[Magdalen] could use some prayer pats

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

A suggestion I have gotten when I've been depressed and those horrid
feelings got going, was to confront the evil feeling and say to myself, "I
now know this is not true.  I do not need to take this seriously anymore.
I am not going to give in to this evil feeling."

It is a typical trick of depression that it can make you and me feel as if
things are going the worst way possible when evidence shows that's not the
case, but the depression can make us feel that way.  Part of the fight
against the depression is to remind yourself that it's the depression
taking, and not rational thought.

I've been involved in psychiatric rehabilitation for thirty years, and I
still sometimes find I can benefit from seeing a counselor. It takes an
outsider sometimes to remind me that things aren't as bad as I am tempted
by depression to believe.

This isn't one of those things where you just think this thought one time
and the sky just clears up. Those depressive habits get built up in all of
us over decades of learning, so it will take a while, but keep reminding
yourself that the real truth isn't what your depression is telling you, and
that depression always makes things worse than they are; depression always
makes you out to be a terrible person.  I sometimes think most orthodox
Xtian theologians must have been depressed. That would explain a lot of the
self-loathing one finds in a lot of the writings over the centuries...

And -- this is my own experience -- having a little cat purring on your lap
is good therapy for pretty much everything.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 8:06 PM, Judy Fleener <fleenerj at gmail.com> wrote:

> Praying Clarissa.
>
> On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 12:26 PM, Clarissa Canning <canplum at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > suddenly find myself depressed. I hate it so much, my reoccurring dream
> > about never making it to Uni comes back.  I have to fight ever bad
> thought
> > and try to stop any thoughts of past.  My mouth starts spring out
> negative
> > stuff. My brain literal feel like fog is covering it.  urg ....      On
> > positive side my dear Dakota sister phoned me.  she is doing well. doing
> > the EFM and enjoying a book about St Francis she so glad to relate to it.
> > she sending me a gift since she can't found she has no more quilt filler.
> > She told me she had a sister Margaret who is one of the murdered
> indigenous
> > women. Pray for info sbout them to comr out.  She shared about some of
> > those bad memories if RES school. the learned the 10 commandments......
> How
> > is one to honor your parents when you are taken away from them?  Why
> where
> > we told we are no good?  please always pray for  Helen an  Indeginous
> > Deacon learning more and more about scripture from Alberta.   It's
> amazing
> > the way God calls people disregarding  their age.
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Judy Fleener, ObJN,SSH
> Western Michigan
>