You Deserve to Get Better!

Mental illness can wear you down and exhaust you. I recall how fatigued I got because of depression and anxiety. Mornings were the toughest for me. When you get tired enough it begins to mess with your thinking about yourself, others and God.

A depressed and anxious brain produces some awfully distorted thinking. It’s often experienced as if one has no control of one’s thoughts, as if the thoughts have a life of their own. I knew my thinking was distorted but I could not stop it. Some friends tried to assist me by encouraging me to change my thinking. They had no idea that my emotional brain was over-riding my cognitive brain and I was unable to benefit from their advice.

If you are a family-member or friend of someone who is in the grips of clinical depression and anxiety, simple directions are not always helpful. That’s because the person cannot make use of your help due to the fact of an overly stimulated emotional brain. Counseling and/or medication may be required to help with this. Your doctor can help you with this decision.

The highly activated emotional brain makes it very difficult to see the self, others or God accurately. Many times the thoughts about the self can turn negative. Like “I’m no good”, “I’m just a worthless person” or “My life will never get better”. These type of thoughts can velcro themselves to a person’s brain. You will need patience to help your family member or friend with this.

I believe you “deserve to get help, to get better”. Your mind may say, “NO WAY!, You don’t know how horrible and useless I am!” I hear you but I still believe you deserve to get help. Try to hold my words in your mind, even for an short time.

Pursue any and all forms of help available to you: family, friends, mentors, pastors, counselors, physicians and any other source that can help. God has created you for a life that is difficult to see right now. Attempt to trust reliable-other’s view of life. It’s like borrowing their view and faith for a while. I will partner you in learning to believe “You do deserve to get better!”