{"id":878,"date":"2008-01-25T08:31:57","date_gmt":"2008-01-25T08:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2008\/01\/the-lesson-about-the-life-boat.html"},"modified":"2008-01-25T08:31:57","modified_gmt":"2008-01-25T08:31:57","slug":"the-lesson-about-the-life-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2008\/01\/the-lesson-about-the-life-boat.html","title":{"rendered":"The Lesson About the Life Boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

I want to thank all my Beyond Blue readers<\/a> for responding with so much compassion and support to my post “My Holistic Approach to Depression.”<\/a> As you can see, the reader pushed a pretty sensitive button by claiming that I am a “pharmaceutical-fix-it” kind of girl. My anger wasn’t directed at her. I don’t know her. It was directed at the people in my life that I do know, very well, that don’t care enough about me to learn about the different ways I try to stay healthy, and why. They are more concerned about being a loyal disciple to Rhonda Byrne and Abraham Hicks than they are about a family member who is hurting.
\nBut this is just one more of those boundaries lessons. I shouldn’t care so much about what they think. I have plenty of people in my life who love me for who I am–medication or no medication.
\nBeyond Blue reader<\/a> Frank reminded me of the joke about the guy who refused to take the help that God offered him. I wanted to share it with you all, because I’m guessing that this hit a sore spot with some of you, as well.
\nThanks again for your love and support. You guys are true friends.<\/p>\n

Over the years I have come across those offering advice to me and my wife about raising children without ever having any themselves. I have had millionaires tell me how I should live on my straight time pay and not count on overtime when I was living from hand to mouth working for them.
\nMost of all, I have had people who literally cried in my office about loneliness in their lives and the fact that all they needed was more faith or better prayer or more trust in Jesus. If only\u2026 If only\u2026 As it turned out, in the case I am specifically thinking of, what they needed was medical therapy for a chemical imbalance, not a lesson in catechism. That and a shoulder to cry on and not judge them.<\/p>\n


\nMy sister has been diagnosed Bi-polar. She was in a downward spiral after mom died last year. That is until she began taking anti-depressant medication. My sister is a great person of faith but she ran against the same stuff living in the bible belt of Missouri. Where would she be now if they had beat her down?
\nThis crap (please pardon my french but I left out all the other words that came into my mind) is the stuff I mentioned to you before when I spoke of the \u201ccotton candy\u201d of religion. All is sweet and all is well if you just eat this sugary fluff. No\u2026 No it\u2019s not\u2026 No\u2026 Sometimes you need to have more and the gift that God gave us is the \u201cmore\u201d.
\nI am reminded of the joke about the fellow stuck on an island as the river rose. A rescue team threw him a rope and he refused to grab it because \u201cGod Saves\u201d. The river rose and the rescue team sent a boat to him and he refused to get in because \u201cGod Saves\u201d. The river rose and he climbed the flag pole and a helicopter came by to pick him up and he refused to get in because \u201cGod Saves\u201d. He finally drowned and when he stood before God, he was miffed. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you save me?\u201d he screamed out. God looked down and said \u201cI sent you a rope, a boat and a helicopter. What more do you want?\u201d
\nBad joke\u2026 But a lesson for me, anyway\u2026 God made everything we have Faith, hope, herbal medicine, pharmaceuticals, doctors, friends and everything else. How can we cut off any part of that when He is throwing us a rope, sending us a boat and flying in the helicopter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I want to thank all my Beyond Blue readers for responding with so much compassion and support to my post “My Holistic Approach to Depression.” As you can see, the reader pushed a pretty sensitive button by claiming that I am a “pharmaceutical-fix-it” kind of girl. My anger wasn’t directed at her. I don’t know…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-depression"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Lesson About the Life Boat - 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\/2008\/01\/the-lesson-about-the-life-boat.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Lesson About the Life Boat - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I want to thank all my Beyond Blue readers for responding with so much compassion and support to my post “My Holistic Approach to Depression.” As you can see, the reader pushed a pretty sensitive button by claiming that I am a “pharmaceutical-fix-it” kind of girl. 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