Hope For Those Struggling With Mental Health

Scriptures: Psalms 118:17, John 9:1-3, Isaiah 41:1-3

You Are Worth Saving!

By the time I entered middle school in Abilene, Texas, at the ripe age of thirteen, I can remember thinking, “do my friends’ families look anything like mine?” I was scared of the answer, because what I was experiencing in our family of four was more than a lot – looking good while silently screaming in public, but screaming at the top of our lungs in the small home where we co-existed. The verbal abuse followed us into all of our days, through our many moves and homes until my parents officially and finally went their separate ways during my senior year of high school. 

Looking back, I can now see that mental illness has run deep in our family tree, painfully impacting my original little redheaded family of four. The aftershock from those years of trauma reverberates still today in each of our lives in different ways. Over the years, I have battled difficult mental illness diagnoses including clinical depression, anorexia, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, all of which, at different seasons, have ushered self-harm into the chaos of my mind and body. 

As hard as I have tried to prevent mental illness and its impact from seeping into my current family, in many ways it has resulted in a flood. But guess who is rescuing me, my husband, and our two redheaded inspirations, in His powerful way, every single day? God Himself. One day and then the next, He is providing healing, even if in small steps, and chains are being broken so that my grandchildren will perhaps not suffer so. 

I want to be free of mental illness and suffering, and I’m actively pursuing recovery through ongoing treatment and support, including the support of my church and Christian community. I wrestle with the tough question of why God hasn’t removed this from me. Those thoughts and realities are devastating at times, but I also am growing in my trust of Him, and what He chooses to use for his glory. What comes from this struggle is the hope that I get to share and now write to you. 

God’s Word is steady even when my mind is so loud, and He has proven in situation after situation, even as I’ve sat on the bathroom floor fighting the temptation to find temporary relief through self-harm, that He is for me and is closer than a whisper. Yes, I experience many challenges to my mental health, yet, I can be surrounded by God’s beautiful and overwhelming peace, if even for a moment, which reassures me of His love, presence and my purpose until my Father takes me to Himself. “I will not die but live and will proclaim what God has done” (Psalm 118:17)! 

I invite you, my friends, if you share a struggle with mental health, to keep fighting and taking one step and then the next, even if those steps look more like a shuffle. No matter how loud my mind screams, in the lows and sometimes highs of this mental illness journey, God seeks to speak into my hurt and my need through His Word, and as you read through these Scriptures in this reading plan, His Words will speak hope and life into your heart as well. 

If fighting mental illness keeps me attached to Jesus, then I’m in. I’m all in. Why fight? Because YOU are worth saving, and so am I.

Scriptures: Matthew 5:3, Psalms 91, Psalms 25:1-3, Matthew 11:28-30, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

When You Come to the End of Your Rope

I rested my head on the steering wheel of our used SUV, overwhelmed, exhausted, and confused. Moments earlier, at what had seemed like the last minute, I had taken my wife, Stacee, by the hand and walked, possibly ran, from the admissions process of a mental hospital across the street from the fast-food restaurant where we now parked. 

The last two days had seemed like two weeks. What had been a gradual decline in Stacee’s mental health over several years had quickly become a steep descent into the quicksand of depression, suicidal ideation, and overwhelming mental pain. With fear and desperation in her eyes, Stacee looked to me for an answer and any lifeline of hope I could throw her. She was drowning in waters of mental illness, waters in which I had no ability to swim. 

Stacee needed help, but the place across the street was not the answer, that much I knew. She needed hope, but I saw no hope through the doors of that facility. So, there we sat, crying over each other and crying out to God for any light, any direction, any answer for what to do next. 

“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more God and his rule” (Matthew 5:3 The Message). 

So what do you do when you come to the end of your rope – when you come to the end of your capacity to deal with or face whatever your circumstances may be? Every person likely reaches this place at some point in their life, but for those who struggle with mental health and for those who love and support them, finding the end of your rope is likely a common reality. 

For Stacee, me, and our family, in that moment of desperation and surrender, God met us there. The short version of the rest of the story is that within a day Stacee entered a different mental health facility, a place of dignity and hope. There she received in-patient care which began her and our family’s recovery journey through the challenges of chronic mental illness – a journey of many twists and turns for sure, but one through which God has walked with us each step of the way. 

The apostle Paul faced a serious trial, possibly a health struggle, for which he, too, came to the end of his capacity to manage or overcome. 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 tells us that Paul prayed several times for the Lord to take away his pain, this “thorn in his flesh.” God’s response was not to take away Paul’s suffering, but to promise that His grace was sufficient to meet whatever weakness Paul might encounter. In his weakness, God’s power and strength filled Paul’s empty capacity and were more than enough to sustain him and to give him the resources to endure and overcome. 

God’s strength, grace and power are more than enough to rescue you when you reach the end of your rope. When you can find no answers, no strength, no capacity to deal with whatever you may be facing, surrender your hopelessness, your weakness, your emptiness to God. It is in this moment God can do His greatest work. “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

Scriptures: Psalms 139:7-18, Isaiah 41:10, Lamentations 3:22-25, Psalms 34:18

God is With Me

I seem to consistently put words into God’s mouth without even being aware I am doing so! I can be convinced my understanding is completely accurate, and I can project my fears and doubts onto God and translate them as truth. Do you ever do this? 

I have suffered with mental illness for close to thirty-five years, and my shame from these mental and emotional battles can often make it feel hard to even breathe, much less deserve the Truth which God has for me. The lies my mind often screams can be paralyzing. I am a Christian, a child of God, yet my recovery and healing from these mental health challenges have not looked like I what I expected or hoped for at any point or in any season of this journey. 

My struggle with borderline personality disorder and depression are a direct result of physical and emotional abandonment reoccurring in my life until college. Through this conditioning, I began to believe abandonment was my reality. Trust of others or of God was difficult if not impossible. 

Growing up, food was often scarce and, when it was available, I was taught to limit my portions until long-term malnourishment became a part of my story, my path. This led to full-blown anorexia which I have to fight to prevent from overwhelming me all day, every day. 

My point is not to drown you in these many waves of my story but to help you see that Jesus has become my only hope to rescue me from the past hurts and traumas. The hope I now experience has come from hurt, harm, and much pain. God uses everything. No suffering is wasted…ever. 

None of these thoughts and feelings, the deceptive beliefs I have often staked my life on, are from God. The anguish of mental illness breaks the heart of the One who protects me in ways I cannot even imagine. He does the same for you, my friend. God’s Truth replaces the lies my mind can so often be tempted to believe. It tells me that He will not abandon me, His presence is with me wherever I may go or whatever I may go through. 

My heart begins to soften so quickly when I hear the Truth of how God feels about me, my painful mind, and my past. He is healing me of those traumas, and I am learning to trust – which is no less than miraculous and beautiful. His mercy and grace are at times unfathomable yet epic. 

Scripture tells us, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my mighty right hand”(Isaiah 41:10). 

My mental health can cause dismay, yet my living in a reality of hope and Truth depends on who I choose to believe one day and then the next. God’s Word does not change, and neither does God. His mercies are new each morning and all the days of our lives. 

Would you join me to believe what God says about us in His Word? He never responds to my doubts or despair the way I’ve been conditioned to believe I deserve. Rather, He holds me and introduces His peace to my turbulent mind and nourishes my body broken by anorexia with both healing food and Truth. 

Hang on with me to His Word, His Truth, because our Father doesn’t want us to merely survive. No, my friend, He wants us to thrive.

Scriptures: Galatians 6:9, Romans 5:1-5, Romans 8:1-2, Isaiah 40:29-31, Philippians 1:6

Resilience

I came home from work on a late-summer afternoon and found our house unusually quiet and dark. Normally active, my wife, Stacee, was lying down, her depression keeping her in bed for most of that bright, hot day. A respiratory illness had turned into a month-long battle to get past the coughing and drain on her body. The sickness had depleted her mental and emotional resources, as well as physical, and now the depression which she had long battled was again clouding and overwhelming her mind. 

We had been here before. God had met us in those darkest of moments, and He would be faithful to meet us again. We had to take action, though, to not let this momentum of a downward spiral pull Stacee further into the pit of clinical depression. We had to do the next right thing. 

Let’s face it –the recovery journey for any mental illness (depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, anorexia, or any other diagnosis) will be a series of good and bad days. There are no straight lines of recovery, but instead steps forward and half-steps back which in the long-run lead to progress if we don’t give up (Galatians 6:9). 

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from a difficult day, week, or season with the willingness and commitment to press forward and to not quit. Sometimes resilience is just “getting up and showing up!” When discouraged or overwhelmed, resilience can often be simplified to doing “the next right thing.” Even one small action can become the step in the right direction which leads to another, and momentum in your recovery can be regained. 

For those struggling with mental illness, the next right thing might look like re-engaging with your physician-prescribed treatment plan or applying tools learned in a recent counseling session. Doing “the next right thing” often might look like connecting with God through Bible reading or engaging with and church or your Christian community through whom God can speak His grace, love, and hope into your mind and heart. 

Only by going through hard things, doing hard things, and surviving hard things can we build up the knowledge, the tools, and the confidence which become God’s building blocks for resilience. When faced with obstacles or even failure, resilience is the memory that, through God’s strength, you’ve done it before, and you can do it again – whatever you may be facing! Romans 5:3-4 tells us that suffering produces perseverance (another word for resilience), perseverance builds character (inner strength), and that character produces hope. This hope will be your most important resource to your mental health! 

Through our struggles and painful experiences, God is seeking to use those trials and even our suffering for our benefit, to grow and develop our “resilience muscles.” Resilience reminds us that recovery is not a “one shot opportunity.” Each time we struggle or fail, and we press forward to do the next right thing, God is building His strength in us. This strength enables us to hold onto the hope that God makes all things new, even our minds and our mental and emotional pain. 

Setbacks are not permanent, and failure is never final in God’s eyes. God promises in Philippians 1:6 He is working His plan in you, and He intends to complete it! Even on your bad days, you can begin again, not give up on yourself and have the resilience to persevere because God has not given up on you!

Scriptures: Revelation 21:4-5, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, 1 Peter 5:7, Hebrews 6:19, Romans 8:31-39, John 1:5

The Darkness Will Not Overcome

As the worship service was ending, I stood by my wife, Stacee, listening to her sing. Her lengthy battle with mental illness was not holding back her voice or her love, trust, and hope in God. Despite the darkness of depression, the fear of anxiety, and the isolation often caused by this cruel illness, her heart, her mind, and her faith sang. And through her song, God was speaking to me, restoring my hope, and reminding me of this eternal Truth: the darkness will not overcome. 

“See, I am making all things new! ….. Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true” (Revelation 21:5). 

Your recovery and your healing may not look like what you expected, it may not be on the timeline you hoped for, but God is working in you. God is in the process of making your mind, your heart, and your life new. Our health, including mental health, may struggle, yet God is working in our hearts and minds to renew us moment by moment and day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). 

God intimately knows our minds and emotions – all of our broken as well as whole parts. God is not waiting for you to reach a point of recovery or progress to fully love you. He lovingly invites us to grow our trust in Him, to cast all of our fears and anxieties on Him for He is good, faithful, and true (1 Peter 5:7). He is not waiting for the anxiety, or the depression, or any struggle to lessen or leave before He accepts and loves you. 

Hope for your recovery, for your peace, for your freedom from mental illness is permanent and true. This hope can be the anchor for your soul because it has no end (Hebrews 6:19). There is not a place you have to reach, no “mile-marker” of recovery you have to pass, to reach hope. 

Recovery, healing, better days and nights, are possible in your mental illness journey. But each person’s story is and will be different. Brokenness, trauma, pain, and failing health are all realities of life. Whatever your journey looks like, you are not alone. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). 

A day is also coming when every tear, every pain, every struggle, all trauma, all mental torment, and emotional anguish will be gone. For those who have trusted in Jesus, in the scope of that eternity, the weight of all the hurt mental illness has caused in your life will feel fleeting and faint – a distant memory which quickly fades in the freedom, peace, and joy of heaven (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)! 

Hope is yours now and forever more because the darkness of depression, the fear of anxiety, the loneliness of a personality disorder, the despair of any mental illness cannot overcome the light, love and hope God has given us through his Son, Jesus. “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”(John 1:5).