Things You Shouldn't Say to Someone with Anxiety and Depression

While most people understand mental illness, there are a small minority that don't.  I read this post: 7 Things You Shouldn't Say to Someone with Anxiety, and it really spoke to me.  And had me thinking... there's a few things I would add... and I would add in "and depression" to the title.

• You should just pray and trust that God is in control.
  I pray often and trust Him; it's not about that... it's an illness.  It has nothing to do with how much I pray or trust.
• God can and will heal you.  
  I know that He can, but He may not choose to.  It's not about not trusting that He can heal me; I understand that He is the ultimate healer.  Often times, He allows "thorns" for a reason and a purpose, and that's kind of hard to swallow.  And if He choose to heal me, it may be a while.  I trust that He has a reason for that as well.
• You need to just get over it, I did.
  Yeah... okay...
• I've had hard things happen too, and I just deal with it.
  It's not (just) about hard things happening... those just make it worse.
• Being positive is a choice; you can choose to be happy.
  Not exactly... there are things that I can change about my behavior, but I cannot just choose to not have the mental illness.  I don't want it... if I could choose it away, I would.
• You probably share too much; maybe that makes it worse?
  Nope.  For me, sharing is therapeutic and helps others.  That makes it easy for me to want to share.  

I could go on and on, but you probably get the picture.  I'm not struggling because I want to be... who wants to struggle?

I've noticed a definite pattern now, so I can choose to try to stop the downward spiral before it gets too bad, but I may not be successful. 

Okay... my next post will be more positive :-).  We just got chickens again! :-)