Article: A Stoic's Guide to Becoming Mentally Strong

Readers, take or leave this one as you will! I am posting it here because I've found it useful for myself the past few weeks in trying to overcome some longstanding patterns of bad behavior in response to minor stresses. The author demonstrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy's (CBT's) link to Stoic philosophy, and gives four "tips" based on Stoicism to help us weather the crises that face us every day.

My favorite tip, and the one I've been using daily, is to begin each day by telling myself to expect the worst - my kids will make a horrific mess, there will be aggressive drivers on the road, other people will treat me discourteously - and plotting out in advance how I'll respond - I'll calmly clean up, I'll patiently distance myself from the bad drivers, I'll respond to others with good humor. I've found that it's made me more equanimous when dealing with difficulty, and made me paradoxically really delighted and happy when my (negative) expectations aren't met!

I hope you find something helpful, insightful, or perhaps even just humorous, in this piece as well!

Article: Praying with Depression (and Children)

When her husband urges her to pray the Our Father with her daughters every day, Gillian Marchenko is stopped in her tracks by her depression: 

I think about hallowed. Hallowed be your name. In my depression, my focus is me. When in the pit, I am thinking about how to get out, not that God is in control. I’m not praying for help, even though I act like I do sometimes. I’m not sure I even want to align myself with what God wants to do in me and in the world, because I’m afraid it will mean more pain.

Read more of her reflections on depression, prayer, and what it means to say, Thy will be done when you are suffering here. 

Article: The Dangers of Overspiritualizing

I recently encountered this article, which I think contains an important message for those of us who are struggling to understand how soul and body are involved when coping with mental illness. It can be just as dangerous to categorize depression as a solely spiritual problem and refuse psychological help as it can be to categorize it as one that has no spiritual dimension at all. To recognize that experiencing depression, like any major medical illness, is going to affect our spiritual lives and our relationship with God is not the same as thinking depression can simply be "prayed away" any more than cancer can. Please, do not refuse the help God is offering to you through psychiatrists and therapists, and encourage others to seek the help that they need!

Poetry for the Troubled Mind

A group of researchers in the United Kingdom are exploring the concept of bibliotherapy - that is, reading as a form of therapy for those undergoing mental and emotional stress. In The Lancet, Jonathan Bate and Andrew Schuman write of the promises and challenges of what they call "the reading therapy," and point us to an organization called ReLit, which explores the relationship between literature and mental health.

I know from personal experience and from conversations with others that there are many who find consolation in the act of reading (and writing!) their own poetry and prose. In that spirit, I'd like to share with you two pieces by some very talented poets in our group, in the hopes that their words may, as John Milton put it, help "assuage the tumors of the troubled mind."

Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Thomas DeFreitas

A peaceful place, where potholed roads
made quirky pathways in between the stones,
where a wooden footbridge spans a thin-veined brook,
where leaves of broad elms flourish, blush, or fall
according to the temper of the year:
these acres keep Aunt Brenda, Cousin Michael;
my mom's parents, Nana and Grampa Mel;
Arlingtonians whose names (O'Hurley,
Demopoulos, Bohajian, Capasso)
take on the friendliness of good neighbours - 
I've seen them often on my evening walks.
It's likely I'll be buried here beneath
God's clement gaze, beneath unjudging skies,
be shaded by an overhang of branches,
my pulseless limbs compounded with kind earth.

Credo
Mario Pita

When everything is looking awfully grim,
since we all end up buried in the sod,
and prospects for the future all seem dim,
I don’t believe in anything but God.
When there appears no reason to have hope
and chances for relief from woe look slim,
and it’s insanely difficult to cope,
I don’t believe in anything but Him.
While causes for despair add up to many
and matter seems to be all we’re made of,
and we look for a sign and can’t find any,
I don’t believe in anything but Love.
The time will come when death appears to seize us.
I don’t believe in anything. Except Jesus.

(Visit https://snapshotcouplets.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/credo/ to hear Mario read his poem, and to read more of his work!)

Article: Off the Rails

A day in the life of Gary Teter, a Texas man with severe bipolar disorder. It's a harrowing story, but the one ray of hope - though it is a small and fragile shimmer - is the work done by the Magnificat Houses, who run the St. Joseph's Clubhouse that provides Mr. Teter with his most important source of stability and support. This powerful essay gives voice to the voiceless: the chronically mentally ill who are so often shamed, ostracized, and forgotten by our society. Please be warned that it's a difficult read, though not without light. And pray for those who have mental illness, and for those who strive to help them hold on to their dignity.

Article: Burn Incense, Find Depression Relief?

Science Daily reports that burning incense may be good for mental health: it contains psychoactive chemicals that impact areas in our brain that help regulate mood! Frankincense was the incense under study, which, incidentally, is also the incense used at traditional Catholic Masses. So, get yourself to Church - and sit close to the thurifer! :)

Article: "She 'loved life': A grieving father wrote openly about suicide"

When you are suffering from a mental illness, it can seem to those around you - and sometimes even to yourself! - that the illness defines who you are - personally, morally, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually. When Katie Schoener took her own life after a long struggle with bipolar disorder, her father Ed, a devout Catholic and deacon, wrote an obituary to remind us all that our mental illnesses do not define who we are, do not encompass the full picture of our personalities, and do not tell the whole story of our lives. "Katie was not bipolar," he wrote, "she had an illness called bipolar disorder - Katie herself was a beautiful child of God."

Read the whole story in the Washington Post, here.

Next Meeting: June 30!

My apologies for the delayed posting, but our next meeting will be held tomorrow, Thursday, June 30, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm in the Parish Center Fireplace Room. We look forward to seeing you there!

Also, the Boston Globe Spotlight team recently investigated the state of mental health care in Massachusetts since the mass closing of public psychiatric hospitals. The Globe, while acknowledging the need to close such hospitals, argues that the state has failed to provide viable alternatives, and concludes: "By almost any measure, Massachusetts has lost the leadership role it once had in mental health care." A must-read for anyone who cares about the state of mental health care in this state and country!

Article: "What happens when you try to prevent every single suicide?"

The Henry Ford Clinic has implemented an innovative new program designed to prevent every single suicide among its patients - and it has achieved a certain degree of success.  Given the inadequacies of current suicide-prevention efforts, Henry Ford's program screens all patients for depressive symptoms and aggressively promotes proactive therapy that incorporates safety plans and gets the patient's family on board.  Especially inspiring is the training that therapists receive, which emphasizes that no patient is beyond hope.  Let us keep all those contemplating suicide, along with their family, friends, and health care providers, in our prayers!

Article: "Sleep Interruptions Worse for Mood than Overall Reduced Amount of Sleep"

A recent study has found that disrupted sleep is more detrimental to one's mood than simply sleeping less overall, a study that is sure to have implications for those whose depression is linked to postpartum sleep deprivation or other sleep disorders like sleep apnea!  Here's hoping that more research and treatment options for these conditions are forthcoming.

"Here, Hoping"

One of our group members has passed along this incredibly moving blog post.  In it, the author poignantly expresses the way despair and sadness can make us feel alienated from the beauty and goodness of creation.  In such a state, the act of hoping is revealed not as superficial, naive optimism, but rather a painful cry for help.  To trust that we, too, broken and hurt as we are, are part of "God's wonderful works" is the difficult task we all face - especially when we are in the throes of discouragement.

Mental Illness Monsters Explained Through the Eyes of an Artist

For some people, mental illness - depression included - can feel like your mind is being taken over by something beyond your control.  This artist beautifully depicts "mental illness monsters" that hijack our minds and moods.  I hope you enjoy them - and remember, these monsters CAN be beaten!

Article: "Stillness and Silent Prayer," by Debbi Geller

Again courtesy of one of our generous group members, here is a lovely essay on the restorative power of silence and prayer.  Recent research has suggested that the rise of technology has contributed to the rise in depression in contemporary culture.  The irony, of course, is that quite often we use technology to "escape" from our problems - but the escape only makes the problem worse.   Geller reminds us that silence is frightening because it doesn't allow us to hide from our problems - "our fears, insecurities, regrets, remorse, and shame" - but she also reminds us that it is only by confronting these problems in the presence of God that we can overcome them.  Her piece provides tender evidence that, for the sake of our mental and spiritual health, we need to create spaces of silence and peace in order to hear and be transformed by God.  

"Today I Simply Suffer," a prose poem by César Vallejo

One of our group members was kind enough to pass on this gorgeous piece of writing, a poetic reflection on the nature of suffering.  When one is in the midst of suffering, it can be hard to find words to describe one's pain to someone who is not suffering and who wants to know the "why" and "how."  But the mystery of suffering is that often there is no why or how - it simply is.  Vallejo's poem beautifully captures this mystery.  I hope his words bring you a moment of grace.

Article: "What No One Tells You About Depression"

Ronald Barba, "What No One Tells You About Depression," Greatist (August 4, 2015).

In this piece, Mr. Barba recounts his own experience with depression and suicidality and traces it to a culture that valorizes superficial appearance and achievement at all costs.  He encourages sufferers to break free of the inward self-collapse that depression tries to force upon us and to seek out help and support from others.

Article: "How I Learned to Stop Hiding from My Anxiety Disorder"

Ashley Zlatapolsky, "How I learned to stop hiding from my anxiety disorder," Washington Post (July 15, 2015).

Ms. Zlatapolsky's account of her struggle with her anxiety disorder - and her eventual acceptance of it - provides a valuable lesson in learning how to learn from our experiences with mental illness. Quite poignant is her last line: "I know my anxiety will never go away completely, so there’s nothing left to do except to make the best of it and use it to better understand the world around me because I’m stronger than my thoughts, and I always will be."

The Power of Poetry

A member of our group has passed along this truly lovely poem, by the late Jane Kenyon, former poet laureate of New Hampshire, who struggled from depression and died an untimely death from leukemia.  Her poem, "Let Evening Come," is a beautiful prayer for acceptance, patience, and hope when darkness enters our lives.

Poetry - whether we're reading it or writing it ourselves - can help us express the otherwise wordless and inexpressible movements of our souls, and can put us in contact with the transcendent beauty that lies above and beyond all human experience, even depression.  Quaker Elder Parker J. Palmer reflects in this essay on the power of poetry to be a light in the darkness that guides us to face the day with faith and hope.

Article: "America's Imperial Mental Illness"

Eve Tushnet, "America's Imperial Mental Illness," The American Conservative (February 20, 2015).

Eve Tushnet reviews Ethan Watters' Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche, which explores the ways in which the experience and treatment of mental illness has been culturally shaped and conditioned.  Watters' narrative, Tushnet contends, provides us with a critique of the American model of mental illness and might illuminate other ways of thinking about mental illness.

Article: "Black Dog Days"

Some good advice from The Catholic Gentleman on how to deal with the Black Dog Days of depression.

Article: "Is Depression a Kind of Allergic Reaction?"

Caroline Williams, "Is Depression a Kind of Allergic Reaction?" The Guardian, January 4, 2015.

Recent studies have correlated depression with inflammatory illness (similar to an allergic reaction) and have found that markers of inflammation are elevated in people with depression.  The implications may mean that finding ways to treat inflammation in the body - through medications, diet, and stress reduction - can improve depressive symptoms.