Crunchy Time

If you are like me, you are searching for anything possible to help heal your child. There are so many natural ways to help your suffering child. Unfortunately, some of them may not be so good for your child’s spiritual life. Some techniques may open his or her soul to demonic influences. While this is not an exhaustive list, here are a few techniques to stay away from.

Yoga. I know. The stretching feels so good and there are tons of medical research saying that it is so helpful for depression and anxiety. The good news is that the stretching is not necessarily the problem. The problem comes in with the yoga chants and such, and because yoga has spiritual and philosophical roots that are not Christian. Pietra Fitness is an excellent alternative. They use some of the great healing movements, and you can be assured that there is nothing that will harm your child. Pietra Fitness now has an online subscription, as well as their dvd format.

 Chakras and the third eye The opening of chakras has continually come up in my research for helping my child. I tend to lean toward natural remedies, because I know that God has lots of good things that he has created for us to use. For some reason, the natural remedies have been assumed by the New Age and Eastern religions. The idea of chakras is that there are seven energy openings along the spine. These chakras become blocked and lead to sickness in the body and mind. The third eye refers to a place on your forehead that is a center for power and wisdom. I have especially run into this work associated with yoga and essential oil healing. Obviously, a Christian would have a problem with this because we recognize that our being comes from God and there is not this hidden magical god inside us. It is the age old adage of reaching for the apple to make us gods. This is so serious, in fact, that if you have had any experience with opening of chakras, you should visit a priest.

Reiki Again, this has to do with channeling energy. Whenever you see anything tagged as “energy work,” keep away.

 So what natural methods can a Christian do to help with depression and anxiety? There are plenty of good old God given remedies.

Chiropractor The key is to find a good chiropractor that does not do energy work. When your body feels better, you feel stronger. My chiropractor uses an activator, and I love the gentle alignment. In fact, if you live in the Kansas City area, visit Dr. Jessica Wertin at Advanced Chiropractic in Lawrence, Kansas. She is gold.

Vitamins and Minerals Almost everyone is low in Vitamin D. I suggest that you get your child tested for this vitamin. People with depression and anxiety tend to be very low. Some people do better with liquid form that gets assimilated faster. Vitamin B-12 is linked with depression, since it is essential in producing brain chemicals that affect mood. Magnesium is known as the relaxation mineral. I have read that there is a direct correlation between vitamin D and magnesium levels in your body. Your body puts a cap on the amount of vitamin D it will take in if there is not enough magnesium and vise versa. If you are low in Vitamin D, look into a good magnesium supplement. If you have a girl, you might look into iron deficiency, as well. Although it is not a vitamin, omega fatty acids are essential, since they elevate mood and have an anti-inflammatory effect. These omegas are especially important for new moms with depression!

Sunshine and Saltwater Who can be depressed at the beach? I know it may be hard to get your child out in the sun. The dark room seems to be the favorite hang out. I haven’t done any research on it, but the waves of the ocean seem to be very healing. We live nowhere near a beach, so for Spring Break, I googled, “closest beach.” It was a stretch for us financially, but my daughter is moving soon and I am short on time to help her. The positive mood change in my whole family after our beach adventure was palpable. Another option if you don't have a beach is red  light therapy.

Essential Oils These are God’s direct pharmacy. I know they are quite popular right now, but they have been around since the Garden. As with most natural remedies, the New Age movement seems to want to take over these precious gifts. You may see lots of strange things associated with essential oils, but keep in mind that these are just plants. Just like candles are used in many bad ritualistic ways, we also use them for Mass. In fact, we use essential oils in our Chrism. I mentioned essential oil healing earlier as something to question. I found a book called Releasing Emotional Patterns with Essential Oils. I know that oils are healing because of their smell and frequency, so this looked promising. Unfortunately, the author uses Chakras and other Eastern religious practices in her book. I would love to develop a Christian technique to use oils in healing. Oils come in different qualities, so please do not use cheap oils on your beloved child. We only use Young Living Oils. My distributor is Laura Hinkel 1658413. She is great at answering any questions. laurakhinkel@gmail.com

Meditation See Post How’s your Prayer Life?

Root Cause See a natural doctor or MD with an open mind to find the root cause of the depression. Could it be hormone related? Order a hormone panel. Could it be thyroid related? Is it a yeast overgrowth? All these things can be tested.

 What kind of natural remedies do you use to help your suffering children?

Book Review DARE by Barry McDonagh

One of my sons suffers from anxiety. I took him to a wonderful psychologist who gave him a “toolbox” to pull different tools from to help when he gets in a difficult situation. One of the tools was to name the feeling. This made the feeling a real thing. By naming something, you have power over it. That is why in exorcisms, the priest asks the demon for a name. But back to the toolbox...I thought about this idea when reading Barry McDonagh’s book Dare: the new way to end anxiety and stop panic attacks fast. His toolbox has the acronym DARE-- Diffuse, Allow, Run toward it, and Engage.

 DEFUSE: Respond to your anxiety by saying “so what?” “who cares?” or whatever phrase you prefer for acknowledging you're not in any real danger.
ALLOW: Accept the anxiety and allow it to manifest in whatever way it wishes. Become the observer of your anxiety – notice it with curiosity, welcome it, and allow it to stay.
RUN TOWARDS: Run towards your anxiety by telling yourself you are in fact excited by your anxious thoughts and feelings.
ENGAGE: Your anxious mind might still be clinging onto whatever it can to keep you in an anxious, panicky state, even after completing the previous steps. To avoid this, you need to engage with something else that takes up your full attention.

I think this is a great way to deal with anxiety because you are living with it. There is no great goal to “cure” yourself. It is all about becoming comfortable with the feeling of anxiety. So you name it and it becomes another part of your life, but not a part of you. And you are not trying to suppress it. He gives a great analogy of how suppressing anxiety is like pushing a beach ball under the water. When you let it go it shoots up out of control, even higher than where it was when it was resting on the water. I think this would be a teachable program for your child. He has lots of questions that you can ask your child to help them become comfortable with the steps. If you want a quick breakdown of it and enjoy podcasts, I recommend The Formula #41 - DARE-ing to Face Your Anxiety with Barry McDonagh. It does have some language in it, but it gives a great summary if you don’t have a lot of time. If you are going to do the program I suggest the book because it has all the questions to ask. 

Have you tried the DARE program?

You Are Loved in Your Suffering

You are loved in your suffering. God weeps with you, hanging on the Cross for you. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what he’s doing. But I know who He is. He is good. He is love. He is for you. And there will come a day when all is made clear, when you’re welcomed into the embrace of the God who has been waiting for you since before there was time and you see just how all things worked for good. But until then, I will stand with you in the unknowing. Together we will hope and love and suffer. And we will trust in a God who is so much bigger than our pain.

There is nothing He will not do for us. Ours is to trust that when we lie broken amidst the rubble of our lives, even then He is working. Even then we are protected. Even then we are loved by a Father who wills our greatest good, though it may be a long time coming. Wait in hope, my friends. My God will not disappoint.
Anonymous

How's Your Prayer Life?

I have a friend who when you see him, you know he is going to ask you, “ How’s your prayer life?” This man is very intense, so it is best to have a good answer ready. I have even heard him ask this question to the Archbishop. It is that important to him that we have a prayer life. I think it is an excellent question. As mothers of children with depression and anxiety, we have to be close to the Lord. We must have that lifeline connected at all times. We are not strong enough to handle everything by ourselves. God actually made it that way. God keeps teaching me this lesson. I am a bit stubborn. Prayer, or meditation, is especially important for people with depression and anxiety. Prayer settles your mind because you are with your God. He is your stronghold and hope. There are so many bible verses on this. You know God had an idea that humans struggle since He put it in His book. I think the phrase “Be not afraid” or “Fear not” is in the Bible 365 times. Prayer helps us to be in the present moment, which is the only place to be free from depression and anxiety. Depression comes from the past and anxiety from the future. The Catholic Psych Institute has a great program for Mindfulness. I highly recommend this training for your child and you. It is important to make sure it is a Catholic program because at the center of the training is knowing you are safe. The only way you know you are safe is to know that you have a loving Father. The only way you know that you have a loving Father is to have a relationship with him, also known as a prayer life. There are lots of things to help you meditate. You can use the rosary to pray and meditate on the mysteries of the Lord’s life. You can picture yourself in the scene of the Bible or Mass reading of the day and think about what you would do or say. What do you see, feel, smell? What is the Lord saying to you? What are you going to do today to answer his call? If you want to know more about how to pray, go here https://schooloffaith.com/prayer-and-spirituality-1 How is your prayer life?

The Love of a Merciful Christian Mother

Online response from anonymous mother:

"When my son starting using marijuana at 16 and then subsequently got arrested by the time he was 18. I did a lot of finger pointing and judging and said and did things I'm not proud of out of fear, worry, shame, anger. I didn't handle it well, I didn't handle it as Jesus would have. My son did not see Jesus in me. It took a secular psychologist to open my eyes to my own issues and to acknowledge that in order for this situation to heal, I needed to heal. I had wounds that I unknowingly bled on to my children. Even with years of trying to grow in my faith, to be a Christian example to my kids, to raise them with prayer, scripture, all kinds of faith related activities, I had the courage to realize that all of this meant nothing if my kids did not see the love of Jesus Christ within my heart, that they did not see the love of a merciful Christian mother. It was painful to realize the mistakes, but, by the grace of God, He gave me the courage to recognize that I needed Him more than I ever imagined and that I needed to trust His son more than ever. I had to deeply examine my own heart and who it belonged to. It's been 4 years, it's been quite a journey, and, this journey, in reality was not about my son, it was about me. That revelation is healing my wounds, filling my heart holes with God's love, and now, my kids see a different person. My son has progressed, our relationship is better as I witness to how God works in my life not only by what I say, but how I act in response to Him. I'm able to see his hurting soul through the eyes of Jesus. As Jesus did when everyone wanted to condemn the adulterer, He made me aware of my own sin in order to have compassion for other sinners."

Faith and Love

Faith asks and love accepts the answer.

Accepting God's Crosses

"Let us imagine our confusion when we appear before God and understand the reasons why he sent us the crosses that we accept so unwillingly." 

St. Claude de la Colombiere