By: Stan Popovich

Do you currently struggle with fear and anxiety and wish you could talk to someone who can relate to your situation?

If so, I dealt with fear and anxiety for over 20 years and here are some lessons I learned during my mental health struggles.

1. Listen To The Professionals And Not Your Friends: Your friends may mean well, but when it comes down to it, the professionals know your situation more than anyone. They know what you are going through and are trained to deal with your situation. Consult with a counselor when you have questions about your mental health issues.
2. Distance Yourself From People Who Give You A Hard Time: Distance yourself from those people who won’t make an effort to help understand what you are going through. You need to surround yourself with positive and supportive people. I felt better when I avoided those people who would constantly argue with me regarding my anxieties and stresses.
3. Focus On The Facts of Your Situation And Not Your Thoughts: When people are depressed they rely on their fearful and negative thoughts.  Your fearful thoughts are exaggerated and are not based on reality. When you are depressed, focus on the facts of your current situation and not on what you think.
4. Learn From Your Experiences: In every anxiety-related situation I experienced, I learned what worked, what did not work, and what I needed to improve on as I managed my fears and anxieties. For example, you have a lot of anxiety and you decide to take a walk to help you feel better. The next time you feel anxious you can remind yourself that you got through it the last time by taking a walk.
5. You Can’t Predict The Future Regardless What Your Thoughts May Tell You: No one can predict the future with one hundred percent certainty. Even if the thing that you are afraid of does happen, there are circumstances and factors that you can’t predict which can be used to your advantage. For instance, you miss the deadline for a project at work. Suddenly, your boss comes to your office and tells you that the deadline is extended and that he forgot to tell you the day before. This unknown factor changes everything.
6.  Things Change Over Time: Regardless of your current situation, things do not stay the same. You may feel very bad today, but it won’t last forever. Everything changes over time and this includes your current mental health issues.

Fresh Hope is a faith-based non-profit that empowers people to live well in spite of their mental health challenge.

YOUR gift will provide a person with God’s Fresh HOPE for daily living. Click here to donate, today.

Here is what Fresh Hope is offering during this unprecedented time of stress, uncertainties, and anxiety:

1. Every Monday at 8.30 p.m. Central Time Pastor Brad is hosting a Facebook Live Event entitled, “Mental Health Mondays.”  He’s covering topics such as anxiety, grief, and trauma, etc. To participate, go to the Fresh Hope for Mental Health Facebook page and scroll down, and you’ll see it there.  (Each week, the replay on demand for it is also on the Fresh Hope for Mental Health Facebook page under the video section.

2. Three times a week, we are offering a two-hour session entitled: “Healing the Distress Caused by the COVID-19 Crisis.” The material was created by the Trauma Healing Institute, which is part of the American Bible Society. It’s a two-hour free session in which the participants have the opportunity to work through any anxiety, fears, concerns, trauma, grief that they may be experiencing due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.  To register for this session, click here.

3. We will also be providing the same “Healing the Distress Cause by the COVID-19 Crisis” for Children very soon.  To receive notice of when we begin to offer the children’s sessions, please text the word children to (415) 528-7403, and we’ll get you the information as soon as it is available.

4. We also have created a special free downloadable for the ongoing crisis entitled “Managing Coronavirus Anxiety,” which can be downloaded by clicking here.

5. Fresh Hope is also offering a series of six mental health from a Christian perspective type of snippet that pastors and ministry leaders can provide their members and community.  Pastors may request to receive these snippets weekly by texting the word interview to 415-528-7403. These snippets are free and may be used; however, the pastor and ministry leaders see fit to use them.  It’s our desire to help the pastors and ministry leaders to help their members and their community to stay emotionally healthy during this time of isolation.

6. Here are a few of our Fresh Hope for Mental Health podcasts (www.FreshHope4MentalHealth.com) that we believe that are helpful during this time:

• 8 Things to Remember in Tough Times
• What to Do When You are Overwhelmed
• Finding Hope in the Midst of Pain
• What NOT to Do When You are Sad
• Music for Your Soul as You Go Through Difficult Times
• How to Choose Hope
• How Joyful People Think

We of course continue will continue to offer our online Fresh Hope support groups and most of our local groups that used to meet in person are now meeting online also.  People can register for our regular weekly online group meeting by going to www.FreshHopeMeeting.com

 

 

By: Samanta Karraa

When I started attending a Fresh Hope group I found-

1. People who had a mental health diagnosis, who were living a full and rich life in spite of their diagnosis. They were working, taking care of their families, getting married, getting a master’s degree, serving at their churches and starting new projects in spite of having a mental health challenge. I cannot describe to you how loudly this spoke to me.
2. A leader who had a diagnosis and therefore could understand me. She was well ahead in her recovery process and had been trained to facilitate the meeting. FH groups function peer to peer. Encouragement and hope are shared amongst the members.
3. Acceptance. People accepted me for who I am and at the point of recovery in which I was.
4. Confidentiality. What is said in a FH group stays there. We don’t mention who was at the meeting either.
5. A community of faith who understood. With so much stigma going around and so much misunderstanding amongst Christian circles, finding a faith-based community who understood mental illness was like finding a treasure. Although the topics introduced at the groups don’t have the format of a bible study, but rather a recovery centered approach, our values and recovery principles are Biblically based.
6. Answers. After having been diagnosed I had lots of questions and uncertainty. However through the Fresh Hope principles of recovery I received answers to my many questions. And this filled me with hope.

If you´re thinking about attending a Fresh Hope group or starting one in your area, think about it no more. Don´t settle for reading about the things that I found. Go and try for yourself. I am sure you will find these blessings and many more.

 

Fresh Hope is a faith-based non-profit that empowers people to live well in spite of their mental health challenge.

YOUR gift will provide a person with God’s Fresh HOPE for daily living. Click here to donate, today.

By: Katie Dale 

For most mental health conditions and illnesses, it is strongly recommended that one gets help with not only prescribed medications from a psychiatrist, but also therapy. As a Christian with mental illness, I have found talk therapy with a certified Christian counselor has been hugely beneficial in my recovery and maintenance of my mental health.

Therapy can not only help you feel better but will help you think better and more soundly. Having another party that is unbiased and trained in helping their clients process their emotions, thoughts and behaviors is essential to a return to healthier emotions, thoughts and behaviors.

When the therapist is a Christian therapist and employs Christian, Biblically-based principles in their sessions, a Christian client can gain so much understanding behind their thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Godly wisdom develops in the client when they begin to apply Biblical principles in their thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

In addition to the changes a client makes in Christian counseling, they have the added benefit of making life changes that count for eternity. In other words, when Christ-like habits are formed in place of old sinful ones, the Christian client can employ the power of the Holy Spirit, the strength of Christ, and accept God’s mercy and grace to change permanently and powerfully.

Here are some starter questions in three areas we can explore with a Christian therapist to start on our journeys to permanent change and powerful transformation in light of the Truth of Christ, despite living with a mental illness.

Emotions

1. What do my emotions have to do with my spiritual walk with the Lord? How are they related and how are they different?

2. Why might I have such deep depression? Is this related to a sinful thought-life, behavior or generational curse? If not, how do I know it’s purely chemical imbalance?

3. Why do I feel so far from God right now?

4. What can I do to avoid a roller coaster relationship to God (highs feeling close to Him, lows feeling far from Him)

5. Is anger a sinful emotion? If not, how do I appropriately and healthily handle it?

6. What are triggers and how can I know what mine are?

7. If I have felt this way for so long, how can I know my feelings will change?

8. How do I feel differently if I’ve tried to change my thoughts and feelings but I’m still struggling with (fill in the blank: anger, sorrow, grief, etc.)?

Thoughts

1. Are my thoughts supposed to change once I am a Christian?

2. I know what I should be thinking about (Philippians 4) but I struggle with what I shouldn’t be thinking about (fill in the blank: jealousy, self-image, self-worth, sexual immorality, etc.). How can I change my thoughts?

3. What are some tools I can employ when I face a temptation to dwell on what I shouldn’t?

4. How do I continue to dwell on good, pure thoughts continuously? I seem to always get distracted or give up.

5. How can I pray about my thought life?

6. Does prayer count as training my brain to think more healthily?

7. I feel like my thoughts gravitate toward (fill in the blank) and I know I struggle with this and have in the past. How do I stop this?

8. What can help me if I am having trouble believing God’s promise about (fill in the blank)?

Behaviors

1. I have bipolar disorder. Sometimes I get impulsive and act irrationally. How can I manage this behavior?

2. I have severe depression and am tempted to harm myself sometimes. How can I help myself?

3. I have severe anxiety and get overwhelmed in public settings. How can I find relief?

4. I have schizophrenia and can’t always tell the difference between God’s voice and the voices in my head, or hallucinations and Godly visions. How can I know the difference?

5. I have a learning disability and it takes me a while to catch on to what others are communicating to me. How can I handle my rate of response and frustrations when I don’t understand something?

6. I take things too personally. How can I be more “thick-skinned” and not be so sensitive? Should I be less sensitive?

7. I have a short fuse. How can I bite my tongue/control my anger/keep from exploding in the moment and what can help me do that?

8. I am trying not to lose my job due to my mental health condition. What should I do?

Katie Dale is the mind behind BipolarBrave.com and the e-book GAMEPLAN: A Mental Health Resource Guide. She’s currently finishing up her memoir on her episodes of bipolar disorder, due to launch March 2020. She can be found on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

Things seem bad enough now, but they say that things are going to get even worse. Stress levels are higher than usual. Anxiety is beginning to set in for many. Things are uncertain. And more than anything, the major question is, “When will it all end?”  

We are experiencing what I would call a type of “world-wide complex trauma.” It’s complex because it deals with a virus that could bring about death. Financial security is at risk for many. There’s a lot of grief. The stress of staying home and isolation causes feelings of loneliness and worry, which all lead to feeling anxious. It’s called anxiety caused by a life-altering ongoing situation where no one can tell us exactly when it will end. Thus, it’s complex.  

Taking care of your emotional health right now is a key to not only surviving these weeks to come, but is necessary to maintain your mental health. And managing your anxiety is at the top of the list when it comes to caring for your emotional/mental health.

So how do you go about managing your emotional/mental health during this time?  

Here are just a few simple suggestions for managing your anxiety:

1. Recognize the anxious feelings you have.  
2. Express your feelings of anxiety to a safe person.
3. Do what you can do; and the things you can’t do anything about, let go. 
4. Daily find out the latest and most important things you need to know.  
5. Limit your exposure to news about the crisis (TV, social media, online, and print publications). 
6. Keep a schedule. 
7. Make a list of things you need to do, and do them.
8. Connect with your friends and family through things like Facetime or other real-time apps, email, texts, and even an old-fashioned phone call.
9. Send special greeting cards to loved ones and other important people in your life. (Right now, Hallmark is giving away cards on their website https://www.hallmark.com/.) 
10. Get creative. Try something new.  
11. Tackle a large task that you’ve been putting off for a long time.
12. Remember to laugh. Laugh loud and laugh often!

If your anxiety begins to become overwhelming, then you need to contact your doctor. Sometimes the anxiety can become so intense that it causes problems with your brain chemistry. There’s no shame in getting some medical help for a medical situation, i.e., your brain not functioning properly due to chemical issues that have come about due to stress.  

More than anything, know that the Lord has this! He is in control. You can trust that whatever happens, He’s going to take it and make it work for your good! (Romans 8:28). So, meditate on His word, spend time worshipping Him, and pray to Him. You can cast all of your cares on Him, for He cares for you!

We do have a more in-depth downloadable article entitled “Managing Coronavirus Anxiety.” Check it out by going to www.FreshHope.us/Coronavirus.

How are you managing your stress and anxiety right now? We’d love to hear from you!

 

As you might know from some of my past posts I am a collector of inspirational sayings. I find short inspirational quotes to be very helpful in learning how to live well in spite of having a mental health issue.

So, today I thought I would share with you some new quotes that I have found to be helpful:

1. “To get somewhere new, you must first decide that you are tired of being where you are.” Unknown

2. “You can’t change someone who doesn’t see an issue with his or her actions.” Unknown

3. “A moment of patience in a moment of anger saves you a hundred moments of regret.” Unknown

4. Talking about our problems is our greatest addiction. Break the habit. Talk about your joys. Rita Schiano

5. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” J.K. Rowling

6. “Busy is a drug that a lot of people are addicted to in their lives.” Unknown

7. “Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.” Unknown

8. “What defines is not our past. Rather, how well we rise after falling.” Unknown

9. “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change: I am changing the things I cannot accept.” Unknown

10. “Two things prevent us from happiness; living in the past and observing others.” Unknown

11. “Your past does not determine who you are. Your past prepares you for who you are to become.” Unknown

12. “I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” Unknown

13. “Never trust your tongue when your heart is bitter.” Unknown

14. “Failure isn’t final unless you quit.” Unknown

15. “Just because the past didn’t turn out like you wanted it to or expected it to, doesn’t mean your future can’t be better than you ever imagined.” Unknown

16. “Let’s stop believing that our differences make us superior or inferior to one another.” Unknown

17. “Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.” Unknown

18. “I refuse to please others at the expense of my emotional well-being. Even if it means saying no to people who are used to hearing yes.”

19. “Faith is the art of holding on to things in spite of your changing moods and circumstances.” C.S. Lewis

20. “You don’t protect your heart by acting like you don’t have one.” Unknown

21. “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.” Winston Churchill

22. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill

23. “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill

24. “Be sure to taste your words before you spit them out.” Unknown

25. “No one can go back and make a brand new start. However, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” Unknown

Do any of these quotes speak to you? If so, why? Do you have any favorite inspirational quotes that have been helpful to you in learning how to live well in spite of having bipolar disorder?

Check out Brad’s weekly podcast: www.FreshHope4MentalHealth.com