Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-31

The Book Looms Ever Closer

Friends,

For those of you who have been on this journey with me for a while, you know that I have written a book that is in the process of being published.  Well, we are through doctrinal review, the copy editing is done, and I just got a sneak peek at the cover.  It looks great!  I don’t have a final ETA on the printing time yet, but we’re getting closer every day.

One thing that I know they/we are considering right now is making it available in both print and electronic editions.  I’m hoping we can get it out in as many formats as possible.  It’s not long.  People who suffer from depression don’t have the time or energy for tomes.  But I’m working on some of that material right now.  Any thoughts you have would be great!

Thanks for all your support, everyone.  You have all been a godsend to me over the past three years.

The title of the book, by the way, is

I Trust When Dark My Road:
A Lutheran View of Depression

-DMR

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Physical and Mental Illness, and how we treat them differently

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I am currently laid up with a physical illness. Nothing serious, so don’t fret, but it reminds me again of how differently we treat physical and mental illness. Here’s a little compare and contrast:

    1. In physical pain, we seek to find the cause and solve it. In mental pain, we try to suppress it.

    2. In physical pain, the one in pain receives sympathy and care. In mental pain, the sufferer is avoided because they are somehow tainted or weird.

    3. In physical pain, the congregation prays for the afflicted. In mental pain, the afflicted suffers alone because mental pain is never shared.

    4. In physical pain, the assumption is that this is not the sufferer’s fault. In mental pain and illness, the assumption is that there is something wrong with the person.

Those are my initial comparisons. What’s on your mind?

-DMR

The Lines Between Depression Symptoms and Life

I have been in a good mood lately. Yesterday was a little down, but generally I feel good right now, I’m interacting with my children well, and I am getting along with people. This is all good.

The problem is that I have no motivation to do anything at all.

So my question for the day is this: at what point does one look at the symptoms of depression and say, “yep, that’s a part of my illness,” and then at what point do you say, “get off your butt and get to work!”

I don’t like the idea of blaming every mood swing, every lack of motivation or odd behavior on the disease. There must be a sense of personal responsibility as well. Otherwise, we end up like the song from West Side Story:

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:

Officer Krupke, you’re really a square;
This boy don’t need a judge, he needs an analyst’s care!
It’s just his neurosis that oughta be curbed.
He’s psychologic’ly disturbed!

ACTION
I’m disturbed!

JETS
We’re disturbed, we’re disturbed,
We’re the most disturbed,
Like we’re psychologic’ly disturbed.

So how do we draw that line as Christians? Sickness is the result of sin, and yet sin is also my own responsibility. I am trapped by the Fall, yet I participate in that same Fall every day. Maybe my problem is that I just want someone or something to blame other than myself.

So am I nuts here?

-DMR

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-10

The Bright Side of Mental Illness

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I read Untreatable Online pretty regularly. It’s not particularly Christian from my perspective, but the author has great wisdom in understanding mental illness. Here is today’s post:

BPD Awareness Month – Best Parts About Having A Mental Illness

To his list I would add the following:

6. Recognizing God‘s mercy. I would never have as deep an understanding of God’s mercy and care without my illnesses.

7. Seeing God’s people in action. In the same vein, God works mightily through the smallest and strangest of places (and people!). It really is a joy to watch God at work, even in the midst of great sorrow and pain.

Those are mine. What are yours?

DMR

(Via Untreatable Online)

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