On Chronic, Intermittent Mental Health Conditions

And how to persevere

Photo by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash

Some struggles in life are episodic and acute. They come in a flash and disappear suddenly, never to return. Other struggles linger. Some appear at our doorstep unannounced one day and never leave. Others come and go as they please, sometimes without rhyme or reason. Still others show up just once with a big bang and then haunt us in shadows for the rest of our lives. And we must learn to persevere through them all. Learn to suffer well through them all. Because life won’t stop for us to figure it out. Time will continue on. People will continue to need you. Clothes will continue to need to be washed. You will need to eat and sleep and bathe. God will ask great things of you and will have great blessings in store for you to enjoy. So perseverance through suffering is a calling and duty in life, a solemn one. But one God has given us resources and his presence to endure with courage.

I have in mind here particularly the challenge of dealing with chronic but intermittent mental health conditions. The challenge of being healthy for long stretches of time and then suddenly falling into the pit for no good reason. Only for the cycle to start over again. I’m not singling these out because they are the hardest to persevere through, but because I know them personally and can speak to them. But it seems to me that the principles here are true for more than just diagnosable mental health disorders. They are what we must all do to endure with courage and prudence through this life to God’s glory in community.

To quote my favorite poet, T.S. Eliot from The Four Quartets:

You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again?

Yes, I have trod these grounds in On Getting Out of Bed and in some previous posts, but I know I need to hear these gospel words preached to me again, and I suspect some of you will, too. The question I want to pose and offer an answer to is this: how do we move forward when chronic, intermittent suffering affects us? How do we continue to hope and have agency when progress seems slow and sometimes pointless? How do we rely on God in such suffering?