World Mental Health Day 2020

This day is marked every year on October 10th, but this year it has much more importance. Lives of loved ones have been lost to Covid-19, there has been isolation, jobs have been lost, and children’s schooling has been flipped upside down. Uncertainty makes any situation worse and if there is mental issues they’re compounded even more.
Today know that it’s ok to not be ok. Mental illness can range from depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, bipolar or schizophrenia. There needs to be no shame in having any of these. We all have a roll in breaking the stigmas will mental illness.

Mental Illness is NOT:

– a trend
– something you can snap out of
– a choice
– attention seeking
– an excuse
– always visible
Too many lives have already been lost to mental illness. It seems like we’re always surprised to hear about the suicide of a famous person. A few examples include: Don Cornelius, Anthony Bourdain, Kurt Cobain, Ernest Hemingway, Mindy McCready, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Robin Williams.
May we offer support to those who are suffering. This maybe as simple as sitting with them, listening about their struggles, doing activities with them or having a cup of coffee in silence. These acts don’t include judgement, shame or ‘fixing’ them. Purely, let them know that they are not alone.
If you have mental illness or are worried you might, please reach out for help. Talk to your doctor and take a friend to advocate for you. There are treatments out there to help and people willing to support you. In an emergency call 911 or the National Suicide Lifeline at 800-273-8255.

A prayer today by Sarah Griffith Lund

“God who created the heart and the mind, heaven and earth, in the beginning of creation You said it was good.
But what about when “good” no longer describes how we feel?
What about the times when we feel bad, low, lost, alone, anxious, scared, hurt, sad, depleted, hollow, dull, lifeless, listless, haunted, depressed, worthless, and nothingness?
Are we still part of Your good creation, even then?
Hear us when we cry out “What is good in us when there is mental illness?”
Come near to us in our time of trouble. Do not let us go. Do not take Your Spirit from us. Save us.
Help us find life again.
Hold us close to Your heart and whisper to us once more that we are good, that we are more than our mental illness, that we are made in Your image.
God of wholeness, we give thanks that You love us even when we do not love ourselves.
God of hope, we give thanks for our minds and our hearts. We are good and we are whole because we belong to You. Now and forever. Amen”
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