A prayer to praise Mary— besides the obvious

[28yrolddiscerner]

I want to thank her for helping me and my family. I also want to ask for your prayer for a mentally ill person who is getting worse. Thank you

[GreenScapularedHuman]

First and foremost, mental health care for both your family (as apart of this individual's support network) and especially for said individual is very important. Psyco-education, psycho-therapy, moreover psycho-medication are the three primary areas of focus in that regard. The psycho-medication is not an easy aspect of the process as many medications take time to see if they work, have adverse-affects for months at least, and sometimes doctors are not as helpful as they should be. Some sources to perhaps look into:
http://www.parentcenterhub.org/mentalhealth/

http://www.namihelps.org/support/mental-health-resources.html

https://www.nami.org/find-support/family-members-and-caregivers

https://www.mentalhealth.gov/get-help

Psyco-education and psyco-therapy to address any unhealthy family dynamics as well as teaching to create a healthy family home as well as in particular finding healthier outlets for stress/frustration that may arise. Taking care of yourself during this process... Also while not currently very taught or counseled, secondary but nonetheless very important, teaching the person who is being cared for to better understand, respect, and care for the caregiver. There are some documents about this about cancer caregivers which include nice tidbits of 'they aren't frustrated with you they are frustrated with your illness, because they care and love for you.' Seems like that should be obvious but its not.

Chiefly Saint Dymphna, but also Saint Raphael the Archangel, and Saint Philomena are considered patrons of mental health matters... Dymphna for family/peace happiness and against demons in particular. There are simple prayers you can find online including more involved prayers such as chaplets and novenas.

I know that the Catholic Church, depending on where you are, offers Anointing of the Sick for those who have serious mental health matters.

In particular though the best prayer is charity/love, hopefully that shouldn't require too much explanation... but for example trying to remove unmerciful and/or unfair signs of ableism (unmerciful/unfair discrimination against the less than very able), sanism (unmerciful/unfair discrimination and/or exclusion against the mentally ill), mentalism (unmerciful/unfair discrimination regarding tolerable mental/emotional behaviors), and psychophobia (unmerciful/unfair discomfort regarding mental health matters real or unreal) is important. As well as supporting neuro-diversity (merciful and fair understanding, inclusion, acceptance, sensitivity, tolerance, and accommodation of tolerable uncommon behaviors/attitudes even if they be symptomatic of mental health matters).

Hope it gets better for you and your family.

[28yrolddiscerner]

Thank you GreenScapularedHuman! That was very informative and those links look great.  I appreciate it.

The person I am speaking of denies they are mentally ill, but he is becoming sicker and more delusional daily.  What do you do when they refuse to acknowledge the problem? He feels humiliated by it.

And yes, I am being caring and loving.  But it seems to not be enough.  I will pray to those three you mentioned.  I didn’t know saint Philomena was a patron of this.

God bless you and take care

[GreenScapularedHuman]

6 minutes ago, 28yrolddiscerner said:

Thank you GreenScapularedHuman! That was very informative and those links look great.  I appreciate it.

My pleasure. I only regret that so little can be done.

9 minutes ago, 28yrolddiscerner said:

The person I am speaking of denies they are mentally ill, but he is becoming sicker and more delusional daily.  What do you do when they refuse to acknowledge the problem? He feels humiliated by it.

Depending on where you are there are various options. SOME US States have laws that you can seek a court order to require treatment if there is a demonstrable need for treatment and evidence that they won't seek it on their own. But hopefully just trying to engage with them and offer educational materials can help make them more aware of how their illness is affecting themselves, others, their life, and so on. A professional might be able to do this better. But if they feel humiliated by it that indicates to me that it may be a emotional denial...

There is a particular article from NAMI on this matter here https://www.nami.org/earlypsychosis. I think one of the things that you should perhaps convey to them is psychotic disorders (a regretfully named disorder with a lot of stigma attached to it still and doesn't really correctly relay what it is) is in a sense stealing their life and minds from them... psychotic disorders in particular have low psychological insight (because the parts of the brain involved in identifying self-behaviors starts to break down, possibly related to the whole of the disorder actually, the person has difficulties making distinctions between passing thoughts and feelings and those which aren't). So the denial is very surely NOT deliberate or stubbornness on their part... it is apart of the illness.

There are plenty of individuals who suffer from psychosis and are productive and respectable sorts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_schizophrenia And I would in particular point to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elyn_Saks who is a university doctor/professor of law, psychiatry, and a dean of the university despite suffering from serious psychosis.

Some NPR interviews/articles regarding her:
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12560033
https://www.npr.org/2013/01/30/170667522/balancing-work-medication-and-mental-illness
https://www.npr.org/2013/07/19/171270996/whats-it-like-to-have-a-psychotic-episode

25 minutes ago, 28yrolddiscerner said:

And yes, I am being caring and loving.  But it seems to not be enough.  I will pray to those three you mentioned.  I didn’t know saint Philomena was a patron of this.

I wasn't trying to imply or indicate otherwise. And you are right it isn't enough. Treatment is the most important element of all of this. Moreover if it really is some sort of psychosis.

Despite what it may feel or seem... this can get better. And it very likely eventually will.

The question becomes how it gets better. Many people with major mental health matters very regretfully can find themselves having run-ins with the law, which is not suited even remotely to care for or help these individuals, and can make matters worse moreover if they are kept incarcerated. Despite that its a regretfully too common occurrence in the United States...

The much better course for this is through mental health care and possibly disability benefits like medicaid/SSI (at very least temporarily till they are more rehabilitated).

Hang in there. Try to find support groups for families/parents. Having others to go talk to can help and know that you aren't doing this alone or the only one experiencing this.

[GreenScapularedHuman]

On 4/9/2018 at 10:13 PM, 28yrolddiscerner said:

The person I am speaking of denies they are mentally ill, but he is becoming sicker and more delusional daily.  What do you do when they refuse to acknowledge the problem?

Decided to look up somewhere you may be able to find additional information about out-patient (meaning in-community) commitment orders to treatment. Though I sincerely hope it will not come to that.

http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/component/content/article/183-in-a-crisis/1596-know-the-laws-in-your-state

http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/storage/documents/Initiating_Court-Ordered_Treatment.pdf
 

[28yrolddiscerner]

I hope not too!

Thank you for your support. It means a lot.

[GreenScapularedHuman]

7 minutes ago, 28yrolddiscerner said:

I hope not too!

Thank you for your support. It means a lot.

If you want/need some help... someone to talk to... or anything like that please be more than welcome. I understand how not very easy the whole process can be.

And while it may mean a lot, I hope it does, it very regretfully doesn't go very far.

[little2add]

On 4/9/2018 at 9:33 PM, 28yrolddiscerner said:

I want to thank her for helping me and my family. I also want to ask for your prayer for a mentally ill person who is getting worse. Thank you

reciting the prayer: Hail Mary,  is a good way to go.  also so is saying the "rosary" 

[Seven77]

How about praying the Litany of Loreto to praise her?

And for the mentally ill person, you should pray a prayer I just found out about today, "The Flying Novena of St. Mother Teresa"! It consists of praying the Memorare  10 times – the extra one in thanksgiving for the intention being granted in advance. From what I've just read in this article it's very powerful!

[Guest]

My prayer in Praise of Mary - prayed a few times daily after The Hours (it is my variation of the Chaplet in Praise of Mary found HERE ):

I like this prayer because it asks nothing, it prays only in praise of Our Lady.

Quote

Grant that I may praise thee, O Holy Virgin!

1. Blessed be the Great Mother of God, Mary Most Holy!
2. Blessed be her Holy and Immaculate Conception!
3. Blessed be her Glorious Assumption!
4. Blessed be the Name of Mary, Virgin and Mother!
5. Blessed be her Immaculate Heart!
6. Blessed be her Virginal Purity!
7. Blessed be her Divine Maternity!
8. Blessed be her Universal Mediation!
9. Blessed be her Sorrows and her Tears!
10. Blessed be the graces with which the Lord crowned her Queen of Heaven and Earth!"

"Glory be to Mary, Daughter of the Father!
Glory be to Mary, Mother of the Son!
Glory be to Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit!"

My Mother,
I love thee for those who do not love thee;
I praise thee for those who blaspheme thee;
I surrender myself to thee
for those who will not recognize thee as their Mother.

 

For those suffering mental illness

Pope Francis’ Prayer to Mary Undoer of Knots

 

Holy Mary, full of God’s presence during the day of your life, you accepted with full humility the Father’s will, and the devil was never capable of tying you up with his confusion.Once with your Son you interceded for our difficulties, and full of kindness and patience, you gave us example of how to untie the knots in our life. By remaining forever Our Mother, you put in order and make more clear the ties that link us to the Lord.

Holy Mother, Mother of God and our Mother, to you who intie with a motherly heart the knots of our life, I pray to you to receive in your hands all those suffering mental illness (or mention intention) and to free them (him/her)of the knots and confusion with which our enemy attacks.

Through your grace, your intercession and your example deliver us all from evil, Our Lady, and untie the knots that prevent us all from being united with God, so that we all, free from sin and error, may find Him in all things, may have our hearts placed in Him, and may serve Him always in our brothers and sisters. Amen.

 

Edited April 12, 2018 by BarbaraTherese

[GreenScapularedHuman]

Well... I do sincerely believe charity/love to be the very best prayer, thanksgiving, and offering...

But if one was looking for a marian devotion I really quite like it would be to Our Lady of Sorrow... in particular her seven sorrows. There is a chaplet but it is sufficient to pray one hail mary per sorrow. There are numerous alleged benefits/promises to such a devotional practice.

[CatherineM]

My husband has schizophrenia. He has taken his meds without fail for 26 years, including taking a three inch long needle every two weeks. We spend half of our time advocating for the mentally ill.

They have to have a reason to stay on their meds. Needing them is often not a good enough reason. People with heart conditions and high blood pressure often don’t take their meds properly either. 

If when you’re psychotic you think you are a Templar Knight fighting evil, yet when on your meds, you are living on a small income, in the worst part of town, and people despise you because of your illness, what incentive to you have to stay sane?  Most would pick psychosis. 

I had a client that took his meds just so he could remember to feed a pet fish every day. We have a friend who volunteers to sort books at a thrift store and has for 25 years. You’re sick, so you need to take meds doesn’t work well. You need these meds to think clear enough to remember to go do this or that works better. 

[GreenScapularedHuman]

33 minutes ago, CatherineM said:

My husband has schizophrenia. He has taken his meds without fail for 26 years, including taking a three inch long needle every two weeks. We spend half of our time advocating for the mentally ill.

They have to have a reason to stay on their meds. Needing them is often not a good enough reason. People with heart conditions and high blood pressure often don’t take their meds properly either. 

If when you’re psychotic you think you are a Templar Knight fighting evil, yet when on your meds, you are living on a small income, in the worst part of town, and people despise you because of your illness, what incentive to you have to stay sane?  Most would pick psychosis. 

I had a client that took his meds just so he could remember to feed a pet fish every day. We have a friend who volunteers to sort books at a thrift store and has for 25 years. You’re sick, so you need to take meds doesn’t work well. You need these meds to think clear enough to remember to go do this or that works better. 

Psycho-medication is really important moreover for psychosis. Although I don't think it should be the only treatment. Though I think portraying all psychosis as bizarre is kinda misleading. Thought disorders, delusions, and even at times hallucinations can be subtle and not so very easy to discern (even from a sane observer point of view). Like someone may have a bad relationship with their family, that could be very real, but their perceptions of it might be altered significantly enough that their judgement is incorrect... or because of thought disorder their judgement itself is incorrect. Which can make matters a lot worse. I also think portraying mental health matters, even psychosis, as a life disabling and limiting is both wrong on a factual and ethical level. It is really about the treatment, support, and will of the individual.

 

Addendum: To add... it is very regretful that there is a lack of equal integration and parity of treatment for mental health matters. Or even just the amount of funding that goes into research. The cultural bias, stigma, and misconceptions also doesn't help matters...

Mental health should be like health for any other organ in the body with just as much respect, inclusion, understanding, patience, compassion, and tolerance... I would say even more so. People not seeking treatment because of this stigma, bias, and misunderstanding hurts everyone... and don't think that it keeps people out of public office or business... it just keeps them out of treatment.

Edited April 12, 2018 by GreenScapularedHuman

[Guest]

On ‎12‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 10:46 PM, GreenScapularedHuman said:

Mental health should be like health for any other organ in the body with just as much respect, inclusion, understanding, patience, compassion, and tolerance... I would say even more so

  Very well said.  I had 20 years in the revolving door of a psychiatric ward with intense and quite overt bizarre psychotic symptoms.  I have never seen at any time a get well card or flowers on a psychiatric ward........... and an indictment.

As a psychiatric patient I had to have a reason to believe in my own dignity despite the severe and socially distasteful symptoms I could display during an episode -  and it was Catholic theology alone that gave me that reason.  It was a religious obedience to me to take my medication as prescribed and to trust my psychiatrist.  Mind you, it is important that the patient has found quite personal reasons to trust in his or her doctor, not just ordered to do so.  When I came across in the new Catholic Catechism an explanation of our doctrine of Divine Providence, everything for me fell into place.

Much of the following address is for the professionals - but sections would bring consolation to sufferers.  A big problem as I have experienced it is that The Church has all the right words to state here and there and especially when for some reason mental illness is in the headlines, but are those words being put into practise on diocesan and parish level?

Cardinal calls mentally ill 'faithful images of God'
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan told his World Day of the Sick audience in Adelaide (South Australia) yesterday (8th February 2006) that while the mentally ill patient "escapes classification as a normal person", he or she remains "an image of God" deserves every normal respect.

The Cardinal had a bit more to state than "deserves every normal respect".
 

Quote

 

Actual Address in Adelaide South Australia on 8th February 2006:

 http://cathnews.acu.edu.au/602/doc/10wds2.htm  Excerpt: " Therefore, once the mental illness has caused such a disorder as to take away from the mentally ill patient any responsibility for his actions, qualifying them as separation from the divine will -as a sin- the mental patient cannot separate from God. In other words, the image of God in him cannot be distorted. In this case his knowledge or his volitive option are no longer sufficient to motivate any human action that separates him from God. His bodily and psychic conditions do not allow him to commit a grave sin, given that in his state of disequilibrium he does not have that full knowledge and ability of assent required to sin. 

If we approach the argument from this point of view, whereby the mentally ill patient does not have the knowledge or the faculty of full consent required to commit a mortal sin, his is not a deformed image of God, since that image can only be deformed by sin. Certainly, it is the suffering image of God, but not a deformed image. He is a reflection of the mystery of the victorious Cross of the Lord. Inspired by the image of the Suffering Servant of Yahweh (Isaiah 53, 1-7) we are drawn to a conscious act of faith in the suffering Christ. .................

..............

It is true that the objective disorder of sin and its consequences are manifest in the mentally ill patient; however, at the same time, there is in him the historical equilibrium of the only possible order, the order and equilibrium of the Redemption. 

This is not comprehensible to a secularized mentality; it is only understood within the context of Christian optimism, which stems from a reasoned faith that tells us how in such circumstances our obligations towards a mentally ill person, on one hand satisfy our duty to see the suffering Christ in the poor and less protected; and on the other hand the idea of seeing in the patient the love of God who has indicated him as his chosen one, in the sense that he shall not be separated from Him.

 

The above probably would not mean sense at all to the secular and secularized mind, but in the order of our Catholic theology, it makes all the sense in the world.

_________________

I suffer bipolar disorder

On ‎12‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 10:13 PM, CatherineM said:

If when you’re psychotic you think you are a Templar Knight fighting evil, yet when on your meds, you are living on a small income, in the worst part of town, and people despise you because of your illness, what incentive to you have to stay sane?  Most would pick psychosis. 

I wrote a poem around about the time of the Cardinal's address in 2006: " Truth finds some shelter in mad or truth the cause . . .". . .

Edited April 15, 2018 by BarbaraTherese

[GreenScapularedHuman]

On 4/15/2018 at 6:25 AM, BarbaraTherese said:

  Very well said. 

My pleasure.

The dignity of those with mental health matters is very important. Jesus in the gospels says to cleanse the lepers. In many ways those with mental health matters are modern lepers. The outcast, the excluded, the blamed, the unwanted, the neglected, the downtrodden...

On 4/15/2018 at 6:25 AM, BarbaraTherese said:

Cardinal calls mentally ill 'faithful images of God'

The place of the international shrine to Saint Dymphna is home to one of the world's most liberal and progressive views on mental health inclusion, social care, and non-discrimination. ( https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/07/01/484083305/for-centuries-a-small-town-has-embraced-strangers-with-mental-illness )

The Church of England actually goes a step further than saying the mentally ill are the image of God to saying that it is possible even likely that many representations and people of the Bible were mentally ill, Jesus specifically may of suffered from psychosis and major depression they cite. ( https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/341926/Jesus-Christ-may-have-suffered-from-mental-health-problems-claims-Church-of-England ) But really they point out that this shouldn't be too shocking or offensive, Jesus took on human nature to suffer the lot of humanity, it would of been an additional mental and emotional cross to bear... it also wouldn't mean that what he said was any less true.