{"id":1829,"date":"2009-06-24T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2009-06-24T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html"},"modified":"2009-06-24T09:00:38","modified_gmt":"2009-06-24T09:00:38","slug":"what-if-you-have-no-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"But What If You Have No Faith?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was touched by this comment on the combox of <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2009\/05\/5-ways-churches-can-minister-t_comments.html\">my post &#8220;5 Ways Churches Can Minister to Those with Mental Illness&#8221;<\/a> by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\">Beyond Blue<\/a> reader Vincent Zimmerman:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Therese, I sometimes think I must be the only person diagnosed with bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety who doesn&#8217;t find peace and security in faith. I don&#8217;t know why, but fostering a belief in a higher power has caused me nothing but misery and pain. I tried prayer, going to church, bible studies, and nothing did me any good. Different religious beliefs and practices have the same effect. Nothing feels right, nothing touches me on a personal level. I was desperate for a religious or spiritual experience that would touch my heart and point me down the right path. I no longer burn with the desire to find a higher power, because after years, even decades, of searching, I haven&#8217;t found anything but anguish and agony. I am glad that seemingly everyone but myself can find peace and solace in a higher power, that they have a support, in times of trouble, someone or some thing that provides them with strength and comfort. I envy others for this, but I&#8217;m not bitter towards them. They have something wonderful, a true blessing. I wish I could say the same for myself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Several readers composed compassionate, compelling responses to Vincent. What would you say to him?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>To read more <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\">Beyond Blue, go to http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue<\/a>, and to get to <a href=\"http:\/\/community.beliefnet.com\/beyond_blue\">Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.feedburner.com\/fb\/a\/emailverifySubmit?feedId=611738&amp;loc=en_US\">To subscribe to &#8220;Beyond Blue&#8221; click here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"rss.gif\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/71\/import\/imgs\/rss.gif\" width=\"45\" height=\"44\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was touched by this comment on the combox of my post &#8220;5 Ways Churches Can Minister to Those with Mental Illness&#8221; by Beyond Blue reader Vincent Zimmerman: Therese, I sometimes think I must be the only person diagnosed with bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety who doesn&#8217;t find peace and security in faith. I don&#8217;t&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration-and-prayer","category-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>But What If You Have No Faith? - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"But What If You Have No Faith? - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was touched by this comment on the combox of my post &#8220;5 Ways Churches Can Minister to Those with Mental Illness&#8221; by Beyond Blue reader Vincent Zimmerman: Therese, I sometimes think I must be the only person diagnosed with bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety who doesn&#8217;t find peace and security in faith. 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I don&#8217;t&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Blue","article_published_time":"2009-06-24T09:00:38+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/import\/imgs\/rss.gif"}],"author":"Beyond Blue","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html","name":"But What If You Have No Faith? - Beyond Blue","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/import\/imgs\/rss.gif","datePublished":"2009-06-24T09:00:38+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-24T09:00:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/import\/imgs\/rss.gif","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/import\/imgs\/rss.gif"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/06\/what-if-you-have-no-faith.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"But What If You Have No Faith?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/","name":"Beyond Blue","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Therese J. Borchard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75","name":"Beyond Blue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","caption":"Beyond Blue"},"description":"Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet.com. She is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression &amp; Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist. You may find her at her personal blog, her website, or you may follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.","sameAs":["http:\/\/thereseborchard.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/author\/tborchard"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}