Everybody belongs. Everybody serves.
Disability
Sonja
Richard
Darren
Miriam
John Richard Kromminga, a gentle giant, little brother to me and my sister, Kathy. Wonderful loved uncle to our children and great uncle to our grandchildren. John Richard struggled with difficulties all of his life...
During the past year I sought anonymity while I worshiped. I wasn’t rejecting the church where I belonged, nor were they rejecting me. I wanted to be where few might know I was ill with depression...
I look normal. I am a creative, people-loving person. But there are times that I don’t feel normal. Since high school I have had periods of depression lasting months.
During a period of darkness, I came across these words, and it inspired this painting.
Considering that 25 percent of us will experience a diagnosable mental illness in the course of our lifetimes, all pastors and church leaders will deal with mental illness themselves, in their families, and/or in their congregations. These five books will help in ministering with people affected by mental illnesses.
When faith communities show non-judgmental love to members affected by mental illness, parishioners feel safe to acknowledge their needs and overcome their fears of rejection. A faith community can establish that reputation with persons who have a mental illness and their families in a variety of ways.
In this webinar we will look at how to take first steps in walking beside someone with mental illness. Various forms of mental illness will be introduced such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, and suggestions will be given for what people in the pew can do to respond in love.
The language of creation replaces, and transcends, the language of loss, just as it does in life. The pastoral care-giver's question is not, “What have you lost? But “What’s it like?” and “What’s happening?”
Mental illness isn't something I ever thought I would face in my lifetime. Not me . . . I've got it all together! Or so I thought.
Did James Holmes, described by a high school classmate as “really nice and sweet,” decide one day to become a mass murderer?
I was up on a hill, tethering at twilight. The sweet-smelling grass that was neatly raked in rows. The tractor’s tether tips were messing with all their might, When suddenly a winsome wonder came into sight...
This letter is not from one of our congregation members, but it may help you to understand and support the people sitting near you in the pew or people who don’t come to church often or at all.
Shalem Mental Health Network provides a variety of mental health services including recommended readings. Their list provides helpful guidance for learning about mental health, most from a Christian perspective.
Finding resources in a rural setting for people with mental illnesses can be especially challenging. The U.S. based National Association for Rural Mental Health (NARMH) is a professional organization that serves the field of rural mental health.
During the week of June 5, 2006, a door was closed somewhere inside my mind. My eyes acted like a video camera. From time to time I talked to the screen like I was part of the scenery, yet I knew I was not an actor of any consequence. I was way back behind the last row seats, just watching.
This morning I received a “Care Page” update from a friend whose young daughter is ill with cancer. I appreciate getting the Care Page updates so that I know how people are doing and how best to pray for them. This morning my 16-year-old son had a serious rage.
About a month and a half after our first daughter was born, I started down a long journey of postpartum depression. For a year I went undiagnosed, going to the doctor complaining of extreme tiredness, severe mood swings, and disinterest in daily activities.
My father loves life and likes to laugh. He enjoys being with people and talking with anyone who will listen to his jokes and stories. When my father experienced a frightening psychotic episode in 2007, our family went into collective shock.
This writer has been depressed three times, each lasting three to six months. Two sisters coped with post-partum depression. Dad sought counsel in the past year for depression. Now their son who is 22 years old is trying to cope with it. The son’s depression hurts the most.
This is a story of hope and grace. It is the story of my son John who was diagnosed with autism when he was five years old. As time went on and John reached his teen years, he developed mental illness as well.
I have mental illness that includes schizophrenia, which has seven major symptoms: hallucinations, obsessing, memory loss, paranoia, apathy, delusions, and depression.
Through no aspiration of my own, I’ve become a speaker, writer and advocate for mental illness victims, myself included. My all-American upbringing did little to prepare me for the silent enemy that would eventually claim my life, destroy my soul, shred my heart, and leaving me frail and vulnerable.
The unthinkable happened. I got so sick that I could not think straight. Literally. My mind that had helped me achieve scholastic awards in high school became scatterbrained and paranoid.
Our son was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in the seventh grade. I wrote this Pantoum to capture a snapshot of what he was like before he became ill as well as the initial period of his mental illness. Writing the poem was also therapeutic for me. Thank God, Tim’s mental health has improved.
I grew up with mental illness in the family. I watched my parents struggle to cope with this often-misunderstood disability. Fifty years later, we are still trying to deal with it as everyday the specter of misunderstood behavior invades our otherwise normal lives.