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What Most People Misunderstand About Mental Illness
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“Popular” to Have Mental Illness? When I tell someone upon initially meeting them that I’m bipolar, and they jump to identify themselves as bipolar as well, I take it with a grain of salt. This is not to say they aren’t bipolar, they very well could be. But most people…
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Brandon Appelhans Guest Posts: “Identity & Mental Health”
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Brandon reached out to me recently and is a mutual friend of Pastor Brad Hoefs. After researching his website, MyQuietCave.org, I invited Brandon to guest post for us here at BipolarBrave.com. I hope his story is encouraging to you and reminds you where your true identity comes from. Yesterday I…
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Deep Calls To Deep: A Poem
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Context As I was praying over our nation’s epidemic of suicide rates growing and pandemic of abortions, I remembered the words of Psalm 42:7, “Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.” I penned this poem so to encourage fellow brothers and…
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Psychotherapy vs. Christianity: The Case for True Transformation (Part II)
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A Matter of The Heart In the former half of my argument, I explored the definition of moral relativity and how the admission and recognition of Truth is necessary for authentic and good life-giving change and transformation. In this post, I explore the case for the heart being untrustworthy and…
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Advocate Angela McDonald Guest Posts: “Being Faithful To Someone With Mental Illness”
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Ignorance Isn’t Bliss Those in the church who know of my bipolar disorder have never sat down and asked me how I am…and I am angry about it. Am I handling my mood swings okay? Am I managing my symptoms? How is my family handling all of it?… No one…
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Symptom of Psychosis #1: Paranoia
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Paranoia is one of a few psychotic symptoms that accompanied my bipolar disorder type I in the worst of my episodes. It always pushed me over the edge of reason, while at times I tried to deny it. It’s hard to hide something you feel so strongly. Not Crazy…Just Creative…
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If I Return To La La Land
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When I entered my manic state of bipolar, my family coined the term “La La Land,” due to my delusional attributes. Since being in my right mind, I’ve held the positive outlook that I would never return, so long as I remain on my medicine. I speculate in this poetic…
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Don’t Let Your Feelings Drive You: How To Handle Emotions
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I’m very hard on myself. Needless to say, I take it personally when I am told I take things too personally. And I still do. Just the other day I was in some extreme denial when my husband told me I could be more assertive because I’m a very compliant person (and I…
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The Church’s Best Response To Mental Illness
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Mental illness can be so gray. Thinking about it, there’s a mental disorder diagnosis for almost everything and anything. Of course, not everyone has a clinical, diagnosable condition. With mental illness being so rampant and the church’s response being so silent, here are a few pointers I want to bring…