TOAre you kidding? Depression, chronic stress, bipolar illness, substance dependence, OCD, anxiety, PTSD, and more. We endure its symptoms and consequences day after day of struggle. How many of our acquaintances could do it?
“By accepting this challenge to suffer bravely, life has meaning until the last moment, and retains it literally until the end.”
When we live with unrelenting emotional and mental distress, “life” is lost due to sadness, frustration, and anger. And we turn to ourselves for blame and punishment.
I mean, it’s like having an AI emotional support companion that tells us at every moment what losers we are, as well as what self-harm techniques are best for us.
And the scars are hard to accept and too numerous to count.
How long has it been since you heard a word of encouragement? That’s what she thought.
Did you know? Each and every one of us deserves a medal of honor.
The scars of anguish
I have been in the ring with emotional and mental distress for 50 years. And it’s not like you wanted to look, I could point out each of my internal and external heartbreak scars and tell you how I got them.
How about yours? Does He know Them well? If you can’t identify any, he considers these…
- The marks on your skin from self-harm or suicide attempts
- The emptiness you feel for that shattered love relationship
- Those frequent migraines
- The redness of your face when you walk into a room full of people.
- The extra 40 pounds you carry because of medications and carbohydrates
- The feeling of complete worthlessness because you lost that job.
- Those broken or cracked teeth from constant grinding
- That embarrassing lip smacking from years of antipsychotic use
- Those flooded thoughts and adrenaline-induced sleepless nights
- The extra wrinkles on your face, as well as the darkness and bags under your eyes.
- That unpleasant cough and wheezing from years of smoking.
- The tremor generated by your chronic anger
- Cirrhotic liver due to excessive drinking.
If you come up blank, keep trying.
Badges of honor
Accept it, well deserved.
The scars left by emotional and mental anguish are really no different than those from, say, a nasty cut on your face. Often the first reaction is to deny perceived emblems of shame and disgrace.
That’s understandable, don’t you think? However, why can’t they be badges of honor?
Truth: we earned those scars in the heat of battle. “Yes, Bill, but many of them are self-inflicted.” Oh, I guess in the most literal sense. But at the end of the day, I don’t think we really wanted to hurt ourselves or anyone else.
Insight, encouragement and hope
As we talk about the topic of emotional and mental anguish and its scars, let’s take advantage of some knowledge, encouragement, and hope.
Psychotheoretical of the 20th century Dr. Viktor Frankl He was a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Frankl knows suffering intimately, so who better to teach us a thing or two?
Some of his wisdom from his book. Man’s search for meaning…
If life has any meaning, then suffering must have meaning. Suffering is an indestructible part of life, just like destiny and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete. The way a man accepts his destiny and all the suffering it entails, the way he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity – even in the most difficult circumstances – to add deeper meaning to the story. life of him.
By accepting this challenge to suffer bravely, life has meaning until the last moment, and retains it literally until the end. In other words, the meaning of life is unconditional, including even the potential meaning of inevitable suffering.
Herein lies a man’s opportunity to take advantage of or give up the opportunities to achieve the moral values that a difficult situation can offer him. And this decided whether he is worthy of the sufferings of him or not.
It really didn’t matter what we expected from life, but what life expected of us.
And this from a 19th century Russian writer who was Frankl’s favorite. Fyodor Dostoevsky…
There is only one thing I fear: not being worthy of my sufferings.
Powerful minds generate observations that change lives.
Every single one of us
So, the symptoms and consequences of our emotional and mental distress, and our scars.
Failures and “losing” material? No, they are the spoils of battles bravely fought, won and lost. And here you are reading this, inspired and motivated to learn more.
A badge of honor for each and every one of us.
Looking for more information, encouragement and hope? Lots of Chipur titles to check out.
