"Out From The Darkness" of mental illness
Carla is a woman on a mission to break down walls of secrecy and shame around mental illness. She is a survivor of childhood trauma and lives with bipolar and borderline personality disorder.
“For a long time, my life was a shadow of the potential God had in me, because I was so overwhelmed and ashamed and in denial and didn’t know how to process.”
My new book is a companion devotion for women who are struggling with their mental health. We look at feelings and offer hope from scripture. I offer an affirming truth, a promise from the Lord, and a prayer. I wrote this book from the perspective of mental illness is ILLNESS. This is not meant to be do x, y, z, and you’ll be better.
The goal is to build stability through a mental health crisis by building up your spirit and rehearsing God’s truth over you.
Kari: Let’s talk about the church, because I used to work for my dad and I wanted to have resources to send people to when they came to us with something beyond our scope, and I guess that’s the purpose of this podcast, The Well Team. Carla, would you speak to your experience with the church.
Carla: I’ve had so many women come to me and rather than being encouraged to seek professional help outside the church, they are burdened with a spiritual burden. My experience in the church has been that mental illness doesn’t exist, it’s a spiritual condition.
You’re not praying enough.
You have unrepentant sin.
You’re not in the word enough.
There’s so much hurt and confusion.
Your mental illness is not a judgment against your spiritual life.
Oftentimes, people in the church are not qualified to give direction about mental illness. You wouldn’t tell someone with a physical illness like diabetes, to just pray more instead of taking insulin. Why do we do that for someone with mental illness?
Kari: With mental health and the church, we don’t allow for setting good boundaries. So often we put a “Jesus Band-Aid” on things instead of getting at the root of the issue. We run ourselves ragged trying to do, do, do, to fix the issue instead of helping them realize what they are rooted in.
Carla: Exactly, people pleasing in the church. Feeling like you have to earn your worth and productivity is a badge of honor. It’s not about pleasing man, it’s about pleasing God. We have to get ok with saying no to man, so we can say yes to Jesus.
Kari: So tell us about the book.
You can grab it here!
Carla: It was actually written 3 years ago, coming out of a manic episode. I had so much shame and I needed healing. I explored God’s word and this book came out of encouragement while I was exploring for myself.
Kari: The enemy whispers such shame and lies in the moments, it’s so good to hear from someone who has walked the road. You can’t always tell what is true in the moment. You have to know to go to God’s word and this book is a safe place to encourage the truth from someone who’s walked it.
There is so much packed into this podcast, we hope you will tune in and find hope and encouragement!
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