God has allowed people to develop mental illnesses for the same reason some people have heart disease or cerebral palsy; it’s a consequence of original sin, and nothing they did.
For me, traveling mostly involves managing motion sickness. Still, I count my blessings, because traveling for many others living with disabilities is much more complicated than it is for me.
As I read through the book Finding Jesus in the Storm, I come across parts that are emotionally difficult to deal with. They’re difficult because they make me angry.
For a congregation to show agility in accommodating their congregants with disabilities means they cannot continue to do things the way they always did.
Élise was a bright young woman who developed paranoid psychosis at roughly the same age as I did my schizophrenia—around mid-twenties to early thirties. The two illnesses are related. They are both psychotic.
Since his behavior was not normal, some people assumed that it must have been mental illness.
In an episode of North Woods Law, Fish and Game wardens and volunteers carried a girl who had broken her ankle down a mountain in the rain. My roommate commented on the danger of hiking in the rain.
A few years ago my sister bought a board game titled Pandemic. Every time we played, we lost. We used to think we were doing something wrong. Now I think it's the nature of the beast.
Many people who read my blogs know that I live with schizophrenia, and that on the whole I’m doing pretty well, but last night a number of factors caused me to feel angst about the current situation.
Many people assume that when we say a disease has a psychosomatic cause, it means the disease is imaginary. Not so.
Finding the right medications has taken decades for Michèle Gyselinck.
December 6th, 2019 marked the 30th anniversary of a mass-shooting in Montreal. We take time to remember the event and those who lost their lives.
Who needs protection in our current world? This story reminds us about the global crisis of child marriages and the need to continue to work towards a safe world, free from abuse.
As many people who experience suffering from mental illnesses know, this affliction often causes extreme psychological and emotional anguish. I’ve personally found my most meaningful Scripture text in Lamentations.
This article in The Atlantic talks about women who were accused of complicity in the sexual abuse of other women and children. I wanted the chuch to be aware of this reality.
One question that came in challenged the judge’s ability to do his job because of his illnesses. This challenge is based on the assumption that mental illnesses affect an individual’s intelligence and judgment.
I was heartbroken this morning when I heard that a 17-year-old young man took his own life. Please, please don't miss this opportunity to start a conversation on suicide today.
People try to pin the blame for egregious deeds onto people with mental illnesses or anyone with whom they can’t relate as humans, because this blaming distances them psychologically and emotionally from evil.
I hope that reading this will help people to better understand what schizophrenia is and how it affects those who suffer from it.
I wanted to share this book that was made available to participants of the Disability Concerns Leadership Training Conference last fall.
For a long time I struggled with the notion that as followers of Christ we should be glad to suffer, even if the troubles we get are not necessarily persecutions per se.
Many people in the CRC complain that our denomination tends to favor head knowledge at the expense of the heart. But for people who live with mental illnesses, basing our faith on knowledge acts as an anchor against raging emotions.
As I lay in bed, I thought about a discussion I had with a sister in the faith that highlighted just one of many paradoxes of poverty.
I think we should work harder at advocating a decent standard of living for people living with disabilities. Living in poverty places undue burdens on already vulnerable souls.
My main reason for writing about schizophrenia specifically, and mental illness in general, is to help those who may be suffering from it or who know someone who does, but don’t know how to help because of stigma.