Mental illness and religion

[PelagiathePenit]

Sadly I know someone struggling with depression/bipolar disorder. Her foreign parents do not seem to understand and attribute all her issues to her lack of motivation and procrastinating. I am not sure if her sluggish behavior is honest laziness or a side effect from never sleeping. I talked to her recently she seldom seems to get enough rest. She tired most of the day. Her emotional reactions are Too strong. She laughs wholeheartedly. She cries as much too. Every little criticism, lack of attention or snide remark sends her to tears. Guilt and shame are good but not repeatingly beat yourself up for things you can no longer change. Is that really taking responsibility for your actions? She seems to want to be alone all the time. It is interesting there are those who care less about their sins or express no remorse for their wrongdoings or pride themselves on it. There are those who seem to be overwhelmed and engulfed in their own guilt. She is very dependent on sleeping pills. She seems to be on a downward spiral. It is difficult talking to her she seems to hate everything and everyone one moment. She can love to talk about Christ and going to church next month she is anticatholic. Lord have mercy.

 

[adamhovey1988]

Sadly I know someone struggling with depression/bipolar disorder. Her foreign parents do not seem to understand and attribute all her issues to her lack of motivation and procrastinating. I am not sure if her sluggish behavior is honest laziness or a side effect from never sleeping. I talked to her recently she seldom seems to get enough rest. She tired most of the day. Her emotional reactions are Too strong. She laughs wholeheartedly. She cries as much too. Every little criticism, lack of attention or snide remark sends her to tears. Guilt and shame are good but not repeatingly beat yourself up for things you can no longer change. Is that really taking responsibility for your actions? She seems to want to be alone all the time. It is interesting there are those who care less about their sins or express no remorse for their wrongdoings or pride themselves on it. There are those who seem to be overwhelmed and engulfed in their own guilt. She is very dependent on sleeping pills. She seems to be on a downward spiral. It is difficult talking to her she seems to hate everything and everyone one moment. She can love to talk about Christ and going to church next month she is anticatholic. Lord have mercy.

Lord have mercy on her. I have a sister that has Borderline personality disorder, so I sympathise, sometimes, all you can do is pray.

 

[RuthTherese]

As one who suffers from bipolar disorder, I can tell you that it’s very difficult to deal with, and I recognize so much of what you’re seeing with your friend. Sleeping too much or not at all when you’re manic is a huge problem for a lot of us, and while medication can help, sometimes you just have to wait out those spells. But those mood swings are hard to deal with when the only person you’re arguing with is yourself, and often talking to anyone else about them can be unbearable. She’s probably suffering inside a lot more than she lets on. It’s a very dark and scary place to be because it can feel like you’re completely out of control and you can’t just snap out of it. There’s a lot of irrational thinking that goes through your head, and sometimes you don’t always recognize when you’re not making sense to an outsider.

It’ll take time and therapy for her to find a spot where she feels stable. You can pray for her, you can offer to help put her in touch with both secular and religious help, and really, you can just be there for her. Bipolar is complicated and scary and deep. Sounds like she really just needs support. Honestly, being present and listening can make a bigger difference than I could ever hope to get across through words.

 

[ClearWater]

How sad!

Praying for her and her family.

 

[RPRPsych]

I’m not going to reply in my professional capacity, though I’d love to. D)

However, the sleeping pills have got to go. Most of them (if not all) are almost as addictive as alcohol. Once upon a sad time, they were actually thought of as mood stabilizers (= drugs that prevent relapses of bipolar disorder). We now know better. They can actually worsen depression in the long run. She needs to talk to a professional about being weaned from them.

Second, a very wise French professor I met told me that there’s a lot of work going on in the field of biological clocks and rhythms as they pertain to bipolar disorder. One thing that came up is that many of these patients’ clocks are destabilized because of high degrees of light exposure after sunset - from, you guessed it, cell phones / smartphones and computers. Those things are brutal in terms of light exposure, far more than television, and they can seriously mess up the way the brain sets patterns of mood and activity. So, if your friend is up late using the Internet, social media, or such, you might want to give her a word to the wise.

Praying for her.

 

[jaimeleglise]

With the right therapy and medication, her quality of life will be improved. How blessed is she to have a caring friend like you.

 

[Rosebud77]

I’m not going to reply in my professional capacity, though I’d love to. D)

However, the sleeping pills have got to go. Most of them (if not all) are almost as addictive as alcohol. Once upon a sad time, they were actually thought of as mood stabilizers (= drugs that prevent relapses of bipolar disorder). We now know better. They can actually worsen depression in the long run. She needs to talk to a professional about being weaned from them.

Second, a very wise French professor I met told me that there’s a lot of work going on in the field of biological clocks and rhythms as they pertain to bipolar disorder. One thing that came up is that many of these patients’ clocks are destabilized because of high degrees of light exposure after sunset - from, you guessed it, cell phones / smartphones and computers. Those things are brutal in terms of light exposure, far more than television, and they can seriously mess up the way the brain sets patterns of mood and activity. So, if your friend is up late using the Internet, social media, or such, you might want to give her a word to the wise.

Praying for her.

Thank you for your wisdom re sleeping and other pills… I was wrongly prescribed for nearly 30 years, benzos etc etc etc, after a serious misdiagnosis of mental illness ignoring the real illness they now know I have had all the time. It took me a year to get rid of them and more damage. They were causing the emotional and other symptoms they were supposed to cure. eg suicidal thoughts