reflecting the
compassion of
Jesus Christ by
promoting
mental health
and assisting those
struggling with
mental illness.
plans I have for you,"
declares the LORD,
"plans to prosper you
and not to harm you,
to give you a
future and a hope."
We're all familiar with Charles Dickens' curmudgeonly character, Ebenezer Scrooge, and his sour Bah humbug! Some of my friends and I might appear to be Scrooges from time to time, and particularly at this time of year. Our presence at family gatherings, social and/or church events, can sometimes tend to put a damper on things for you while you are delighting in the festivities of the season. "Thanksgiving—what is there to be thankful for?" "Merry Christmas—what is there to be merry about?" "Happy New Years—what is there to be happy about and/or to look forward to?"
The family and friends of those living with the challenges of unipolar (major depression) and bipolar disorders tend over time to become less surprised by their loved one’s mood swings, periods of heightened agitation, times of emotional instability and/or erratic behavior. What may not be appreciated is that many of these loved ones also deal with chronic psyche pain. The word psyche has reference to what is often termed mind, spirit or soul. In psychiatry the word psyche is often used to refer to the mind as the center of thought, emotion, and behavior. Stephen Bernhardt, himself living with bipolar disorder, writes that "the psyche pain of deep depression is real; it is not unlike the mental equivalent of having a root canal performed without benefit of a pain killer, this continues day after day. The pain is cumulative, ever present, and without end. |
It affects your very being, your essence, your soul, and you may embrace death to end that which seems to have no end in life." Not all of us are continually, or to the same degree, experiencing this type of pain—there are some who do not speak of such pain at all—but many do.
Many challenged with chronic unipolar depression and bipolar-depression (the downward spiral of the manic-depressive disorder) experience psyche pain. These types of depression are sometimes referred to as "endogenous depressions." Such depressions do not appear to be caused by outside stimuli; rather they appear to be caused from within. It may be due to the chemical imbalance in our brains induced by our broken-brain physiology, lots of little things accumulating, too much obsessive thinking about a particular issue—or a mix of all of these. One of the important goals of recovery for my friends—and myself—is to learn how to better monitor our symptoms in order to discover the warning signs and the thought patterns and/or practices that serve as triggers for what our doctors call decompensating—the functional deterioration of what was previously working for us. Most of us really want to learn how to better cope and manage. I thought you might want to know that it is possible that from time to time you might be observing a manifestation of chronic psyche pain. --continued on page 4-- |
