Suicide and Orthodoxy

Christ came for those who are sick, who are sinners, so there is no such thing as being unworthy. If we could make ourselves worthy of Heaven we wouldn't need Christ.

When you feel like this, you want someone to give you advice, but at the same time you feel like any advice that is provided can't possibly do any good. The feeling of helplessness overrides everything else. And the United States (based on what I've read, probably most of the world) does not have a good approach to mental health. Those who have been through the system tend to get angry when somebody suggests they go back and use it again, because let's face it, it's horrible. Regular medical doctors don't tend to offer that much help either. We get so caught up in this cycle, that we truly, genuinely, deep down in our hearts believe that there is nothing else and no way out.

Accurate description or am I off base?

Yet, if we can step out just long enough to realize there is something outside of that hopeless cycle, something we didn't even realize was there, it changes everything, because now we know a feeling we've never known before and have a new baseline from which to work.

I'm about to make some suggestions that might not go over well in this subreddit, nor would it go over well in a mental health subreddit. This response might get downvoted into oblivion. I'm going to break with the ranks, because following the same old path of "acceptable" options and answers kept me locked in that same cycle.

After over four decades of depression, it went away. I then started having occasional panic attacks, but am learning to control them and have confidence it isn't a life sentence. There have also been those times of extreme anxiety, believing God can't or won't forgive me, but that just isn't true. My self-doubt can't override God's love.

Apparently, my depression was caused, or primarily caused, by hormones. There are different hormones that are believed to affect mood, like progesterone, estrogen, and cortisol, and yet over four decades I never had a medical professional suggest that this could be the culprit. Not once. Figured it out because a medication I was on had a powerful effect on my both my sleep and female cycle, and seems to have sent me into early menopause (a doctor did suggest this) and the way I felt changed dramatically with this shift. I know if you can't afford medical care, and there isn't a sliding fee clinic who would take a look at this for you, that you might have to explore this possibility on your own. There are ways we can affect and alter the functioning of our brain and bodies, but it does take time, patience, and practice.

First and foremost is meditation. Especially mindfulness meditation, and there is also a practice known as RAIN (recognize, allow, investigate, non-identify). I've learned some ideas and techniques from someone who is a Buddhist meditation instructor, but that doesn't mean that I in anyway have to follow Buddhism or go against any Christian teaching. Meditation is like lighting candles, it can done for religious purposes or for entirely secular purposes.

Some inexpensive supplements, dietary changes, and exercise can also help. Yeah, I know, that's pretty generic advice, but these can help.

Another is an idea that, as it's normally presented, I thought was pretty silly, but I tried an alternative version of it on my own and it helped: positive thinking. One day I just went out for a walk in the sunshine and started looking around and deliberately thinking thoughts like "those trees are so beautiful" and "everything around me at thos moment is flowing peacefully and without conflict" and so on. At first it didn't have much effect because I was forcing myself to deliberately think these things, but over time I began to realize that my negative thoughts were overwhelming reality. My way of thinking was so clouded that I wasn't seeing anything else. Eventually, I realized that those trees really were that beautiful.

Finally, I also struggled financially for years including a period of time as a single mother where I got very sick and didn't go to the doctor because I had no insurance and couldn't afford it. I also truly, genuinely, absolutely believed that would never change. At the same time I watched relatives and friends who had been very successful lose everything. The last comment wasn't meant to be depressing, but to go along with the rest of what I'm saying which is this:

It's ASTOUNDING how things like our internal mental programming, perhaps influenced by things like hormonal imbalance, can plunge us into a way of thinking that is so far from what life really is, from who we really are, and from how God loves us, that we are completely blinded to reality and convince ourselves that there is no way out.

Btw, I did have a way out, and could have easily left at any time, but decided not to go. Don't go. Not yet.

God bless you.

/r/OrthodoxChristianity Thread