\u201cCatholics & Depression, Anxiety, & Mental\/Emotional Illness. What is Your Experience?\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nAs a Catholic Christian woman\u00a0who has\u00a0struggled to cope\u00a0with mental and emotional illness for\u00a0nearly 25 years,\u00a0I am grateful for the time, energy, and expertise\u00a0you shar<\/p>\n
e through your blog Faith on the Couch.\u00a0\u00a0Your ministry to those of us who\u00a0exist on the emotional and psychological margins of society\u00a0is, as I see it, a brilliant example of obedience to Pope Francis\u2019\u00a0recent teachings.<\/p>\n
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It would be easy for me to go into great detail about my story, the journey I\u2019ve been on for so long, but I am not sure if\u00a0most of it would have any relevance to your questions. Having said that, I will try to summarize my history into bullet points of the kind of treatments I have undergone\/sought for the major depression and anxiety disorder I have been diagnosed with:<\/p>\n
\n- Drugs \u2013 tricyclics in \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the early 90s, then when those didn\u2019t work, MAOIs. Trials of almost all\u00a0the SSRIs. Currently I take Wellbutrin 150mg daily, and have for a number\u00a0of years gotten varying degrees of relief. Lorazepam as needed for\u00a0anxiety, which happens to be about every third or fourth day.<\/em><\/li>\n
- ECT \u2013 during the mid to\u00a0late 90s I had (to the best of my recollection) several regimens of ECT. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As evidence by the fact that I am writing to you 15 years later, they \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 worked.<\/em><\/li>\n
- Hospitalization \u2013 both\u00a0inpatient and outpatient partial hospitalization during the worst of the illness in the 90s.<\/em><\/li>\n
- Psychotherapy \u2013\u00a0currently I see a (Christian, but not Catholic) psychiatrist every other week for an hour of therapy, which at this point consists of me talking to\u00a0her about whatever issue is causing me the most emotional turmoil in my\u00a0life at the moment. We spend a lot of time challenging my thought\u00a0processes.\u00a0 I met this young doctor when she was just beginning her\u00a0practice and have been with her for 8 years now.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
- Seeking help in the Church \u2013 most of the help I have sought has been in the form of the\u00a0 Sacrament of Confession. There was a newly ordained priest assigned to my\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 parish several years ago, with whom I had spoken outside the confessional\u00a0\u00a0a number of times. At first my visits were of some benefit, but when he\u00a0got transferred to\u00a0another parish it was more difficult to get an\u00a0appointment with him. Then his willingness to see me in person evolved\u00a0into a brief phone call. Recently transferred again (typical diocesan activity with our young priests) and due to his ever-increasingly-busy\u00a0\u00a0schedule, I no longer feel he has time to help me. I currently have no \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 priest with whom I can discuss the spiritual aspects of this\u00a0illness.\u00a0 Several times over the years I have requested and received\u00a0the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. It would have been good to hear a\u00a0priest voluntarily suggest it, but the fact is that I requested it every\u00a0time.\u00a0I was left with the impression that I just wasn\u2019t \u201csick \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 enough to qualify\u201d.<\/em><\/li>\n
- To combat my strong tendency to isolate myself when I am feeling particularly depressed, a\u00a0year ago I\u00a0\u00a0joined a prayer group at my church. This group of 15\u00a0women meets every other week to study St. Faustina\u2019s book Divine\u00a0Mercy in My Soul<\/span> and to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are a few women in the group who are supportive, but my\u00a0\u00a0deeply-seated difficulty trusting others has caused me to withdraw from\u00a0 regular attendance.\u00a0\u00a0My emotional meltdowns are unpredictable\u00a0\u00a0 and embarrassing, and the group setting\u00a0causes me discomfort.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
- I have come to the\u00a0\u00a0conclusion that, for me, \u00a0it is far too easy to place unreasonably\u00a0high expectations upon people in the Church. It has been rare\u00a0for\u00a0\u00a0someone, priest or laity,\u00a0to do or say something that effects\u00a0\u00a0a\u00a0permanent healing\u00a0of my body, mind, and spirit.\u00a0I\u00a0\u00a0recognize that the fact that I am writing to you means that I have not \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 completely given up hope in some kind of healing from God through His\u00a0\u00a0people, the Church. I beg your prayers.<\/em><\/li>\n
- The most helpful books I\u00a0\u00a0 have ever read were written by the late Conrad Baars, MD\u00a0and his\u00a0daughter.\u00a0Born Only Once<\/span> struck\u00a0me to\u00a0my\u00a0very core and has a permanent place in my library.\u00a0 Feeling\u00a0and Healing Your Emotions<\/span>\u00a0provided the comfort of a\u00a0meaningful explanation of\u00a0the emotional wounds that have probably \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 been a part of me since childhood.<\/em><\/li>\n
- I have one Catholic\u00a0<\/em><\/em><\/em>\u00a0\n
female friend who I can occasionally call upon for support and\u00a0encouragement. She is the mother of six children and one grandchild and so \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I try not to lean on her\u00a0heavily, because she is quite busy.<\/em><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nAgain, I am grateful to you for existence of your blog that I can turn to for support. Thank you for listening to me.<\/em><\/p>\nDo you have a story of a struggle with depression, anxiety, and other mental\/emotional illness?\u00a0 What has your experience in the Church been like?\u00a0\u00a0 Share your story to help others.\u00a0 I promise anonymity.\u00a0 Please email me at gpopcak@CatholicCounselors.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new post in our What\u2019s Your Experience?\u00a0 Series,\u00a0 in which People-of-Faith share their experience of depression, anxiety, and other mental illness as they relate to their parish and their Catholic faith\u2026 Dear Dr. Greg, I\u2019m writing in response to your\u00a0series entitled \u201cCatholics & Depression, Anxiety, & Mental\/Emotional Illness. What is Your Experience?\u201d \u00a0 As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,18,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anxiety","category-church","category-depression","category-mental-illness"],"yoast_head":"\n
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