Pray and Persist: The Keys to Advocating for Adolescents

Flashbacks by Proxy The hiss of the bus stopping at the United terminal at the Newark, NJ airport stabbed me. We grabbed our suitcases, in preparation from finishing our transfer from one terminal to another on the airport bus. Two years had passed since that fateful night when we almost… Read more“Pray and Persist: The Keys to Advocating for Adolescents”

Six Steps to Protect Your Mental Health

by Jon Beaty How to Protect Your Mental Health If you haven’t taken steps to protect your mental health, your risk of developing mental illness is higher than it needs to be. We all know people who suffer from mental disorders. You may have already suffered, or still suffer from… Read more“Six Steps to Protect Your Mental Health”

Five Ways to Make Church a Haven for the Hurting

Today’s guest post comes from Amanda Goodman, a brave woman who shares her struggle with mental illness because she wants Christians to understand that they can make church a haven for the hurting. You can find other posts in this series here. On January 26, 2011, our daughter, Brianna Ruby Goodman,… Read more“Five Ways to Make Church a Haven for the Hurting”

What I Learned in May (aka Mental Health Awareness Month)

Until last March, I had very little awareness of the varity and severity of different mental health issues.  I used the word ‘crazy’ with abandon and insensitivity.  If people didn’t agree with me, or their actions seemed incomprehensible to my moral code or background, I wrote them off as loco…. Read more“What I Learned in May (aka Mental Health Awareness Month)”

What I Wish Christians Knew About Harm OCD

Editor’s note: The following piece was submitted by an anonymous author.  Whilst many of us invision repeated hand washing, or perhaps Monk’s compulsion to have everything orderly when we hear the words ‘OCD,’ that isn’t the only kind of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It first happened six months after I turned eighteen,… Read more“What I Wish Christians Knew About Harm OCD”

What I Wish Christians Understood about Cheer

Are Kind Words Enough to Cheer Up an Anxious Person? It says it right there in Proverbs 12:25, “Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.” Unfortunately, some Christians believe kind words can serve as the only antidote to anxiety. They can’t. Kind words provide a… Read more“What I Wish Christians Understood about Cheer”

What I Wish Christians Knew About Prayer and Mental Health

Are Mental Health Issues Demon Possession or Something Else? Today’s guest post comes from Jim Miles. My sister spent her twenties declaring that she would never, ever have children. By the time she reached thirty-three, however, things had drastically changed. Her insecurities over her ability to be a good parent… Read more“What I Wish Christians Knew About Prayer and Mental Health”

How I Wish the Church Would Treat Those With a Mental Illness

Guest writer Tara Ulrich gives some great advice on how she wishes the church would treat mental illness. “There are so many board and care facilities in the shadows of our steeples and we don’t even know they are there.” These very words jumped off the page at me as… Read more“How I Wish the Church Would Treat Those With a Mental Illness”

Suspect Someone Has a Mental Health Issue? Read This

People Never Expect to Have a Mental Health Problem I didn’t expect to hear that my twenty-year-old daughter had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder in a text message from my sister-in-law—who heard it from someone who came along with the person who came to the emergency department to evaluate Sarah before… Read more“Suspect Someone Has a Mental Health Issue? Read This”

What I Wish Christians Knew About Anxiety

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become… Read more“What I Wish Christians Knew About Anxiety”