Dealing with serious illness and lack of faith

[lucrezaborgia]

I'm under a lot of stress right now and I work for the Borg. You all can guess who I mean but the store is blue and almost everything is made in China. That's about as far as I'll go...anyways. There seem to be a lot of very religious people there and they mostly seem to be the IFB or some other stripe of Fundy. I just know that at some point that I'm going to get people telling me that I just need to look to god for my crippling anxiety issues. This isn't the first time I've had co-workers share faith in unhelpful ways. If they ever find out I'm on psych drugs they consider me a demon sometimes and that I should just pray it away.

Thoughts? Anyone with similar situations?

[Number_6]

That store chain was founded by fundies, and thanks to deindustrialization, most of the people who work there are fundies. If America still had the industrial base it had even in the 1980s, most of That Store's workforce would be elsewhere.

[TurningIntoDavid]

Not atheist, but too many people told me that all i was supposed to need was God. Bogus big fat lie that sounds just religious enough that the people who told it to me believed it. But they'd never had "just God."

[Persnickety Polecat]

The lie that all my mom needed was to "get closer to God" was what led to my hellish childhood. My mom's life was horrible because she spent most of her life unmedicated (she had mixed bipolar disorder and depersonalization disorder). She was miserable, and our lives were miserable. My dad was codependent, and on top of that, he would disappear for weeks on end on TDY. I've been left with mild depression and ptsd. *shrug* It's hard to get past, and it's even harder to forgive my dad and the belief system that put my mom, my sister, and myself through all that for nothing. I take medication. The anniversary of her death is Friday. I miss her every day. I have so much I'd tell her if I could, but it's too late now.

At any rate, if a person has mild, situational depression, it might be alleviated with lifestyle changes -- which sure, might including praying. But major depression and serious mental illness? If you aren't going to suggest praying the cancer away, praying the heart attack away, or praying the anaphylactic shock away, don't you DARE suggest praying the mental illness away. And I have no problem telling people that. It's nothing more than ignorance and bigotry saying otherwise.

[Phatchick]

Free advice (and worth what you pay for it) but IMHO nobody needs to know everything about you and it's perfectly acceptable to tell people something is none of their business. IIRC, even St. Paul had a few things to say about busybodies.
Sending big zen hugs.

[boymom]

(04-22-2012 02:21 AM)lucrezaborgia Wrote:  that I should just pray it away.

I have never understood this mindset. If you believe so much in the power of prayer, then why can't you believe that God would send his answer through legitimate means i.e. a licensed, educated doctor with knowledge of the human body and psyche? I say use the vast array of accumulated human knowledge to better yourself physically and mentally.

[hockeychick38]

This type of fundy attitude absolutely disgusts me. While I was a fundy and suffering from major depression, that's all I was told. They just didn't seem to realize that mental illness is just as serious as any physical illness. And when I finally realized how wrong that attitude was, I sought help from "the ungodly world" and guess what? I improved! Go figure.

All you can really do is try to ignore them, remember that they have good intentions, and get a nice sturdy punching bag for when you get off work. You can do it, hang in there!

[DaisyDeadhead]

I am Buddhist, so I do not believe in a creator God. But from a fundy perspective, this makes me "atheist"-- which is just too weird to say.

Anyway, decided on this forum, if that is okay with yall!

Personally, I believe humans are still very ignorant, despite going to the moon and so forth. We hardly understand genetics at all; we don't know where the "mind" resides, etc. We used to think epilepsy was demon possession... and then we learned better. And someday we will learn about brain chemistry and why some people have anxiety and depression. I believe much of this is sunlight and diet-based, since we no longer eat real food and stay inside all the time... but there is undoubtedly much more to it.

Which reminds me: Large doses of Vitamin D, try it. I have heard from many folks it makes a big difference mentally and emotionally. If you spend long periods outside, never mind! But most of us don't and we are seriously deprived. Also, Omega 3s. I know for a FACT the Borg sells them!

Love ya and always look forward to seeing your posts when I drop in. (kiss)

[lucrezaborgia]

I take GNCs tripple fish oil cuz with my friend's discount plus buy one get second half off it's cheaper and has a determined amount of Dha and Epa. I also take the max folate. My vitamin D levels are fine.

Phatchick...I never mean to outright tell them, but I decided long ago to not hide it. People need to see that I'm not a ranting lunatic 100% of the time. We can't destigmatize mental illness if people are always hidong it.

[lucrezaborgia]

(04-22-2012 06:37 AM)Number_6 Wrote:  That store chain was founded by fundies, and thanks to deindustrialization, most of the people who work there are fundies. If America still had the industrial base it had even in the 1980s, most of That Store's workforce would be elsewhere.

Believe me, most of the employees don't want to be there.