Meeting pain with compassion
“I can talk about mental health and, specifically, suicide risk, because nearly every day I ask someone if they have thoughts of wishing to die.” Ruth Bergen Braun is a recently retired Canadian certified counsellor who has first-hand experience with clients who think of suicide or have lost someone to suicide. In a sermon that she…
Suicide isn’t painless
No one saw it coming. Not family, not friends, not anyone at the university he attended. On March 23, 2018, after babysitting his nieces and nephews, 18-year-old Nicholas (Nick) Penner Brandt returned to the apartment he shared with an older brother and twin sister, drank poison and died. In one horrible instant, the entire Brandt…
Depression resurrection
Today begins like any other, the type that has become common for me. I cheerfully get out of bed at a decent time, feed my children a healthy breakfast, tidy up and then do a boring 20 minutes on the elliptical machine while they begin their chores. It may not sound revolutionary, but I marvel…
‘I am still holding out hope that I will be free of this one day’
What is it like being a young adult journeying with mental illness? Canadian Mennonite spoke with three people from Mennonite Church Canada congregations to find out. Melanie Kampen Melanie Kampen sought help for her anxiety when it got so bad last summer that she couldn’t get out of bed. A psychiatrist diagnosed the 26-year-old with…
Living with mental illness in the bleak of mid-winter
Living with illness in the bleak of mid-winter By Elizabeth Wall
