Mental illness is not a four letter word....

I didn't realize that it was "Mental health awareness month," but as I turned to read a recommended posting of a friend I saw all these articles in regards to this topic and the realm of faith.


I sat there and read the articles.  The word, stigma, repeated time and time again.  The acknowledgement that this is not a topic that people feel comfortable addressing.  All those words only lit a fire underneath me all the more.  I remember back to the days when the Lord healed me and how my mind felt different, how different everything was.. but even with that I was not in a place where I wanted to talk about my journey.


These days and months have been different.  Having touched divine healing and then learning how to live out the process of healing and growth and sanctification, I have journeyed many paths.  The one of which that has emerged is my determination to talk about any subject and share any story that I feel would be beneficial to those that would cross paths with mine.  There isn't a question I won't answer and there isn't a time when I will make up an answer, if I don't know.. then I don't know.


I remember being embarrassed.  Feeling scared, overwhelmed, exhausted... I remember the fight to endure the day and the dilemma of when to share and when to plow through.


I remember being an inpatient and attending out patient treatments.  I remember walking alone and walking with others.


I think upon mental illness.  I think upon the mind.  I am no scientist.  I am no theologian.  I would probably at one time in life have had more in common with the Gerasene demoniac.  I didn't   know how to live and the people around me who wanted to help had at times done all they could.


I know that the effects of having lived the life I did and having touched the moments in life that I have, serve to have birthed a compassion in me that stirs me on now.  The words, Awoken and Seen, replace the word, stigma.


Perspective is so key. Having eyes to see those that would cross our paths, having courage to open our mouths, having a determination to have ears that will hear even when there are then no words to really say in return.


The most important thing that anyone ever did was to sit with me... When there aren't the words to say, when there isn't anything left to be done, when there seemingly isn't hope that life will ever be different... Be the person who sees as Christ sees, hears as He hears and shows up as He would.


If the conversation doesn't get stirred and had then many will walk in silence.  Those that have mental illness and those that love them won't have the safe refuges that are so very much needed.


I earnestly believe that mental illness left me with a gift that I would not have had had I not walked that road.  There are aspects to life that are so fragile.  Maybe one reason people are afraid is because the dilemma of what separates us from one situation to another can seem so thin.  The answer isn't to back further away from that line but to see it for what it is and embrace the strength and frailty of humanity.