By: Samanta Karraa
I am so glad to announce to all my Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters that the Fresh Hope book is now available in Spanish!
Prior to reading the Fresh Hope Book, I was merely surviving. I had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and my whole world was falling apart. On top of the discomfort, the heartache, the apathy towards life, I was experiencing a lot of guilt because of things I had done and said during a manic episode right before having been diagnosed. I had lost all confidence in myself and felt like I was never going to be able to work or to serve my family again. I was hiding behind a curtain of shame, feeing trapped between a rock and a hard place between symptoms and the medicines’ secondary effects. I felt alone and misunderstood. And frankly, I could see no way into the future.
Totally by an act of God’s grace I happened to find Pastor Brad’s book online: Fresh Hope: Living Well in spite of a Mental Health Diagnosis. Although the title was very promising and compelling, and I was excited to find a Christian resource that spoke bluntly about Mental Health, at first I wasn’t convinced I wanted to read it. It was so hard for me to concentrate – how was I going to be able to read a whole book! But I did go ahead and order the book, only to find it was God´s gift to me during the worst moments of my life! In the book I found so many blessings, but here are the Top 11 Blessings Received by reading Fresh Hope: Living Well in spite of a Mental Health Diagnosis (because the Top 10 wasn’t enough!):
- Ability to accept my diagnosis. Denial was no longer necessary. First, I was able to see where exactly I was in denial and how denial works. Secondly, I was able to overcome denial and peacefully accept my diagnosis without succumbing to it.
- Freedom from the power that the symptoms had to define my life. Before reading the Fresh Hope book, whenever I heard or read about a symptom of bipolar disorder, I would immediately magnify it in my mind and let it start dictating my behavior. Anxiety would creep in as I heard or read stories of others who were always beat up by their diagnosis and reached unthinkable levels of desperation, shame, and even tragedy. But after reading the book, I stopped identifying with the illness and started enjoying my true identity – as a child of God.
- Empowerment to manage my illness as opposed to it managing me. I was no longer helpless. I understood I had to own my recovery and have a protagonist role in it. I learned to identify when I was making excuses and I learned to push through and overcome.
- Answers to my many questions. Had I been to blame for the things I had done and said during the manic episode, or was the illness to blame? Was I ever going to be able to live a productive life again? Could a Christian be depressed? Did God still love me? Was God still with me? Did I need to tell others about my diagnosis? And if so, how was I going to tell them? Was it a sin to take medicine? How could my husband support me? All of these questions found their answers in this book.
- Connection to others. An end to feeling lonely!! Pastor Brad´s story, as well as other stories that appear in the book, made me feel welcome into a community of overcomers in the name of Jesus!
- Principles on which to base my life. The 6 Tenets of Recovery did not only provide answers to my questions – they also gave me a new perspective, a fresh world view, and new criteria to live by.
- A renewed mind. Tenet 5 specifically deals with the fact that while medication is a key part of recovery, it is not the only answer. We need to work on our recovery, and one of the most effective ways to do that is to renew our minds with the Word of God. This book taught me how.
- Detachment of victim mentality. I finally admitted that there were actually worse things and worse situations than mine, and that I needn´t allow my diagnosis to reduce me to a defeated, helpless woman walking around with her head down and her eyes to the ground.
- Encouragement and strength to love those around me. Specially my family. The book provided me a perspective on how my illness affected everyone else around me and hence provided me a way to love them as a motive to make the effort to recover.
- Healing from my past. I was now able to be honest about it. I was now able to forgive myself as well as others. I could finally stop asking “why?”. I was now able to turn the page and walk into a brighter future, with the assurance in my heart that God is a God who Redeems.
- Hope like I had never known or understood before! I now felt it was possible to live a full and rich life in spite of my disorder. I now did not only hope to be the mother, daughter, and wife I used to be, but I actually expected to be an even better mother, daughter, and wife than I used to be! I no longer only hoped to continue serving the Lord like I used to do, but I actually expected to have an even better relationship with Him and to serve Him a lot more! Now I had a way forward; a future and a hope just like Jeremiah 29:11 promises.
To my surprise, the entire book was easy to read, and it had such a comforting tone. It felt familiar. It felt like I was having a candid conversation with someone more experienced and wise than I was in hope and recovery matters. After reading the book, I was no longer surviving but thriving. I had a Wellness Plan. A circle of accountability, a new perspective, and an entire future had opened wide ahead of me, ready to be conquered. Romans 8:28 took on a whole new meaning.
If you haven’t read Pastor Brad’s book, I would strongly recommend that you do. I am thrilled to know that now my Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters have the opportunity to read it!! No other book exists with this unique peer-to-peer, faith-based focus. You can order yours through Amazon (both in digital or paperback editions), or write to samantha@freshhope.us to order one straight from the office. But beware – your life might undergo strong positive changes after you read it!
You can purchase the Kindle version at the link here: Purchase Kindle Edition!
Or your can pre-order a paperback copy that will be available June 1st at the link here: Pre-Order PaperBack Edition!
Times like this can be a challenge to our mental health. Navigating all of the life altering changes that are coming at us can not only cause anxiety, but the anxiety can lead to a sense of fear; which can lead us to shutting down or finding unhealthy ways of coping.
We are committed to guiding you through this unprecedented time in our history. We are willing to walk along side of you and empower you practical ways to navigate this time of social distancing and isolation through our weekly Mental Health Mondays on Facebook Live!
Each Monday for the foreseeable future Pastor Brad will host a Mental Health Monday gathering on Fresh Hope for Mental Health’s Facebook page. The gathering will begin at 8.30 p.m. Central Time Zone. If you’d like to receive reminders about the gathering, please click the link below and we’ll send a reminder each week about it along with other practical tools for emotionally managing a time such as this.
start finishing our basement prior to all of the changes. In November of that year, we began the project that we’ve been waiting nearly ten years to do. We secured the finances and the contractor in early November, not prepared for the massive changes coming our way in our jobs (we both are on the staff of the church that I pastor). Not only did our job descriptions change (positive changes), but we had physical remodeling of office spaces that also needed to happen before the end of that year. The leaders of our church were also rewriting the by-laws of our congregation during this time. Our work days were consumed with planning and preparing for all the Christmas activities and services. Plus, we were getting ready for hosting Christmas at home for not only our children and their families but also my entire extended family.
