Living With Mental Illness

Loneliness is one of the hurdles of mental illness in our culture. Even though today, there isn’t as much of a stigma as there use to be, those of us who suffer from some sort of mental illness or care for those who do, still feel isolated. It is difficult to explain why taking a shower seems to be such a monumental task or why yesterday’s fun loving friend is hiding out in her bedroom today. Only someone who lives in this up and down totally screwed up world gets it! However, those who live here find it difficult to reach out to others. This is where we find ourselves; in a world that seems to revolve in the opposite direction and orbits around the illness we do not understand and cannot explain.

In our loneliness we turn to different ways to compensate for what we see as our weakness. We self medicate, eat, sleep, pray, deny, lie, and get angry. Nothing works and no one understands why we do the things we do, so we look for a way out. Let us offer a different alternative. We are a group of people that live in a world somewhat like yours and have found that together we are stronger. We meet weekly at Dayspring Community Church. We share, we laugh, we cry, we scream, we offer encouragement and acceptance not judgment or rejection.

Personally, I have come to rely on this group where all that is expected of me is confidentiality. I can share when and what I wish, or I can stay quiet, without explanation. I can pray or curse, sing or cry, whatever I need, when I need it. Here I can be myself and in sharing my experience help others to navigate theirs.

If you share our world, come join us. For more information contact Debbie by emailing dfinnegan@dayspringonline.net.