Let It Strengthen You

Whether or not you have a mental illness, life has its challenges.  That’s true for all of us, and there are times when each one of us is tested to our core.  Mental illness is particularly challenging because the inability to function that it creates has a cascading effect that can affect all areas of our lives, including relationships, job, finances, physical health, and more.  Not only that, there tends to be more judgement (from others and oneself) of the person who is ill than one would receive with a physical illness, such as diabetes or cancer.

The truth of the matter is, the illness is not your fault.  You’re the same person inside that you were before the illness, and that you will be after the illness.  Something is causing the illness, and it’s not YOU!!!  After having been medication-free for over 3 1/2 years with the help of homeopathy, and now homeopathy-free for a couple of months, I currently believe that heavy metals in the brain plays a huge role in creating mental illness.  For more information about that, and how I heal it, check out my blog post “Got Heavy Metals On the Brain“.

If you’re in the thick of it, I’m sure that the last thing you want to hear is to let your challenges strengthen you.  When I was sick, I felt so weak that I could barely survive.  What I’m really saying, is that it WILL strengthen you.  The paralyzing fear that I felt for a decade eventually burned away.  Eventually, you get to a point where it loses power over you.  When life crushes you past your breaking point, beats you to the ground, and holds you there, repeatedly, it feels like it’s crushing your dreams.  The blessing in disguise is that it’s also crushing your ego.  You stop caring what other people think of you.  You stop measuring yourself by external expectations, or societal benchmarks.  You discover your true worth, the love inside you, which is inherent and can never be taken away.

The fact that you have a mental illness, in my view, demonstrates that you are already an incredibly strong person.  I don’t believe that God would give us challenges that are beyond our capacity to get through.  When people told me that while I was sick, I thought “yeah right, that’s not true for me, I can’t do this”.  Now that I’m on the other side of it, I feel stronger than I ever have before, I’m less afraid than I ever was before, and I’m a better person than I ever was before.  I wouldn’t wish what I went through on my worst enemy, but if me going through that somehow made the world a better place, somehow revealed some light in the world, I would do it again.  One of my greatest fears during the illness was that I would never heal, that I would never be able to lead a normal life and find fulfillment.  Now that I’m free of it, I’m not afraid of it anymore.

I’m here to tell you that healing is possible.  The illness will strengthen you, whether you like it or not.  It will make you more compassionate.  It will bestow on you wisdom and understanding that will someday enrich your life.  I feel for you, I really do.  I’ve been there.  I’m sorry for the hardships that you’re enduring.  Just know that you’re not alone.  Your experiences matter.  You matter, just as much as every other living soul on this Earth.  God bless you!