Be Our Guest for National Mental Health Awareness Month

mental health awareness

May is National Mental Health Awareness Month.  Depression. Bipolar Disorder. Schizophrenia. Mania. Anxiety. Obsessive-Compulsive. Eating Disorders. Sleep Disorders. Autuism. Disassociative Disorder. Oppositional Defiance Disorder. The list goes on and on.

Not only do people with mental health issues face a stigma, but they face a double stigma from fellow Christians.  As Christians, when mental health issues manifest themselves, we feel confused about the proper response–can a Christian pray away depression and anxiety?  Is it OK to seek help from a mental health professional?

How should we as church members and part of the body of Christ respond when a fellow Chrisian faces a mental health crisis.  What about that kid-in-church-who-just-doesn’t-behave-and-it-must-be-the-parent’s-fault? Maybe the parent needs a warm hug from you and an opportunity to sit down over coffee and share about the mental health issues facing their family.

The purpose of this series is to provide a safe place for Christians to share and discuss the mental health issues that are their reality.  Mental health issues hurt more than just the person with the diagnosis.  It’s time to stop the (double) stigma and educate ourselves with stories from the trenches that give us insight, hope and compassion.

Let's all join together to #stopthestigma surrounding #mentalhealth issues. Find out more. Click To Tweet

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

  1. Posts should be written in first person and address some aspect of mental health from either a person with a mental health issue’s perspective or a caregiver or family member’s perspective.Voices from the Shadows: Christians and Mental Health Issues http://wp.me/P2UZoK-1fg
  2. We are looking for posts between 600-1000 words.
  3. Keep it clean and family friendly.
  4. Include a short bio with a recent photo of yourself. If you want to remain anonymous, that’s ok, too.  Just let us know.
  5. We will link back to your blog and promote your guest post on social media (if you want).
  6. On the day your post goes live, you are welcome to respond to any comments left by our readers.
  7. Preference will be given to posts submitted in HTML format (it’s not that difficult to do, and we’ll walk you through it if you don’t know how!).
  8. We reserve the right to make minor formatting changes if necessary for clarity.
    STILL INTERESTED?
    Please fill in the feedback form and in the form’s comments section give a brief synopsis of what you’d like to write about. We will contact you for more information if we think your post would be a good fit for our series.
  9.