When Someone You Love Is Diagnosed With a Mental Illness
“It seems like you probably have OCD.”
Her words, so calm and casual, pierced my heart. For a while, as I learned more about OCD beyond its cultural stereotypes, I wondered if this was another aspect of my anxiety disorder. But to hear the words come from my own psychiatrist, the possibility became a diagnosis and the questions became reality. My brain was crippled in yet another way. Only this time, some of the very character traits I considered to be a part of my strengths, were now labeled as a brain malfunction.
Being diagnosed with a mental illness can come as both a relief and a shock. In some ways, it’s the answer you grappled to find for so long, and a path of potential relief opened up to you after years of searching in the dark. But it’s a also a painful recognition that our bodies are broken.
Loving someone with a mental illness can feel like piecing together a broken glass mosaic—there are many tiny shards, and we don’t know where to start or even how to start in a way that won’t cause further injury. How do we love them? We come with sympathy, nuance, and the love of Christ.
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