Can You Still Offer Suffering Up If . . .

[Ice_nine]

even if you feel it's somewhat self-inflicted?

I sometimes feel like I'm torturing myself. My brain tends to constantly analyze things to death, often leaving me feel very sad. It might be because I spend so much time in my head and that tends to isolate me and make me feel lonely. I partly feel responsible for this or that I should be able to control how I feel, or how I see things. And this makes me get mad at myself cause I think, "You have no legitimate reason to feel this way, ergo prayers offered through this pain are likewise illegitimate." Which ends up making my existence feel rather useless. You know?

help meh

[CatherineM]

My first knee injury was the result of doing something unbelievably, incredibly stupid. I totally caused it myself, but still offered up the pain from the surgery and rehab. Pain is pain. Someone might say that a smoker has caused their own lung cancer, or a sunbather has caused their melanoma, or an alcoholic has caused their liver failure, but their pain is still real.

[Chamomile]

Who knows how much of our own pain we actually cause? Only God. There's no use in trying to figure out the root cause of our suffering, in my opinion. In the end, we're all broken and sinful - but are passionately loved and willed to be Saints

And since you even wrote that it's "your brain" that does this, it sounds like it's something that you don't want to do - so then it can be a spiritual battle, which is definitely worth offering up.

I've felt this way at times before, and it seems to me that it's just satan wanting to keep sacrifices from being made. We're even to offer up our joy and our happiness, and this can often come from something we are, in part, responsible for.

Give everything to Jesus. Waste nothing.

[InPersonaChriste]

If you are suffering in anyway (even if self-inflicted) it is always good to offer it up. Because their is no offering that is wasted ever! Even if you did something dumb.. like this weekend I hit myself in the head accidently with a diabolo stick while trying to do a half-suicide trick.

I got a huge headache,
:D

[BramletAbercrombie]

The two times I feel closest to God are when I am praying in front of the Eucharist, and when I am in pain and offering it up. During Holy Week, for some reason an old shoulder injury was really bothering me. It got particularly intense during Wednesday night's Tenebrae at our church. I offered it up in reparation for the pain suffered by Christ suffering on the cross, and while it still hurt, it felt oddly "different" than before. when my back hurts, I think of the scourging at the pillar, and the horrible torture He received at the hands of Pilot's men.

When I am in pain, I offer it up in reparation for the pain that Christ had during his passion. No matter what your pain, physical or mental anguish, it is something that Christ suffered as well, and most of the time way, way more intense. For mental confusion, I think of the pain that Christ went through as he prayed to his father in Gethsemane, Take this cup from me, but not my will, but Thine be done. I can't even imagine the mental torture he went through that night, so intense that he sweated blood.

Also, I've been having some serious mental anguish, and spending time in the confessional with my priest, he's given me guidance and suggestions to get the crazy thoughts out of my head. It's seriously been helping. I cannot tell you how blessed I am to have such a fantastic confessor.

[Elijah]

The saints purposely suffered sometimes to offer it up and to prove their love for God.

[Maria]

It seems to me that you need to trust God, abandoning yourself and all that you're going through to Him, and trusting that He is able to bring profit out of anything that's entrusted to Him. So, yes, offer up the pain. But also offer up yourself and your crazy tendency to analyze things to death. I've often found that doing that is also the way to break out of the over-analysis (or whatever the harmful cycle might be), I suppose because the/a root of the harmful cycle is a lack of trust that God can take care of it all and is in fact taking care of it (or will to the extent that we let Him).