Bedlam Tuesday/Bethlem Royal Hospital

I have always been drawn to the way our minds work. I'm fascinated with movies and/or books like A Beautiful Mind, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Inception, Shutter Island, Ordinary People and even the humorous side of mental illness in What About Bob? rings true to life for patients when their therapists or psychiatrists leave for vacation. If you've never seen the movie K-PAX it's very interesting, and Jack Nicholson in, As Good As It Gets, can teach us all a little bit about the difficulties of mental illness for the person with the illness and for those around them.

My first historical romance, Secrets of the Heart, Book One in the Ravensmoore Chronicles, that releases in May 2011 will take you on a journey where some of the aspects of mental health and mental illness are explored in England during 1817. The more I researched for this book and my next, with the current working title of Chameleon, the more fascinated I became. Of course the treatment of mental illness was in its infancy in those days and the days prior to that. Many thought mental illness was due to demon possession. The archaic methods of treatment were barbaric for centuries.

Originally the priory of St. Mary Bethlehem, Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as Bedlam began admitting patients who were considered unbalanced or mentally ill in 1357.  Unlike the United States Bethlem was admitting patients when we were keeping patients in jails and alms houses.This hospital originally stood at Bishopsgate and then moved to Moorfields and eventually to St George’s Fields, Southwark. http://www.bethlemheritage.org.uk/aboutus.asp

If you would like to explore more about the fascinating facts of this institution please follow this link. http://www.bethlemheritage.org.uk/VisitingBethlem/

What book or movie influenced the way you think about mental illness?

Daniel: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy

Happy Sunday everyone! I'm doing my first, yes my first, Beth Moore study ever. I've read some of Beth's books and I'd hoped to do the study of Esther last year but I ended up with pneumonia and couldn't do it. So now I'm learning about living like Daniel did along with many other women that have come together for this Bible study. You remember  Daniel don't you? Daniel and his buddies, Hanniah, Mishael, and Azariah? Or maybe you remember them better as Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The guys who walked around in Neb's fiery furnace. Do you remember who the fourth person was in the furnace with them?

When you look around at all the wealth we have compared to other countries it's no surprise we have such a hard time focusing on God and what he wants of us. Self-absorption (thinking that you're all that or what I call big head syndrome) and stepping on others while you are trying to get to where you want to be is like Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon. It's a me, me, me mentality. Beth says, "Pride is not a circumstance. It's a state of mind. It's an equal opportunity agent of Satan — his absolute specialty."

Synonyms from  Dictionary.com Bible Dictionary  Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary as cited on dictionary.com

1. Pride, conceit, self-esteem, egotism, vanity, vainglory imply an unduly favorable idea of one's own appearance, advantages, achievements, etc., and often apply to offensive characteristics.
 
The antonym for pride is humility.
 

 

Humility definition http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/humility
 
a prominent Christian grace (Rom. 12:3; 15:17, 18; 1 Cor. 3:5-7; 2 Cor. 3:5; Phil. 4:11-13). It is a state of mind well pleasing to God (1 Pet. 3:4); it preserves the soul in tranquillity (Ps. 69:32, 33), and makes us patient under trials (Job 1:22). Christ has set us an example of humility (Phil. 2:6-8). . . .

Daniel 4:27 NIV Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue."
 
This is a 12 week study so I have a lot to learn and miles to go yet. The study is driven by videos we watch each week. I love it. You might want to try it sometime. Let's all watch out for the Nebuchadnezzar that may be at work in us this week and instead focus on humility.
 
What's your take on pride? Can we be proud of our work and our families and not be the big-headed prideful Nebuchadnezzar of  Babylon?

Friday's Blog Pick/Stigma of Mental Illness by: Gunnar Christiansen, M.D.

This has been an important week for those who suffer from mental illness and for those of us who love them.


http://www.nami.org/MSTemplate.cfm?Section=Stigma2&Site=FaithNet_NAMI&Template=/ContentManagement/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=32306

Stigma of Mental Illness
The Role of the Faith Community
by: Gunnar Christiansen, M.D.


Stigma produces silence. Silence allows stigma to go on unabated. We do need more than talk to stop stigma, but it would be a huge step toward its elimination if the voices of those affected by mental illness could be heard.

Unfortunately silence does have consequences. When we do not go to our clergy person, we allow stigma to be the winner. Our clergy person is not educated by us and we miss an opportunity for spiritual support.


I am thankful for the advocacy of those that do feel comfortable in disclosing such personal information to the general public. Nevertheless, I do not wish to contribute guilt to someone that desires to remain silent and already has a heavy burden.


It seems that avoidance by individuals and families to reveal the existence of mental illness in their lives is often justified, but we as a nation should feel awful about this apparent necessity.

It is amazing how many people who have a mental illness or have it in their family sit in lonely silence until they hear someone like us tell our story. It may only be privately to us that they reveal the existence of mental illness in their life, but it is a start in their releasing this burden and a significant step in their healing process. It is in our own congregations that we have the best opportunity to have such a personal touch with those that have been silenced by stigma.

The most powerful antidote for the internal effects of stigma and discrimination is spiritual strength. Reinforcement of the conviction that God loves us and is with us even in our most difficult times is of utmost importance.

Spiritual strength will diminish, however, unless it is constantly nurtured through giving and receiving loving care in our relationships with others. Thus it is of major importance that each of us attempt to develop a welcome and spiritually nourishing environment for those affected by mental illness in our own place of worship.

Unless we accept this challenge, unless we accept this opportunity, unless we accept this responsibility, I believe the vast majority of our congregations will go on sleeping and stigma will continue to flourish. Without the active involvement of the Faith Community, NAMI may be able to trim the branches of stigma, but it is extremely unlikely that we will be able to destroy its roots.

View the entire text of this plenary speech entitled "Stigma of Mental Illness - The Role of the Faith Community." Follow the link: http://www.nami.org/MSTemplate.cfm?Section=Stigma2&Site=FaithNet_NAMI&Template=/ContentManagement/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=32306

Bedlam Tuesday/Mental Illness Awareness Week/History of The Peoria State Hospital

October 3 through the 9th is Mental Illness Awareness Week



The history and treatment of mental illness is heartbreaking. How anyone could think that these "treatments" could help someone is tragic. The complications of the mind are mysterious. Ever think of how you might join God in helping those who suffer from depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other complicatons of the mind today? You can make a difference.  http://www.nami.org/

October 5th: National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding

Prepare your hearts and minds this day for The National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding. Please visit http://www.nami.org/MSTemplate.cfm?Section=Day_of_Prayer1&Site=FaithNet_NAMI&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=104033

Celebration of The Day of Prayer


There is not just one way that this day should be celebrated You are encouraged to do so in a manner in which you and your fellow parishioners are comfortable.

It would be wonderful if you are able to arrange to have a prayer service on the Tuesday of Mental Illness Awareness Week. Equally wonderful would be for your congregation to have a special prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Wellness in a regular worship service during the first week of October each year.

Having those with a mental illness and their families lifted up in prayer is important. Prayer does work.

Service Ideas

Hopefully the interfaith bulletin insert and responsive reading copied below will give you ideas for your congregation. Also, please click the link under "Related Resources" to download a document assembled by Mental Health Ministries containing a responsive Prayer of Confession, a Pastoral Prayer, and a litany for a candlelight service.

For additional examples of services please explore NAMI FaithNet's website (faithnet.nami.org), particularly the Worship Services and the Faith & Mental Illness pages. Also please explore the all the excellent national networks listed on NAMI Faithnet's Related Links page and particularly the websites of Pathways to Promise (www.pathways2promise), and Mental Health Ministries (http://www.mentalhealthministries.net/),

Bulletin Insert Suggestions

Prayer: Margaret Ann Holt, UMC

O, God, we gather here together today, as people from many different faith communities. We come before You, remembering all those persons whose lives have been touched by mental illnesses. We give thanks for those persons here who have given of their time and talents to do what they are able to help persons who are dealing with mental illnesses in their lives and in the lives of their families and friends. We give thanks for the improvement in medication and treatment programs that have enabled persons with mental illnesses to live productive lives. We pray that our society would do everything possible to make early diagnosis and treatment a standard operating procedure. We pray and ask that stigma be removed, so that persons and their families would get the appropriate help as soon as symptoms appear. Guide each one of us, and help us, as we endeavor to bring help and hope to those families and individuals. Amen

Read in unison:

The faith community says to those people who suffer from the symptoms of mental illness, and to their family members:

We will walk with you. And God walks with you. You will not go through this alone.

Pray in unison:

O Lord, you have searched us and known us
You know when we sit down and when we rise up,
and know our innermost thoughts.

You search out our paths and know all our ways.
Before we speak, you know our words.

When we were knit together in our mother's womb
You knew us as woman, as child, as man.
Wherever we go, Your hand will lead us.

So guide us along the pathways to hope,
that night becomes bright as day.

So lead us on our walk together,
that darkness is lifted from our hearts.

So encourage us that our sisters and brothers
Who have mental illness shall know that
they never walk alone.

Amen

Fridays Blog Pick/Mike Dellosso's, "The Slump."

Happy Friday everyone. Mike Dellosso is a fellow author at Strang/Realms. He's way ahead of me on the 5k by several books. I think all of us who write will relate to this post. But we all get in different types of slumps as Mike mentions. What's yours? Mine is edits at the moment.

http://mikedellosso.wordpress.com/2010/09/30/the-slump/