Mental Illness Creeps Up on Us

Which is mostly how mental illness works. You don’t know you have it until it’s all up in your grill trying to destroy your life. This happens, most often, because getting honest with ourselves about what’s going on in our hearts and minds is a difficult thing to do. So mental illness frequently goes undiagnosed until, well, it just can’t anymore because really weird things start happening.

… Addressing our mental health is more complicated than addressing other aspects of our health, especially for Christians. I personally put off seeing a therapist for ten years before I finally broke down and admitted I needed psychiatric help. I was convinced I could rid myself of anxiety if I prayed hard enough, read my Bible long enough, and served other people sincerely enough.

But there’s a secret I’ve discovered that gives us the power we need to enter this conversation with the honesty required for it to be helpful. Do you want to know what it is? You. Me. All of us. Are in this together. And together we can see this thing through. I am not speaking as Moses from the mountaintop but rather as an Israelite from the valley below. I may be a mental health professional with expertise to offer, but I am first and foremost a cosufferer who knows how painful and difficult battles with mental illness can be.