depression – Delight in Disorder

The Time is Now: Hope for Troubled Minds has Arrived

The time has come. The wait is over (or at least soon coming to an end). A project five years in the making that cultivated the gifts of so many beautiful blessings is now in print, and on Kindle/ebook. We made a commitment to give complimentary copies to contributors and make pre-ordered books available at a discount. It was only through the generous gifts of passionate advocate donors that we could pull this off. And with them, we did. Now, Amazon will take over selling and shipping. We are grateful that through them we can reach a broader community (though at a slightly higher price). So what happens now? I'll tell you. If you want to know more about the book and purchase a copy, go to our website link: https://delightindisorder.org/hftm-order/ Spread the news of Hope for Troubled Minds on your social media and in person. When you've read a [...]

The Time is Now: Hope for Troubled Minds has Arrivedtonyroberts2023-11-25T23:56:45-05:00

Writing as Therapy: Chasing Away Sorrows and Giving Birth to Courage

I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn. ― Anne Frank. 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete. -- 1 John 1.1-4. I spoke with a woman on the phone some time ago. She's struggling with depression and finding it difficult to accomplish [...]

Writing as Therapy: Chasing Away Sorrows and Giving Birth to Couragetonyroberts2023-02-08T16:04:34-05:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: To My Special Husband, from Your Grateful Wife

from the author: "I am happily married to a hard-working and loving husband. A homeschooling SAHM to three beautiful children, one with autism, one with ADHD, and one with both autism and ADHD. A follower of Jesus. On a journey of maintaining my own mental health through it all and sharing my experiences in the hopes of spreading awareness and encouraging others along the way. You can follow me on Facebook or Instagram @lifewiththecouches" Dear husband, Living with depression and anxiety is like a constant battle with myself. The continuous flow of conflicting thoughts and emotions is exhausting. On the one hand depression makes me lethargic, grumpy, depletes all motivation and makes me not care about anything. On the other, anxiety makes me fidgety, unable to sit still, and all the emotions about everything flood in at once and it's s too much to bear sometimes. Feeling these two things [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: To My Special Husband, from Your Grateful Wifetonyroberts2022-12-02T21:09:06-05:00

Wretched man that I am.

I am woefully depressed and once again, like the Apostle Paul, the thing I most need to do I don’t do and the very thing I most need to avoid, I do. Take sleep. Please! I toss and turn through the evening then get up soon after midnight. I try to listen to music 🎼 and write ✍️ but rarely does it help calm me. What a wretched man 👨 I am! Who will rescue me? Need I answer? Jesus is the answer but he rarely offers an easy solution. Or maybe they are easy but I make them complicated trying to show off? I wonder if Paul ever stayed up all night eating junk food and sorting out his woes. I am sure he did — tied at literal stakes and chains ⛓ instead of a food addicts craving. And Paul was doing time for fewer divine crimes than [...]

Wretched man that I am.tonyroberts2022-11-03T06:32:10-04:00

Sharing My Story with Law Enforcement and Facebook Responses

I published the following post and it elicited much response: My name is Rev. Tony Roberts and I live with my wife Susan and lab Briley in Columbus, IN. I have a diagnosis of rapidly cycling bipolar disorder with psychotic features. Every day is an adventure. Some are joyous. Others are volatile. Thanks to the grace of God, the miracle of medicine, and the support of my caregiving team, I do relatively well, though I have limitations others do not have. On my best days, you could never tell I have a severe mental illness. Then there have been days when I’m confined to bed and see no future beyond the next labored breath. In February of 1995, I was riding high — an ambitious pastor with a young family at a church poised for growth. I was driven to succeed, to make a difference in people’s lives and have [...]

Sharing My Story with Law Enforcement and Facebook Responsestonyroberts2022-05-02T01:47:52-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: To my best friend, I call you mom

Jonna Terhune is a social worker living with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. She writes, "... [my diagnosis] does not define me. By the grace of God, I am still alive and blessed to have the support of my best friend/mother. I know this letter cannot show the extent of sacrifice and love that my mother has given to help me live but I do hope that it gives a glimpse into our experience. I pray that one day I can give back as well as pay it forward. Thank you for spending a few moments to read my letter to my mom." To my best friend, I call you mom, I never thought I would make it this far. You stood by me through all the sleepless nights, not just as an infant but as a teenager and adult when mania engulfed me or depression strangled my heart [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: To my best friend, I call you momtonyroberts2022-04-13T14:32:55-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: To My Dearest Ann from Your Honey Bunches of Oats

Kwee Ann Yap was born on March 31, 1963, in Selangor, Malaysia. She is the youngest of 3 siblings. Growing up, Ann was not keen on socializing, she mostly kept to herself to avoid any kind of social activity. She loved reading and spending time with her family. Steve was born Steven Nonaka on August 25, 1949, in a Sugar Plantation Hospital in Waipahu, Hawaii. He is the oldest of 4 children, a brother and two sisters. His stepfather adopted him and his younger sister, changing their last name to Fukunaga. The family moved several times before finally settling in at Pauoa Valley located in Honolulu, Hawaii. In late 1997 Steve decided to explore a forum for pen pals, and it was there he found Ann’s bio and started to correspond with her. Steve felt Ann was a good and loving person in working with children with developmental disabilities. They [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: To My Dearest Ann from Your Honey Bunches of Oatstonyroberts2022-04-02T15:37:20-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: Living Our Wedding Vows by Janet Coburn

Born in Kentucky, Janet Coburn now lives in Ohio with her husband of 39 years, Dan Reily. She also lives with bipolar 2 disorder. Janet loves reading and country music. Dan loves gardening and archaeology. Together they love travel, science fiction, and cats (they have two at the moment, Toby and Dushenka). A graduate of Cornell University and the University of Dayton, Janet writes two blogs, bipolarme.blog and butidigress.blog, which she posts in every Sunday. She often contributes articles on mental health to The Mighty website. Janet has also written two books on bipolar disorder, Bipolar Me and Bipolar Us, which are based on her decades of experience with the disorder, and frequently answers questions about mental health on Quora. The man I married didn’t know I had bipolar disorder. To be fair, I didn’t know either. I was famously moody and given to what would now be called [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: Living Our Wedding Vows by Janet Coburntonyroberts2021-10-17T04:04:01-04:00

Praying When You Can’t Pray

A few weeks back, I surveyed my subscribers to ask what topics you would like to me address. I received this response from a woman I'll call "Miriam" -- Maybe could you write about tips for maintaining a prayer life and connection with God in the midst of a severe depression when all spiritual consciousness feels absent and motivation is non-existent due to the disorder. Oh my, Miriam, we've been to some of the same miserable places. I suspect many of you reading this have as well. They say misery loves company. I say there is no better company for misery than a fellowship of faith. I'm typically not one to give advice, or tips. But I can share some stories from my experience and the experience of others I've known that might be an encouragement. When we have fallen into a pit of despair, sometimes it helps [...]

Praying When You Can’t Praytonyroberts2021-08-25T18:48:46-04:00

A Woman Among Lions, Fighting for Faith and Family by Kirsten Panachyda

My guest blogger today is Kirsten Panachyda. Kirsten writes and speaks to infuse courage into the soul-weary. Her book Among Lions: Fighting for Faith and Finding Your Rest while Parenting a Child with Mental Illness is available now. Kirsten blogs at kirstenp.com. She and her husband Dan have two sons, and they are a roller-coaster-riding, travel-loving, blue-hair-dying family. Once again my night devolved into nightmares, restless dozing, and eventually, sleeplessness. I stayed in bed until I felt like I would explode if I didn't cry and then I crept downstairs. I shuffled into the kitchen, thinking maybe I could make a cup of herbal tea to soothe my tight throat and aching chest. I got as far as the stove, picked up the battered red kettle, and slid down to the floor. My kitchen floor was not something nice to sit on. When we bought the house in 1997, [...]

A Woman Among Lions, Fighting for Faith and Family by Kirsten Panachydatonyroberts2021-05-23T04:03:14-04:00