Hope For Those Struggling With Mental HealthSample

Resilience

I came home from work on a late-summer afternoon and found our house unusually quiet and dark. Normally active, my wife, Stacee, was lying down, her depression keeping her in bed for most of that bright, hot day. A respiratory illness had turned into a month-long battle to get past the coughing and drain on her body. The sickness had depleted her mental and emotional resources, as well as physical, and now the depression which she had long battled was again clouding and overwhelming her mind.

We had been here before. God had met us in those darkest of moments, and He would be faithful to meet us again. We had to take action, though, to not let this momentum of a downward spiral pull Stacee further into the pit of clinical depression. We had to do the next right thing.

Let’s face it –the recovery journey for any mental illness (depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, anorexia, or any other diagnosis) will be a series of good and bad days. There are no straight lines of recovery, but instead steps forward and half-steps back which in the long-run lead to progress if we don’t give up (Galatians 6:9).

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from a difficult day, week, or season with the willingness and commitment to press forward and to not quit. Sometimes resilience is just “getting up and showing up!” When discouraged or overwhelmed, resilience can often be simplified to doing “the next right thing.” Even one small action can become the step in the right direction which leads to another, and momentum in your recovery can be regained.

For those struggling with mental illness, the next right thing might look like re-engaging with your physician-prescribed treatment plan or applying tools learned in a recent counseling session. Doing “the next right thing” often might look like connecting with God through Bible reading or engaging with and church or your Christian community through whom God can speak His grace, love, and hope into your mind and heart.

Only by going through hard things, doing hard things, and surviving hard things can we build up the knowledge, the tools, and the confidence which become God’s building blocks for resilience. When faced with obstacles or even failure, resilience is the memory that, through God’s strength, you’ve done it before, and you can do it again – whatever you may be facing! Romans 5:3-4 tells us that suffering produces perseverance (another word for resilience), perseverance builds character (inner strength), and that character produces hope. This hope will be your most important resource to your mental health!

Through our struggles and painful experiences, God is seeking to use those trials and even our suffering for our benefit, to grow and develop our “resilience muscles.” Resilience reminds us that recovery is not a “one shot opportunity.” Each time we struggle or fail, and we press forward to do the next right thing, God is building His strength in us. This strength enables us to hold onto the hope that God makes all things new, even our minds and our mental and emotional pain.

Setbacks are not permanent, and failure is never final in God’s eyes. God promises in Philippians 1:6 He is working His plan in you, and He intends to complete it! Even on your bad days, you can begin again, not give up on yourself and have the resilience to persevere because God has not given up on you!