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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Depression, Abuse, Suicidal...	Theotokos	Friday, October 29, 2004
Question: Dear Father, Forgive me for being repetitive...but, I really don't know what else to do. About 6 months ago I began to go back to church because I was simply drained from life. Life-long battle with depression, straying for many years from the church in seeking relief from my depression through studying other faiths, having already attempted suicide 4 years ago and so on. The times I have gone to confession were very disappointing. I thought that in sincerely doing so it would lighten the heaviness in my soul, but, what ended up happening in confession was not what I expected. One example... I was rushed by the priest through my confession because confession time is set up 15 minutes before mass starts (my confession lasted about 1 minute), had people constantly walking into the confessional interrupting and was told to just in hang in there, go to therapy (which I have done countless times), say an Act of contrition and that's it. I am not an expert in Catholicism, but, I know with the sins I had confessed that the priest not giving me penance is not the norm. I am a cradle Catholic, but, never was confirmed and started RCIA classes, but, am hit with full-blown depression again, suicidal daily like before and stopped attending RCIA. Regular therapy and medication don't work for me... I have had blood tests done for imbalances and have none. I know my depression is in large part due to several years of sexual abuse as a child, but, I always feel that something else is controlling me like a puppet and everytime I try to improve myself something goes wrong. I am so tired Father and I do not want my mother to have to suffer the horror of finding me again like she did in my last suicide attempt. I know the Catholic church teaches that anything from the New Age is evil, but, this weekend I will go to "Spiritual healer" that is not Catholic as I have exhausted all other means. Please don't tell me to seek therapy, I have done so...
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM+ Dear One: Note: thanks for the promotion, but I am not a priest, just a lowly lay brother in private vows. I hope you understand but I cannot call you Theotokos. That refers to our Blessed Mother and is a name that belongs only to her. For future reference, if one does not want to use their name, then make up a "real" generic name, like George, Carol, etc. Thanks. I am sorry to hear about your situation and we will certainly pray for you. I presume you have already gone to this spiritual healer. I was hoping you would not do that. If you seek relief from some New Age "healer" you will make things far worse. Doing this gives the devil permission to bother you even more. If you have done this, you need to immediately repent of this, ask forgiveness, and go to Confession to confess it even if confession seems disappointing. As for confession, if the priest does not assign a penance, then you can give yourself a penance. For example, pray five Hail Marys for those suffering from depression. In situations like yours when all medical and psychiatric treatments do not appear to help, when even Confession seems stale, and depression and suicidal thoughts continue, this suggests that the problem "may" be sourced somewhere else. I would suggest that you seek Deliverance Counseling. Often problems like these, especially for those who were victims of sexual abuse as a child, can be sourced spiritually in addition to any psychological issues. This is why Deliverance Counseling may be important to undergo -- to take care of any spiritual elements that may be causing or making worse your problems. I would suggest that you look over the SELF-HELP section of our website, linked below, and the Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog, also linked below. If these self-help methods do not help, then contacting us for Deliverance Counseling would be prudent. At the moment, we are not taking any new clients until January 1st. If you can use the self-help methods until then it would be best. If your situation becomes too much then contact me and I'll see what can be done to counsel with you before January. Remember that God loves you and will never leave you. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Depression, Abuse, Suicidal...

Theotokos

Friday, October 29, 2004

Question:

Dear Father,
Forgive me for being repetitive...but, I really don't know what else to do.

About 6 months ago I began to go back to church because I was simply drained from life. Life-long battle with depression, straying for many years from the church in seeking relief from my depression through studying other faiths, having already attempted suicide 4 years ago and so on.

The times I have gone to confession were very disappointing. I thought that in sincerely doing so it would lighten the heaviness in my soul, but, what ended up happening in confession was not what I expected.

One example... I was rushed by the priest through my confession because confession time is set up 15 minutes before mass starts (my confession lasted about 1 minute), had people constantly walking into the confessional interrupting and was told to just in hang in there, go to therapy (which I have done countless times), say an Act of contrition and that's it.

I am not an expert in Catholicism, but, I know with the sins I had confessed that the priest not giving me penance is not the norm.

I am a cradle Catholic, but, never was confirmed and started RCIA classes, but, am hit with full-blown depression again, suicidal daily like before and stopped attending RCIA.

Regular therapy and medication don't work for me... I have had blood tests done for imbalances and have none. I know my depression is in large part due to several years of sexual abuse as a child, but, I always feel that something else is controlling me like a puppet and everytime I try to improve myself something goes wrong.

I am so tired Father and I do not want my mother to have to suffer the horror of finding me again like she did in my last suicide attempt.

I know the Catholic church teaches that anything from the New Age is evil, but, this weekend I will go to "Spiritual healer" that is not Catholic as I have exhausted all other means. Please don't tell me to seek therapy, I have done so...

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM+

Dear One:

Note: thanks for the promotion, but I am not a priest, just a lowly lay brother in private vows.

I hope you understand but I cannot call you Theotokos. That refers to our Blessed Mother and is a name that belongs only to her. For future reference, if one does not want to use their name, then make up a "real" generic name, like George, Carol, etc. Thanks.

I am sorry to hear about your situation and we will certainly pray for you.

I presume you have already gone to this spiritual healer. I was hoping you would not do that. If you seek relief from some New Age "healer" you will make things far worse. Doing this gives the devil permission to bother you even more. If you have done this, you need to immediately repent of this, ask forgiveness, and go to Confession to confess it even if confession seems disappointing.

As for confession, if the priest does not assign a penance, then you can give yourself a penance. For example, pray five Hail Marys for those suffering from depression.

In situations like yours when all medical and psychiatric treatments do not appear to help, when even Confession seems stale, and depression and suicidal thoughts continue, this suggests that the problem "may" be sourced somewhere else.

I would suggest that you seek Deliverance Counseling. Often problems like these, especially for those who were victims of sexual abuse as a child, can be sourced spiritually in addition to any psychological issues. This is why Deliverance Counseling may be important to undergo -- to take care of any spiritual elements that may be causing or making worse your problems.

I would suggest that you look over the SELF-HELP section of our website, linked below, and the Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog, also linked below.

If these self-help methods do not help, then contacting us for Deliverance Counseling would be prudent.

At the moment, we are not taking any new clients until January 1st. If you can use the self-help methods until then it would be best. If your situation becomes too much then contact me and I'll see what can be done to counsel with you before January.

Remember that God loves you and will never leave you.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.