Archive for July, 2013
By jasonmaddox On July 31st, 2013
“Your illness is not your identity.” Those words were spoken by Pastor Rick Warren this past weekend, when he spoke publicly at Saddleback Church for the first time since his son Matthew’s tragic suicide in April. “Your chemistry is not your character. It’s not a sin to be sick.” Matthew Warren struggled for 27 years…
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By jasonmaddox On July 29th, 2013
One of the most crippling aspects of depression and anxiety is the crushing loneliness or forsaken feeling that patients often report. They may logically be able to identify that there are members of their family and community that love them, but their brains make them feel as if that love doesn’t exist. Even when physically…
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By jasonmaddox On July 25th, 2013
As spiritual abuse continues to make headlines, with the latest being allegations against a well-known international ministry, we often focus on the individual’s directly responsible, and with good reason. But, we should also remember that repeated abuse like those described do not usually happen in a vacuum. There are often conditions and beliefs that exist…
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By jasonmaddox On July 22nd, 2013
Being a part of your church choir might have more benefits than just being an exciting way to be a part of the church community and express your faith. It may also help your mental health. A new study published in the July issue of Psychology of Music suggests that joining a choir improves the…
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By jasonmaddox On July 18th, 2013
No amount of education, seminars, empathy, and experience can ever make you fully understand how those dealing with mental health issues actually perceive their own experience, as opposed to the objective behavior we can observe in them or others with their condition. Patheos sought to correct this by giving us access to the closest we…
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By jasonmaddox On July 17th, 2013
The Church has made great advancements in the way we talk about mental illness and education, especially towards conditions like anxiety and depression which affect a significant portion of the population. But, there are still conditions which make many Christians uncomfortable. Widespread misunderstanding and even fear have made schizophrenia one of the most stigmatized mental…
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By jasonmaddox On July 16th, 2013
Depression is a huge problem in our modern society. The mental disorder drags down over five percent of the population, and many suffer in silence until the disease is tearing apart their mind and relationships. Yet, depression is also one of the most misunderstood mental conditions. Some wonder why a depressed person won’t “just cheer…
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By jasonmaddox On July 12th, 2013
Out of all the people struggling with depression that I meet, the Christians routinely show guilt that their secular counterparts don’t. Christians routinely say they should “know better” or suggest that they aren’t getting better because they aren’t “good enough” believers to be healed. More often than not, they seem to be in denial of…
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By jasonmaddox On July 11th, 2013
Bipolar disorder can be one of the most perplexing conditions a person can be afflicted with, as it is by nature unstable or sporadic, and can even appear to be beneficial to a person’s life before it spirals too far out of control and becomes undeniably detrimental. People in the midst of a “manic episode”,…
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By jasonmaddox On July 9th, 2013
After the loss of someone close to you, it is common to feel overwhelmed by grief and despair. We can even feel grief over the loss of precious things in our lives like jobs, homes, and relationships, but at what point does it become more than the normal emotions of someone going through hard events?…
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