During my recovery journey, I have seen that many of the people who engage in behavioral health care have been bruised and battered by what I call the “left boot of fellowship” from the churches of our childhoods.
Toxic rules and regulations were spouted by religious leaders who did not adhere to the same lists they imposed on their flock, and that double standard in the church community has wreaked havoc on the minds of an innumerable company of people.
A vast number of people recognized that hypocrisy, and fled the halls of the church, (thank-you, Millennials!) while others are still floundering in the turmoil of childhood guilt, shame, confusion, rejection, and emotional chaos that causes failure to thrive in later life.
My own experience of religious shaming about my mental health began in childhood, and it took decades for me to filter through the religious rhetoric that stole the life from my life, and especially from my faith life.
I experienced many years of silent suffering during the years I was serving in my childhood faith community, but the sad fact is, the suffering was not silent. My cries for help were clearly visible, but unrecognized and misjudged by those who admonished me to “just give it to Jesus,” while they turned a blind eye to the power of behavioral health care.
Psychiatry is discounted in many faith communities because it is deemed “secular,” and that ignorance has compounded the suffering of people who need help with the emotional upheaval that typically accompanies a serious mental illness.
Multiple standards of living are the hallmark of church splits, and they have become commonplace in faith communities. Diverse standards of “successful Christian living” wreaks havoc on the peace of mind for those who were unable to attain self-actualization in their younger years.
“Peace” and “Shalom” are Biblical terms often used as an expression of encouragement and comfort to a person who exhibits chronic emotional pain, but all too often, those words are used to chastise the expression of extreme emotion and causes wounded hearts to feel shamed about the expression of grief, depression, poverty, or other symptoms of what is deemed as, “failed Christianity.”
The problem is, unexpressed toxic emotion grows more toxic the longer it lies dormant and the delayed expression is a set up for a roller coaster of volcanic emotional explosions.
Unresolved trauma is at the root of many behavioral issues, but I know for a certainty that an emotional roller coaster CAN be dismantled, and the journey of life can become the joyous adventure that most people yearn for.
I vividly remember how desperate I was for answers about my own devastating diagnoses, so I am using my blog as a means of chronicling the things I wish I had known when I first learned that I was experiencing the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder, PTSD, and DID.
I needed a lot of help to overcome the severe mental breakdown that led me to homelessness, and I am excited to share the stories of how it feels to learn to trust your own voice, and to trust that YOUR relationship with the Trinity is just that… it’s YOUR relationship with God, and no one should interfere with the expression of how you relate to your Father.
The purpose of God’s Grace Notes is to help rekindle shattered faith, foster new hope for recovery, and help facilitate a brighter future for anyone affected by fragmented thinking lines.
Thank you for your interest in the topic of dissociative thinking lines and trauma-informed friendship. I look forward to sharing my stories about the need for psychiatric health care with you, and hope you will find renewed faith, hope, love, and great comfort in the pages of my blog.
If you have interest in learning to resolve the pain of childhood adversity, I invite you to follow my stories as I share the details of my recovery journey. I have a long list of topics I intend to cover, and I look forward to sharing the hope I discovered in the pages of what I call… “God’s Word To Me.”
With much love and great excitement for our mutual journey to wholeness, also known as ACEs Recovery…
Connie, Clara, and the rest of our Armchair Adventure Team,
Collectively known as Connie’s House.
