tonyroberts, Author at Delight in Disorder

No One Cares About Crazy People: A Review

I hope you do not "enjoy" this book. I hope you are wounded by it; wounded as I have been in writing it. Ron Powers knows craziness inside and out. His book is part-expose, part-memoir. Not only does he unveil the atrocious way demoniacs/lunatics/maniacs/mentally ill have been abused throughout history, he also shares a very personal story about how mental illness has ravaged his family. Powers primarily examines schizophrenia, the mother of all mental illnesses. The most debilitating. The one most resistant to treatment. This is the illness Powers's sons Kevin & Dean have. But this diagnosis does not define them. They are creative, compassionate young men. Powers describes how his sons were moved by music and this passion for artistic expression gave them direction and purpose. But, as their minds gave way to the mental illness within, they would lose the capacity for anything coherently creative. Only chaos. [...]

No One Cares About Crazy People: A Reviewtonyroberts2024-08-26T13:04:12-04:00

Living Prepared to Die

A friend of mine, who also has bipolar, was in an auto accident when she was in college. She was taken to the emergency room where she had an x-ray and cat-scan. Neither showed any physical damage. She called her resident adviser to come to the hospital to pick her up. By the time he got there, she was livid with the staff, crying out to anyone who would listen, and many who wouldn't, that she was paralyzed. Three doctors and several nurses examined her and found nothing physically wrong. As the night wore on, however, she became hysterical. She said she had a massive inflammation in her spine. She was admitted to a medical-behavioral unit where she was diagnosed as having an acute manic episode. She was given psychotropics. They also performed an MRI and found a mass in her lower spine. Another cat-scan also revealed a mass in [...]

Living Prepared to Dietonyroberts2024-08-26T13:04:12-04:00

How Do You Help People?

Today I woke up at the crack of dusk, after having spent a restless 15 hours in bed. I was anxious about things beyond my control, tortured by my past failures, questioning my purpose. Some people compare themselves with others who do less and feel good about themselves. I compare myself against my best self and feel miserable. At my best, I wake up, take my meds, brew some coffee and nurse it while doing a devotion. But I'm not at my best. The first thing I did was pull up my emails to see if there were any more contributors to our upcoming mental health podcast, "Revealing Voices." There was not. I felt very discouraged. Was I doing something wrong? Had I sensed a need that isn't there? So many unanswered questions. So many unanswered prayers. I took a deep breath and pressed on. I checked my LinkedIn [...]

How Do You Help People?tonyroberts2024-08-26T13:04:12-04:00

Giving Thanks for My Illness

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5.16-18) “While she might not have opted for this illness, neither does she entirely regret it; she prefers, as she writes so movingly, a life of passionate turbulence to one of tedious calm.” ― Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness. This Thanksgiving I am grateful for many things. I'll name five: Food to eat. A roof above my head. Family members who care for me. Faithful friends who make me laugh. And my mental illness. Yes, I am grateful for my mental illness. I have come to prefer the "passionate turbulence" of bipolar disorder to the "tedious calm" of being "normal". This is not to say I enjoy all aspects of my illness. Sometimes it is a pain in the ass. Sometimes [...]

Giving Thanks for My Illnesstonyroberts2024-08-26T13:04:12-04:00

Revealing Voices: Cultivating Community

Tonight (November 20), we launch our Indiegogo campaign for our upcoming podcast, Revealing Voices. My associate producer and co-host Eric Riddle and I are very enthusiastic -- not so much about the dollars collected as the number of people who will become our partners in offering hope and cultivating compassion. Many of my friends with troubled minds feel alienated by faith communities. Many of my brothers and sisters in Christ fail to understand how best to respond to people with mental illness. Our mission with Revealing Voices is to bridge the gap between faith communities and the world of mental health care in order to better promote healing. Studies show that roughly 1 in 5 persons in the US experience mental illness in a given year. Research also suggests that few churches feel equipped to respond to persons with mental illness. Added to this dillemma is that 25% of pastors struggle with [...]

Revealing Voices: Cultivating Communitytonyroberts2024-08-26T13:04:12-04:00

Revealing Voices: The Launch

I love to write. I love it even more when people read what I write. And I love it the most when people respond to what they've read that I've written. Today I got an email from Natalie M. She writes about our upcoming podcast, Revealing Voices: the mental health podcast raising unanswered questions, sharing unanswered prayers -- What a wonderful, amazing, much needed and Holy Spirit-filled idea... My husband just six months ago took over as a Senior Pastor of a small church... and being in ministry we realize how important mental health is...It's something I've struggled with over the years, it's something that God brought me through, though I have occasional down days. God brought healing and beauty from the ashes and has allowed me to share my testimony. Depression is not something that Christians don't experience. It's a growing issue that pastors need to speak about, [...]

Revealing Voices: The Launchtonyroberts2024-08-26T13:04:12-04:00

Revealing Voices: The Voices Begin

Wednesday night (11/8), my good friend and pending podcast co-host came over. The podcast will be called "Revealing Voices: The Mental Health podcast raising unanswered questions, sharing unanswered prayers." It is an extension of our mission here at Delight in Disorder. Our goal is to produce 20 episodes each year filled with news, views, reviews, and interviews about the relationship between faith and mental illness. Eric and I will share our own experiences as followers of Christ who both have bipolar disorder. We met in my basement studio (now dubbed "Revealing Voices World Headquarters.") Eric brought a Chik Fil A Southwestern salad topped with fried crinkly things and pistachios. I nursed the last of my dark roast Green Mountain Magic Espresso. It was 8:30 pm and the next 2 1/2 hours were filled with creative dialogue, respectful debate, and healing laughter. Much laughter. We discussed many things. What other [...]

Revealing Voices: The Voices Begintonyroberts2024-08-26T13:04:12-04:00

What’s Next? Revealing Voices

I've been almost maniacally exuberant about a project that is a natural extension of our Delight in Disorder mission. I want to share it with you. But first, a story... In January of 2013, I had fallen into a deep depression. It wasn't the first time, but it was the first time it happened when I was living alone. I had moved from Rochester, NY to Indianapolis, IN. Out of loneliness, I became involved in a toxic relationship. Within a few months, I broke it off. Now, I was alone in the dead of winter in a sterile apartment. I was miserable. My sister sensed it and encouraged me to move in with my family. I felt relieved. On the one hand, I thought it was pathetic for a 48-year old man to move back home. On the other hand, living alone was doing me in. So the other [...]

What’s Next? Revealing Voicestonyroberts2024-08-26T13:04:12-04:00

Worshiping with a Mental Illness

It is in the nature of all humanity to worship. Worship lies at the core of human beings, written into our DNA. The question is not do we worship but who we worship.Many of my friends with mental illness claim to reject God. As I dig further into their stories, however, I discover that it is not so much God they reject as those who claim to represent God. In my Christian faith family, we have many who fail to understand the nature of mental illness and who have made very wrong and damning statements about the subject. Mental illness has been described within the church as demon possession, as a lack of faith, as an attention-seeking illusion. It is little wonder folks with mental illness would feel shunned by the church and be discouraged from worshiping God in Jesus Christ.So, where does one who feels shunned turn to for [...]

Worshiping with a Mental Illnesstonyroberts2024-08-26T13:04:12-04:00

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