“Life is hard and blankets are warm.”

If I had a catchphrase, I think this would be it. It’s something I say almost daily as a reminder that, most of the time, there’s a reprieve at the end of the day. No matter how hard life gets, 9 times out of 10, at the end of the day, I can get under my 30lb blanket and just breathe.

That idea is also why I’ve been absent recently. If I wasn’t working or doing schoolwork, I was working on resting. Let’s be honest, I’m still working on resting. The rest, that, at one point, I could avoid for a couple days, became necessary daily due to a medicine change that wasn’t working. That’s just a part of being someone who isn’t in perfect health. So, I was having to deal with the extra fatigue and brain fog on top of everything else. It’s something I’ve dealt with before and will deal with again.

This is one of the many examples I have as to what all is involved in the process of treating your mental health. And the worst part about it is, there was a time in the recent past, that I would have taken the medicine’s failure to work as a sign of my shortcomings specifically in the area of my relationship with Christ. There’s a stigma in Christianity that implies if you treat your mental health with therapy and/or medication, you’re less of a Christian. While I’ve mostly broken myself of this stigma, (let’s just say these past few months have sucked), that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t still affect my thought process when it comes to my meds not working.

Because, despite knowing that my mental health isn’t a consequence of something wrong I’ve done; that idea still tends to run around on my bad days.

So, if anybody needs the reminder:

Your trauma is a real and valid reason for you to have mental health conditions.

Your genetics are a real and valid reason for you to have mental health conditions.

Not everything negative in a Christian’s life is a direct result of a sin they committed.

I would love to say that asking for forgiveness for a theoretical sin would fix my intrusive thoughts caused by OCD. That’s not how that works.

I’d love to say I have regular panic attacks because I’m not as close to God as I could be, but that’s not true.

I have OCD because genetics and trauma decided to have fun in my brain. I have panic attacks because of things that have happened in my past that I have no control over, ergo trauma.

So, when a Christian presents the philosophy of my life being as it is because of a “sin issue,” it makes me realize how little they truly understand some of the basic things Jesus said. [John 9] Have I sinned? Yes. That’s a no-brainer. Does my sin impact my mental health? Yes, but not nearly as often as one might think. Is my sin the cause of my mental health conditions? No.

So remember that, “Life is hard and blankets are warm,” and rest if you need it. It’s important.