by Dianne E. Butts “Please help me, God,” I prayed silently. Tension squeezed the muscles in my upper back, crawling into my shoulders, climbing up my neck. I smiled weakly at the others filling the room. Relax, I coached myself. You can do this. I buried my icy hands beneath my Bible. “Welcome to…
Read moreCategory: Mental and Emotional Health
Mind Games
by Susan J. Shelley In February 1996 my ex-husband Frank Velez, a former deputy sheriff from Los Angeles County, was released from prison. He had served ten years for murdering our seventeen-year-old son in our Arizona home. I had suspected something was wrong with Frank several months before he killed Frank Jr. His eyes…
Read moreI Am Bipolar
Meeting God in the pit of depression. by Nancy Hagerman The door swung shut behind me, and the automatic lock clicked on. Shoes and socks, watch, purse, and even my wedding ring were confiscated at the front desk. The uniform — sweat pants and t-shirt — was doled out, and I changed under the…
Read moreI Almost Committed Suicide
What would Jesus and others think? by Kathy Collard Miller As the train rumbled past the East Coast countryside, taking my daughter and me to New York City for a vacation, my thoughts were as piercing as the train’s screeching wheels. Why did Greg take his own life? Greg was a distant relative I…
Read moreGod Gave Me a Sound Mind
From hate to wholeness. by Gayle Threlkeld as told to Muriel Larson “Gayle, your husband called me,” my gynecologist said over the phone, “and he seems very worried about you.” “About what?” I asked, well aware of what the answer might be. During our last big battle, I completely lost control and attacked my…
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by Bonnie Doran “It’s organic, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” My shoulders sagged as I absorbed my doctor’s statement. My problem was not burnout, PMS, or low thyroid; my problem was chronic depression. I had suffered from mild depression for years. At times I denied the problem and fought it like…
Read moreGetting My Life Back
The sickness and redemption of a paranoid schizophrenic. by Michael Mulvihill as told to David Kidd I sat in a corner of the mental hospital, my legs shaking up and down. Diagnosed with alcoholic’s psychosis, I was considered clinically insane. I thought the nurses were trying to poison me. I had hallucinations of the…
Read moreGet a Grip!
Betty J. Johnson Life is a deep black hole and I’m stuck. Physical problems bombard my body — or do they exist only in my mind? I’m drowning in a sea of pain and confusion. Where do I turn for help? This morning I read a Bible scripture which reminds me to have faith…
Read moreDeliverance from Depression
Identifying the real problems thatrob a person of peace and joy. by Maire Rogevich The hospital emergency room bustled with activity around nine o’clock on a weeknight. My mother and father checked me in to triage. I stood between them, my body feeling weaker and weaker, my eyelids fluttering open and closed. I could…
Read moreDare to Defeat Depression
How to find handles when you’re losing your grip. by JoAnn Reno Wray Janice [1] opened the closet door, knelt, pushed shoes aside, and crawled into the farthest corner, shutting the door behind her. In the dark, she grabbed a stack of folded sweaters, pulled them on top of her body, and curled into…
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