Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. Did you know that there are about 7000 suicides in the UK every year? This means 19 people are likely to take their lives every day. Both suicide and the mental health factors leading to it including anxiety and depression sadly remain taboo subjects, the elephant in the room. … Continue reading World Suicide Prevention Day
Tag: Mental health
Facing depression
Every so often I try and point people in the direction of this video series I put together a little while back. I hope it will be useful to you or something you can share with others. Please fee free to get in touch if you would like to talk about anything in them
Facing Depression
A few years ago, I was completely knocked flat by depression. Whilst at the time, it seemed to come at me from nowhere, in fact, the warning signs had been there for some time. In this little video series, I talk about what depression is, spotting the warning signs, understanding the causes, trusting God through… Continue reading Facing Depression
Stronger than the storm
This week at our Life Group, we invited everyone to share one of their favourite Psalms, it was a fantastic feast as we read, reflected on and prayed Scripture. On a side note, I’d encourage you to try doing this in your life/community/home groups sometime. Anyway, one of the Psalms shared was Psalm 93 which… Continue reading Stronger than the storm
Food from around the worldwide web
Woman – Eleni Brooks says “Reading John’s gospel last week, I noticed that sometimes Jesus calls women “Woman”, like it’s their name and I don’t like it. So I sat with the discomfort and this is what came out…” 2023 Life Audit – we are now a little way into the New Year but it… Continue reading Food from around the worldwide web
Continuing to trace the rainbow
Back a few months back, as the news came in that Queen Elizabeth II had died, a rainbow appeared over Windsor Castle. It was a beautiful symbol of God’s goodness and promises at a time of grief. I’ve frequently talked in terms of “tracing the rainbow” based on the lyrics of the hymn “Oh Love… Continue reading Continuing to trace the rainbow
God did not make you a pastor to keep you going to church
I want to pause and think about a type of comment that I’ve heard a few times over the years. It goes something along the lines of. “Perhaps the reason that God made me a pastor was to keep me in church.” Such comments are perhaps tongue in cheek but personally I’m not convinced they… Continue reading God did not make you a pastor to keep you going to church
Serving with a limp – checking in on your mental health
We’re coming up to the third anniversary of my significant brush with anxiety and depression. It was back in November 2019 that I found myself signed off from work followed by quite a challenging and tumultuous period of time (and all of that before we hit COVID). I’ve told some of my story here and… Continue reading Serving with a limp – checking in on your mental health
Good questions about depression, anxiety and mental health
A few weeks back I had the opportunity to speak to a group of teenagers about mental health and to share my own story about experiencing depression and anxiety. After speaking for a few minutes, I opened the floor to questions. I expected an awkward silence and maybe some prompted questions from the leaders but… Continue reading Good questions about depression, anxiety and mental health
Look after your leaders’ mental health
I’ve written before about my own brush with anxiety and depression. You can read my story here, here and in the book, The Pastor with a thorn in his side (ed. Steve Kneale). I wanted to say a bit more about how churches can look after the mental health of their pastors and other leaders… Continue reading Look after your leaders’ mental health
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