Priscilla Warner: Oh, Where Are You, God?

Friday July 18, 2008

Categories: Anxiety

Following is one of my favorite excerpts from "The Faith Club": As I listened to Suzanne I felt that I was in the presence of someone with deep faith who had dealt with suffering and loss in a way...

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Filed Under: anxiety, Beyond Blue, depression, depression blog, interfaith, Judaism and anxiety, panic attacks, panic disorder, Priscilla Warner, The Faith Club, Therese Borchard

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Larry Parker

January 25, 2008 11:58 AM

WOW!

This has been an intensely spiritual week for me, as most BBers know, and reading this perspective on an all-too-similar experience just adds to it. Wishing G-d's job was to give the world order ... THAT'S ME!

Have to and will get your book, Priscilla. You are courageous beyond words.

Lynne

January 25, 2008 6:57 PM

Re: Larry, I'm thinking that does'nt jive with the "free will" clause we're born with. On the other hand I wish God would hurry up and take up residence here already and "clean house" because I think we have a major mismanagement problem going on. I hate turning on the news any more when I see the heinous things people do to one another! The sociopaths are getting younger. I know, I know...all in His good time.

Larry Parker

January 26, 2008 12:06 AM

Lynne:

Theologically, I'd say wishing G-d would give the world order (as a child or as an adult) is usually a sign that people around you who are supposed to care about you/love you/befriend you are using their "free will" in a negative way :-(

Margaret Balyeat

January 26, 2008 10:44 AM

Lynneand Larry:
If I'm not misunderstanding, Lynne, you aren't necessarily talking about your OWN PERSONAL life being in order, but rather the life of the world as reported everywhere we look around us. that is also a manifestation of "negative free will", granted, Larry, but in a more universal sense than "people around you" sometimes the people in your immediate environs can be ttally positive, but the trafedies world-wide are enough to wonder where G-d is. that was, I think a major collective response for americans on 9/11 and it grips the common mind again whenever we're faced with a "newsworthy tragedy" that illustrates the continuing inhumanity with which the world's denizens treat one another
This post hit me where I've been living lately too, calling out to g-d and at the same time begging for a sign that He's truly there and DOES care about me! It's not a pleasant place in which to live when your faith seems to collapse beneath your feet and underneath isthat familiar old abyss with it's mouth wide open just waiting to devour you once more.

Lynne

January 29, 2008 3:36 PM

Thanks to both of you Larry and Margaret, you're on the money! Yes I frequently think of myself as naive wanting people to treat me as well as themselves. Guess I've been stepped on too many times, but I don't want to become a sad reflection of those worldly wise smart asses around me. Yes Margaret I do wish God would be a little less subtle sometimes where the general populas is concerned. Not that I have any say in the matter. Job's approach worked about as well. I don't really wonder where God is...just where am I in this mess?

Sue

July 18, 2008 6:30 PM

All I can say is Dittoo to this eccerpt. I too have have denied my Mental Health issues for LONG due to not wanting to be classified with the "rest of them" . I also have a mitral valve prolapse and have been told that contributes to my anxiety. Whether its bipolar, my MVP, hereditary or PTSD the fact remains I have an illness that I have just barely gotten by with and now its catching up.
I have hope, I will learn, and grow and my struggling faith is still there, even if a wee bit...I must believe in something, even just a little to get on my knees every morning and ask for help .

Denise Hoffman

July 27, 2008 11:07 AM

Priscilla, Your courage is indescribable! I can relate more than most people surrounding me will ever know. Approximately 9 months ago, I met, for the first time ever, my birthmother and 4 half-sisters. Needles to say, it has been a wonderfully surreal and overwhelming rollercoaster of a ride emotionally. I, too, had panic attacks...some which were contributed to a severely deviated nasal septum (now corrected), mild mitral valve prolapse, and from what I now understand after counseling and my own research....being separated at birth (there is a physiological effect on the mother and infant because of this), and remaining in an orphanage for 2 months before I was adopted. At the time, it felt like the "initial separation" at birth felt like I was also separated from God, and that subsequent disasters would be part and parcel of my life (and absorbing others fears in addition to my own). Thanks to Yoga/Meditation, and brave souls like you, I no longer feel separated from anyone...especially God.

Panic

October 20, 2009 5:15 PM

http://www.panichelp4u.com/panic-attacks-at-night

Panic attacks are horrible, and I only hope that you can find peace for yourself.

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