mental illness

Bipolar hookup

/ E Bishop Wooten / Leave a comment

Although it is not recommended for two people who have Bipolar Disorder, or any other mental illness, to “hook up”, you can’t always stop love. These two may be the only ones who understand each other. This blog post will focus on the positives of dating someone with a similar mental health diagnosis.

One positive note is you may get a lot of alone time when your partner goes off on a manic phase. I can see it now: “Where is your boyfriend/ girlfriend?” You answer: “Oh, I don’t know really. Off on some mood swing somewhere.”

Speaking of mood swing, that would make a great tagline for a dating profile:

“Bipolar person seeks like-minded person to go on nice, romantic mood swings with.”

You never know, it could be a match made in heaven. As long as one of the two, or both, don’t have anger issues. Anger issues always kill everything.

On a final note, you haven’t lived until you’ve had bipolar sex. That always makes it worth it.

Strength of Character

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We’ve heard the old saying “Survival of the Fittest” and the famous one “God helps those who helps themselves.” Is this Biblical? Who are the fittest and the ones to whom God helps that help themselves?

Mental illness along with illnesses of the body are usually not found in those that consider themselves “strong.” Even the “strongest” person admits they have weaknesses. So why don’t we acknowledge our illnesses, particularly mental, as our weaknesses? We admit our character defects which for the most part include our sins. So why don’t we consider our infirmities as weaknesses? After all when you struggle with something for a long time it can wear down your body’s immune system. This is especially true when as we get older and prolonged years of stress & anxiety “weaken” our immune system and we end up having to take medicine as we get older.

So who are the ones who are the fittest? Some have a strong faith in God and some are strong in and of themselves. However no one is entirely that strong in and of themselves apart from God. Therefore it’s God who gives you the grace to make it through each day. You’re just deluded into thinking you’re such a “good person” in and of yourself.

Years of being grounded in the Word of God can “strengthen” your character as well. As you pray and seek God you can better discern His Will for you life so that you know almost exactly what to pray for. Then you stand on the Word and trust in God’s timing for the answer. God for the most part either says Yes when He grants it to you or wait. He only says no if it goes against His Word. Although all your prayers have their yes in Messiah Yeshua as everything you ultimately seek can be found in Him; security, significance, salvation, purpose,

So to sum it up Survival of the Fittest can best be attributed to Survival of the Faithful. Although no matter how godly or faithful you can get you can always get struck down with cancer, heart disease, mental illness. You will be healed of it even if it kills you; i.e. if God uses it as His means of Grace to call you home.

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Repression leads to depression

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Jeremiah 17:9. . .”The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But God searches the heart and examines the mind and gets to the heart of the human, the root of things, and treats them as they really are and not as they pretend to be.” (Message Bible)

The Apostle Paul said he became all things to all people so that he may win a few. I learn more about my faith by relating to non-believers and seeing what it is about my faith that they are really rejecting. The biggest thing that comes to mind is they see Christians as repressing their desires in an attempt to live for God. I learned in 12-Step groups that repressed desires are the leading cause of mental health issues. This could explain the Religious Trauma Syndrome that many people suffer from when they leave the Church.

Repressing our desires is not the freedom that God calls us to in Christ. While our desires are natural, they are not always Godly. When we turn from our own path and seek out the path of righteousness that God laid out for us, He begins to show us a new path to take; aka being born again, or a fresh start in life.

We don’t have to struggle with our desires. Maybe they are something good that God wants us to have. We should go after these as long as the Spirit doesn’t convict us and we put God first. Every desire is basically good at its starting point because it serves a basic need that we have. Our relationship with God meets every need that we have at its core.

We don’t struggle with or repress our desires. We simply rise above them and become fully human and live the life that God calls us to live. This is what Jesus meant when He said our faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

Spiritual roots of anxiety

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Prov. 12:25. . .”Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.”
Ever wonder why a lot of people have anger & emotional issues? Or even depression, for that matter? Since I’ve struggled with this in the past, I’ve come to realize (by the grace of God) that depression/anxiety isn’t necessarily a chemical imbalance. Of course, in a way it is, I don’t knock the use of medications, maybe some people do need them.

I heard on a christian radio show one day that the main cause of anger was unfulfilled expectations. On the same station I also heard that depression is a result of quenching the Holy Spirit in some way. So if a person struggles with these they may have something that God is calling them to do that they haven’t realized yet. Probably due to feelings of inadequacy or even doubts that God wants to use them or bless them in a certain way.

Remember the best way to discover God’s will for you life is by asking what desires are in your heart? (Psalm 37:4). As you delight (or surrender) yourself in the Lord, He gives you whatever desires He wants you to have. Of course it’s human nature to doubt due to fear or unbelief, so many people end up living average lives with unfulfilled dreams.

Every christian has a God-sized dream that God wants them to accomplish that requires a closer walk with Him to carry out.

The nature of chemical dependency

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Chemical dependency goes a lot deeper than just drugs and alcohol. Although if you have a drinking or drug problem you’re guaranteed a free place to stay while you work the program. There are other forms of chemical dependency other than drugs and alcohol; Just not as many damaging effects.

Caffeine is the most widely abused drug in the world. The best part of waking up? I always thought it was interesting that any chemical dependency group I visited always had a big ass coffee pot in the center of the room.

Do you ever really overcome an addiction? It seems when we stop using one drug of choice we merely replace it with something else. For example we become addicted to work, religious activities or even the groups themselves.

Relationships can be an addiction as well. Codependency is when we become too dependent on people to fill some void in our lives.

Pharmaceutical drugs are also a chemical dependency. This is why I never liked taking psychiatric medication. It takes months before it really works. It is almost like they are designed that way so people become dependent on them.

In closing I once heard a pastor say there are no addictions. Addictions are merely strongholds. My dad quit smoking after 35 years when he found out he had spots on his lungs. He even said if you really want to quit then all you need to do is just make the decision to.

Since we tend to replace one addiction with another, maybe the healthiest addiction is life’s most important relationship. Everything addiction outside of that is merely just a form of idolatry.

But then again what do I know? I am not a licensed addictions counselor anyway.

P