I talked Friday night with a young person, 16 years old, who was suffering from very low feelings. I talked, she just looked down at her book. Actually I did not talk much because it seemed there was no way to reach her. She was recently released from the hospital and is medicated. I did get a chance to talk to her mother on Sunday after church. The girl has been diagnosed with Bi-polar disorder and suffers from mood swings. Also it seems like she is suffering from stigma which only makes her lowered feelings lower. There is a program for teens in Chicago, Power to Change, that could help this girl. Unfortunately it is not in the Cleveland area yet. It is unfortunate that our society is so afraid of mental illness, even mild depression, that we do not address it. Erectile Dysfunction gets more publicity than the slightest emotional disorder like anger management for instance. What does that say about our society?

Anxiety

I read an interesting blog today at I am living with Anxiety. Anxiety can cause a lot of problems in the world. People are afraid to do anything because of the fear they will do something wrong. Then they worry because they have not done anything. That's the Catch 22 in mental health, no matter what we do is wrong. Anxiety is pretty common in the United States and the rest of the world. I believe one in four Americans suffers so much from anxiety that it adversely affects their lives. I could even make the argument that anxiety caused the Iraq war. We were so worried about weapons of mass destruction we marched right in to another country causing untold damage and costing so much money.
America has done many unamerican things since 9-11, torture, invading countries and holding political prisoners. Since I believe all things are connected I fear someday other countries may march in to the United States doing the same things. I am sure we have made a lot of people unhappy causing them to hate the United States. It really is a viscious cycle. Hopefully we will return to more American values in the future.
May is Mental Health Month. Remember we can not have world peace with finding inner peace at the same time. War truly makes people anxious leading to mental issues causing more strife in the world.
Please try to break the cycle today.