![\"\"](\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/women-embracing--800x520.png\")
It\u2019s hard to know how to start this series. It\u2019s not going to be victorious. It\u2019s not going to be about rising conqueror over our demons. It\u2019s not going to be about the miracle of healing\u2014at least not in the traditional sense. It\u2019s just going to be one person\u2019s perspective of what it\u2019s like having ongoing\u2014most likely lifelong\u2014mental illness at church.<\/p>\n
As a warning, there will be references to suicide and suicidal ideation. I don\u2019t want to pretty it up, so this will be without varnish, without cheap formulas; just raw honesty.<\/p>\n
While it will be based on my experience, I will also draw on stories other\u2019s have told me. I have talked to enough people that I know this is a much bigger problem that we tend to acknowledge. Mental illness is on the rise, and while we as a church and society have gotten significantly better at acknowledging it, there is still a silence and invisibility around what it\u2019s actually like that can be agonizing for those experiencing it and their loved ones, especially in a religious environment where we can be uncomfortable with depictions of suffering that aren\u2019t crowned with a triumphal conclusion. There is a lot of discourse on what causes mental illness, but very little on what it is like to experience it.<\/p>\n
To give some background, I have severe C-PTSD (Complex PTSD) and OCD, which has especially (but not exclusively) manifested itself as scrupulosity (a form of OCD focused on religious perfection). I want to talk about my experiences with them in the hopes that it might help other sufferers and care givers of those who suffer with any kind of mental illness to be seen. And I hope that these posts will not only give visibility but hope. I haven\u2019t been healed. I will probably have mental illness for the rest of my life. But my perspective of the world has changed because of it. It is fuller, richer, braver, more compassionate, and more forgiving; I\u2019m more aware of the people around me and their beauty. And I\u2019ve learned to cry and to laugh from my soul. It is not a trial God has given me, but it is one that God has used.<\/p>\n
So over the next few weeks I\u2019m going to address different aspects of mental illness, obviously not covering nearly enough of them, but hopefully enough to get some conversation going in way that is informative, empathetic, and real. And I hope this will create a space where people can talk about their own experiences, because we are all the richer for every story we hear. So see y\u2019all next week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s hard to know how to start this series. It\u2019s not going to be victorious. It\u2019s not going to be about rising conqueror over our demons. It\u2019s not going to be about the miracle of healing\u2014at least not in the traditional sense. It\u2019s just going to be one person\u2019s perspective of what it\u2019s like having ongoing\u2014most likely lifelong\u2014mental illness at church. As a warning, there will be references to suicide and suicidal ideation. I don\u2019t want to pretty it up, so this will be without varnish, without cheap formulas; just raw honesty. While it will be based on my experience, I will also draw on stories other\u2019s have told me. I have talked to enough people that I know this is a much bigger problem that we tend to acknowledge. Mental illness is on the rise, and while we as a church and society have gotten significantly better at acknowledging it, there is still a silence and invisibility around what it\u2019s actually like that can be agonizing for those experiencing it and their loved ones, especially in a religious environment where we can be uncomfortable with depictions of suffering that aren\u2019t crowned with a triumphal conclusion. There is a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10396,"featured_media":50502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latter-day-saint-thought"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/women-embracing-.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50497"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50504,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50497\/revisions\/50504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}