[lonelytraveler]

I wanted to give everyone an update.

Unfortunately, the medications my psychiatrist had prescribed backfired and sent me into a manic state. Because of this, he is 99.9% sure I am bipolar and I have started taking Lithium.

I went to see the Stake President last week and I could not ask for more compassion. He told me he wanted me to quit worrying about Church and focus on my mental health. He said the Church will continue to be here to help, but he doesn’t want me worrying about my worthiness until I am stabilized. I thought this was a very charitable approach from this priesthood leader. He even shared a personal story of a friend that had struggled with mental illness, and confirmed that you can overcome it.

I thought it would be good to post a positive note on a priesthood leader approaching mental illness with compassion and love.

[lonelytraveler]

Thank you all for your kind words. You have given me strength.

[lonelytraveler]

Thank you both for you help.

I agree that right now I need to just focus on dedicating myself to the repentance process. I feel that I can be honest with my priesthood leaders and say I have a very weak testimony – leaving it at that.

What has brought me a lot of comfort is this heading in the “How to Stay in the LDS Church After a Major Challenge to Your Faith” essay –

Faith (or hope) is an amazingly low bar. “Knowledge” and “true” are often unrealistic ones.

I want to have faith that if I approach the repentance process with honesty I can be healed from my guilt. I am also encouraged that it may provide some relief to my wife, whether she decides to work on it or not. It just feels like the right thing to do.

I love your blog, Ray, and feel that you have captured the essence of repentance that I agree with. Instead of just focusing on making sure I abstain from those illegal activities I participated in, I am also going to incorporate more “good” in my life.

[Author]

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