin Williams was absolutely a jack of all trades.
He was animated, hilarious, flamboyant, and also soft. You wanted to look into his world.
But what was happening behind his facade is nothing short of sadness. Pure, unequivocal sadness.
It's simply ironic that I start writing about my anxiety - my mental illness, and the whole world begins talking about mental illness. The suicide of this genius of a man brings the entire world to its knees, and the focus shifts from Ebola, the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza strip - to mental illness. Thank God. There could be no topic more important right now (except for the war in Israel, but my belief is that God has them in His hands and we should always back them - no matter what).
But mental illness. It's where our world is right now.
One of my very favorite authors, Ann Voskamp, wrote a fantastic blog on Christianity and suicide.
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2014/08/what-the-church-christians-need-to-know-about-suicide-mental-health/
If you don't know her, get acquainted. Buy her book(s). Follow her blog, daily. Follow her on Facebook. She is a beautiful soul, not like any of the prosperity gospels out there now.
Her blog on Christianity, mental illness, and suicide is more than I could possibly put into words. She graced her pages with words much more beautifully than I can.
But I digress.
If there ever was a time to become more familiar with mental illness, whether it be anxiety, depression, manic depression, PTSD...whatever, that time is now. A calling has been placed on our lives to reach out to those.To support. To love. And to just be more understanding.
And to those who struggle - we must take ownership of our quirks and our makeup. No, we are not lazy. We have our bad days (some worse than others) and we even have those days when its hard to get out of bed. We have days when its easier just to pull the cover back over our face and turn the alarm off. We have those nights when we lay on the cold tile of the bathroom floor and cry ourselves sleep.
We must make an effort to pull ourselves out of the muck, and as Ann Voskamp says, realize that grace covers all darkness. We may be destined for a life full of darkness, but only God's sweet, sweet grace will give us that light. And that light may only come when He reaches through the throes of this life and pulls us to the next one.
But that is His decision - when we should go. Although I will not condemn those who commit suicide and will not pass judgement on those who have contemplated taking their own lives, I will say that God is the one who makes that decision and we should seek every alternative to that finality.
It is time. To be more understanding. To love one another more, no matter what we are going through. To love THROUGH our faults and makeup. It is time to start standing up for those that struggle with mental illness day by day, instead of sweeping it under that pretty little rug you have on your front porch.
Robin Williams was a fantastic actor. Any one of us could be in his shoes at any time. It could hit you at 20, or it could wait until you're 65. Mental illness, like cancer, does not discriminate. Let go of the stigma and start grabbing hold of those who need you.
I will do the same.
Humbly His,
L.
He was animated, hilarious, flamboyant, and also soft. You wanted to look into his world.
But what was happening behind his facade is nothing short of sadness. Pure, unequivocal sadness.
It's simply ironic that I start writing about my anxiety - my mental illness, and the whole world begins talking about mental illness. The suicide of this genius of a man brings the entire world to its knees, and the focus shifts from Ebola, the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza strip - to mental illness. Thank God. There could be no topic more important right now (except for the war in Israel, but my belief is that God has them in His hands and we should always back them - no matter what).
But mental illness. It's where our world is right now.
One of my very favorite authors, Ann Voskamp, wrote a fantastic blog on Christianity and suicide.
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2014/08/what-the-church-christians-need-to-know-about-suicide-mental-health/
If you don't know her, get acquainted. Buy her book(s). Follow her blog, daily. Follow her on Facebook. She is a beautiful soul, not like any of the prosperity gospels out there now.
Her blog on Christianity, mental illness, and suicide is more than I could possibly put into words. She graced her pages with words much more beautifully than I can.
But I digress.
If there ever was a time to become more familiar with mental illness, whether it be anxiety, depression, manic depression, PTSD...whatever, that time is now. A calling has been placed on our lives to reach out to those.To support. To love. And to just be more understanding.
And to those who struggle - we must take ownership of our quirks and our makeup. No, we are not lazy. We have our bad days (some worse than others) and we even have those days when its hard to get out of bed. We have days when its easier just to pull the cover back over our face and turn the alarm off. We have those nights when we lay on the cold tile of the bathroom floor and cry ourselves sleep.
We must make an effort to pull ourselves out of the muck, and as Ann Voskamp says, realize that grace covers all darkness. We may be destined for a life full of darkness, but only God's sweet, sweet grace will give us that light. And that light may only come when He reaches through the throes of this life and pulls us to the next one.
But that is His decision - when we should go. Although I will not condemn those who commit suicide and will not pass judgement on those who have contemplated taking their own lives, I will say that God is the one who makes that decision and we should seek every alternative to that finality.
It is time. To be more understanding. To love one another more, no matter what we are going through. To love THROUGH our faults and makeup. It is time to start standing up for those that struggle with mental illness day by day, instead of sweeping it under that pretty little rug you have on your front porch.
Robin Williams was a fantastic actor. Any one of us could be in his shoes at any time. It could hit you at 20, or it could wait until you're 65. Mental illness, like cancer, does not discriminate. Let go of the stigma and start grabbing hold of those who need you.
I will do the same.
Humbly His,
L.
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