You Are Valuable

Patricia A. Jordan

Description

This is my story of overcoming depression. I believe mental-wellness is achieveable. And putting in the effort to accomplish that has far reaching rewards.

I’ve written my story of how I’ve overcome depression so hopefully, in reading it, you or your loved one will be encouraged to keep trying to find the right solution that works for you or your loved one. I believe overcoming depression is achievable for most people. There are lots of good solid kinds of help available today. The key is recognizing that you have depression and then getting the right kind of help that you, or your loved one needs.

Sujets

• Religious
• Lettres et linguistique
• Counseling
• List of counseling topics
• Biography
• Depression
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 04 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664279315
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

YOU ARE Valuable
 
DON’T LET DEPRESSION GET YOU DOWN
 
 
 
 
 
 
PATRICIA A. JORDAN
 
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2022 Patricia A. Jordan.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7929-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7930-8 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7931-5 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022917845
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 10/04/2022
CONTENTS
A Special Thank You
Introduction
 
You Are Wealthier Than You Think
Overcoming Depression is Achievable
Finally, Being Correctly Diagnosed with Dysthymic (Low Grade Chronic) Depression
Overcoming Stuttering in My Childhood
“Every Weight”
Spiritual Warfare
A Life-Saving Miracle Phone Call
Direction
Goal Setting
Big Dreams Start with Small Beginnings
My Parents Longed for a Better Life for Themselves and Us
1964 Was My Parents’ Year for New Direction and Prosperity
Personality Disorder
My Parents Achieving Their American Dream
My Parents’ Personalities were Shaped by The Great Depression and World War II
What Do You Do with Your Pent-Up Anger?
Is Bonding Really All That Important?
What Do You Do When You’re Disappointed or Have Been Blamed?
Receiving Counseling Over a Suppressed Memory
Need Help (With Life), but Only the Serious Need Apply
A New and Positive Direction in My Life
My Physical Health
On Becoming Deeply Depressed
The Familiar but Unfriendly Stranger in the Room
Depression, Cancer, Counseling, College
My Difficult Mother-in-Law
The Worthwhile Investment of Counseling
Drifting, Tethered, or Anchored (The Importance of Bible Study)
Our Different Backgrounds: Jeff’s Parents
My Parents
The Importance of Our Backgrounds
In My Children’s Growing Up Years
Solving Our Anxieties
Moving Back to Western North Carolina to Be Near My Parents and Our Extended Family
My Mother Had No Regrets
Going To a Walk-in Mental Health Clinic
A Big Change in The Atmosphere in Mine and Jeff’s Home
My Mother’s Passing Away
My Brother Gene’s Passing Away
My Dad’s Final Years and Passing
My Relationship with My In-laws
The Importance of Counseling
Stop Being a victim. Be a Victor Instead.
How Well Do You Cope?
God’s Plan for My Life
How Long Do You Want to Keep Living with Untreated Depression?
Do Not Burn the Bridge You Are Standing On
The Top Takeaways from My Story
A SPECIAL THANK YOU

Jeff, me, and “Bullet” in Summer of 2022.
A very special thank you goes to my husband Jeff, whom I have been in love with and married to since 1978. Without your love and encouragement, I would never have written the first page. Hugs and kisses to my three daughters Ruth, Rachel, and Esther for being honest and real with me from your earliest days. Raising you three has always kept me grounded and focused on doing what was best for all of us.
This is also in memory of my parents M. G. and June Bell. Their parenting had its flaws but, all in all, together they gave us a great childhood. Together they kept all five of us children walking the straight and narrow throughout our entire lives.
Family members and friends help to bring meaning into our lives and only want the best for us. A big thank you to those folks as well—you know who you are.
INTRODUCTION
I have written my story of how I overcame depression so hopefully, in reading it, you or your loved one will be encouraged to keep trying to find the right solution that works for you or your loved one. I believe overcoming depression is achievable for most people. There are many good, solid kinds of help available today. The key is recognizing that you have depression and then getting the right kind of help that you or your loved one needs.
Even though I have been truthful in my description of my early home life, my goal is not to malign anyone. I have not written this book to point an accusatory finger at my parents or anyone else.
My goal is to help and encourage you to improve your own mental health, and help you be set free from “stinking thinking” about yourself. You are the one who must set yourself free from morbid thoughts in order to tap into who you are as a beautiful and total person.
By the time you finish reading my book, my desire is that you will be more confident in taking authority over your own mental wellness plan that includes developing a positive outlook for your life.
In reading my book, you will read three stories in one. My story is, after all, enmeshed with those of my parents, my siblings, and my grandparents. In writing it, I found I could not slice and dice my story into separate little mini accounts of my own life. I have written quite a bit of it in a stream of consciousness train of thought, meaning as it happened.
The first story is of the hardscrabble lives my parents lived during the first decade and a half of their marriage. My four siblings and I were born to them during the first seven years of their marriage. My dad went from job to job during those years in the small town of Murphy, located in western North Carolina.
That all changed in 1964, when my mother agreed to follow through on one of my dad’s entrepreneur ideas. In three years, they were starting to live the American dream. In time, they became millionaires.
Second is my story of starting out my adult life and the many unwise decisions that I made. However, within a few years I started rising above those bad decisions to live a much improved and fulfilling lifestyle.
My last story is of my maternal grandfather. All through his childhood, he was passed around to different homes, but was ultimately rejected by his relatives. As a pre-teen, he was sent to Berry’s School for the Orphaned. Then right before graduating from there he dropped out to join the Navy at the start of America’s involvement in World War I. That would have been in 1917.
I include my grandfather’s’ story not only because it is a great example of how to rise above bad circumstances, but also because he played an integral part in my life when I was growing up.
Each story is enmeshed with the other two. Each story has an overcomer theme to it. I hope reading these three stories will inspire you.
You Are Wealthier Than You Think
Please notice that I did not say richer than you think. The words rich, richer, and richest are all tied to a monetary amount. We often make the mistake of using the word rich when we really meant someone’s personal wealth.
Your personal wealth is your skills, talents, intellect, and, most importantly, your soul and spirit. All those features, wrapped up in your own unique personality, make you who you are. Truly, you are a unique person. No two people are alike.
We live our own lives one day at a time. Sometimes others, whether by intention or not, attempt to alter our stories. Usually, they have the best intentions in doing this. After all, how do we learn to be law-abiding individuals if it not for our parents or others who taught us the difference between right and wrong? Civilizations would unravel very quickly if we did not pass on necessary teachings and values from one generation to the next.
However, sometimes bad things happen to us. How we internally respond to those negative experiences may consume years of our lives. We might unnecessarily carry burdens of anger, depression, addiction, or some other type of neurotic way of thinking and acting.
In writing about how I have been able to manage depression, my goal is that your future is filled with the bright light of hope for a better life for you and/or your loved one. This is what I have done by staying the course on improving my own mental health.
Overcoming Depression is Achievable
Are you going through a brief time of depression because of unforeseeable sad events that have happened to you or a loved one? Perhaps you are depressed most of the time, and you withdraw from people. Maybe you are given to negative thinking about yourself and your world. Perhaps, as I have done, you go about your everyday life masking your depression with mindless busyness.
Are you battling an addiction that is the result of untreated depression? Whatever type of depression you are going through, I think you will find more than a few clear answers to your situation in reading my story.
When does the downward spiral into depression start? What triggers it? What are the signs? When y