Broken Minds: Hope for Healing When You Feel Like You're Losing It

by Steve Bloem, Robyn Bloem, William Arnot

Book Overview

A deeply personal, yet practical, book for Christians who are clinically depressed or have been diagnosed with a mental illness. Mental illness. Those words bring to mind frightening scenes of padded walls, white straightjackets, and screaming people. But mental illness is often much more subtle--and much more prevalent than we imagine. Unfortunately, people who are diagnosed as being mentally ill may not understand what is happening to them. And...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0825421187
• ISBN13: 9780825421181
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Kregel Publications
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Resource on Depression & Mental Illness

This book is vitally important to our understanding of the mechanics of depression and mental illness. After reading a plethora of books on the subject over the years, this is the ONE book that I am excited to recommend, and I highly recommend it. "Broken Minds" is both practical, sensitive, compassionate, and very biblically sound. In fact, it should be required reading for every pastor, elder, ministry leader, counselor, or person who is wrestling with the effects of depression, PTSD, OCD, SAD, bipolar, panic disorder, and so much more. Having suffered clinical depression more than once in my life, I'm amazed at the volume of wisdom contained here. It's like five books in one. I believe God will use this book to to broaden the church's understanding, dispel the stigmas, and to literally save people's lives. "...blessed is the church that has access to pastoral staff who understand both theology and the dynamics of major mental illness. The care of souls requires balance and discernment." Amen to that. Many years ago I threw away my antidepressants, to prove to a Christian counselor and friends that God had healed my depression. I did okay for awhile but wasn't sleeping. Years later, unexplainable depression cloaked my mind again. Not only was I suffering from severe sleep deprivation by that time, I felt like a failure to need pills because of the stigma attached to them. Lo and behold, God began to show me that my brain is just different. My neurotransmitters get out of whack. Light and sleep deprivation will do me in. You'd think it wouldn't be rocket science to figure that out, but even the professionals were saying that my root causes of depression were unforgiveness or "anger turned inward." I was chastised by one person for "choosing depression" as a coping mechanism and response to life in general. That only served to push me further down the dark abyss. Needless to say, it was frustating to spend over ten years processing a boatload of misinformation and bad counsel. Folks just didn't know better. But now they can! I thank God for the Bloems. Their book is a lighthouse of spiritual truth and information that we've needed for too long. I plan to re-read it, and keep a ready-copy for reference. Let me shout it to the housetops: There IS hope because somebody finally understands!

Steve and Robyn helped to save my life.

Praise God for what He is doing through Steve and Robyn Bloem! Sadly, many lives have been lost to depression, but the Bloems have taken a strong stand on the front lines trying to keep more people from giving up on life. It's sad that the insidious belief, that one can merely "snap out of it," has pervaded even the walls of the Church. This book is especially helpful for those who know someone dealing with mental illness.

Refreshing Candor

Bloem and Bloem write a telling personal and biblical narrative for those dealing with depression. This is a rare book from a conservative Christian perspective. Many authors from a secular perspective have shared about their own battle with depression (William Styron, Lewis Wolpert) or bi-polar disorder (Kay Redfield Jamison), but few evangelicals have done so. Fortunately the stigma of depression is fading as Christians of today realize what Christians of the past have known--there are many causes of depression (for a powerful look at "famous" Christians who struggled with emotional issues, see "Genius, Grief, and Grace"). For an honest, open, biblical, theologically-sound, and helpful conservative Christian approach to hope for healing, "Broken Minds" should be tops on your list. Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."