Family Troubles

I had to decide hard whether I was going to pub­lish this. I didn’t last time this hap­pened, but my family needs all the sup­port they can get right now. This after­noon my mother went back into the hos­pi­tal from her second sui­cide attempt in a few weeks. She again over­dosed on her med­ica­tion, but she once again escaped death. I don’t know if she’ll get another chance.

The last time it hap­pened I was sit­ting in a Per­spec­tives class, and I got a call that I needed to go the Grand­view Hos­pi­tal. I arrived, and I was told that we were basi­cally wait­ing on my mother to die. She had taken a lethal amount of med­ica­tion, and the sit­u­a­tion was hope­less. But some­how she barely escaped death. She was put back in a psy­cha­tric ward (the third time in the last few years) for eval­u­a­tion. They let her out, and our family was hoping that this time progress was made. I guess not.

She has always been a depressed women for as long as I can remem­ber, but things have only started to get really bad in the last few years. My father and her get­ting divorced was the thing that sent her down­ward, and she is still get­ting worse. She filed for chap­ter 11, and she just recently filed for chap­ter 7 which will pretty much ruin any kind of credit for quite a while. With med­ical bills over $30,000 she didn’t have a choice.

It’s becom­ing hard to con­tinue this fight. I have, in all hon­esty, grown rather apa­thetic to it. To come home and hear that your mother just attempted sui­cide is becom­ing a “normal” event. I feel the worse for my little brother (16) and my little sister (13) who have had to watch my mother go through all this first hand, because they have been the ones living with her (I cur­rently live with my father). They have become numb to the pain.

Please pray for her, but not just for her phys­i­cal con­di­tion, but for her spir­i­tual con­di­tion as well. She believes she is saved, but sadly she is not. I don’t know what’s harder: watch­ing your mother destroy her­self, or watch­ing your mother con­tinue to believe that she is saved.

“You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then van­ishes away.” – James

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17 total comments, leave your comment.
  1. Abs
    Feb 21st 2006

    Sorry to hear that bro… Its very easy to lose faith at times like this, keep faith that God is gonna heal her. I will be pray­ing for your family. Keep me in the loop…

  2. Perry
    Feb 21st 2006

    Diddo (to Chris)

  3. Kate McDonald
    Feb 21st 2006

    Wow…I occa­sion­ally come to this site to read an arti­cle and end up read­ing a few…had no idea things were so rough with your mom.

    I want you to know that I will really be pray­ing for your family and for her….recently a pastor friend of mine told me ‘there’s noth­ing so broken that it cannot be fixed’…doesn’t sound very ’spiritual’, but it encour­aged my heart as my hubby and I were expe­ri­enc­ing some very real mar­tial prob­lems.

    I don’t have your email any­more, but I have some infor­ma­tion that might be help­ful for your mom, but its some­what per­sonal and I would rather not share it on here. If you are inter­ested, let me know.

    Hoep this encour­ages you…from Ps. 27:13&14, I believe:
    “I would have despaired unless I had believed I would see the good­ness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord”

  4. Gwen
    Feb 21st 2006

    I am pray­ing for you and for your family as well.
    ~Psalm 46~

  5. Sonya
    Feb 22nd 2006

    Hi there, I really don’t know you as I just came to this site when doing a search on soul mates. How­ever, I want you to know that I am pray­ing for your mother, first and fore­most for her spir­i­tual sit­u­a­tion. Sec­ondly I am pray­ing for her mental status. I dare say the two are con­nected. Please remem­ber that depres­sion is a dis­ease, I know this is not an excuse but rather that she is likely not inten­tion­ally trying to hurt you or her sib­lings. The sui­cide attempts are a sad real­ity of an untreated dis­ease. I can only imag­ine how ter­ri­bly painful this is for you. I also real­ize how dark this time may be for your mom to do some­thing so dras­tic. What is it that makes you say that your mom is not saved? Its sad to think a person could be in such a dark place with­out the light of hope.

  6. Sonya
    Feb 22nd 2006

    Oh wow, I just real­ized we are very like minded in the­ol­ogy. Nice to know that there are others out there pur­su­ing good doc­trine. I think its hilar­i­ous that some­thing so.. undoc­tri­nal as “soul mates and whether or not it had a place in christianity” brought me to the site of some­one who has a pas­sion for apolo­get­ics. Thats cool!

  7. Alecia Niese
    Feb 22nd 2006

    Check your email… I am con­tin­u­ing to pray for you, your mother and the rest of your family. Know this, You are loved and “Be still and know that I AM GOD.”

  8. John McClure
    Feb 22nd 2006

    You and your family are always in my prayers.

  9. Ashley Keen
    Feb 22nd 2006

    Your mom will be in my prayers as well, Chris. Don’t let apathy get to you, I think it’s one of Satan’s strongest tools.

  10. Andy
    Feb 22nd 2006

    I’ll defi­nantly be pray­ing for her.

  11. Simon
    Feb 22nd 2006

    Chris, I will remem­ber this in my prayers.

    I am taken aback at the thought of a family member strug­gling this deeply. I am filled with com­pas­sion for you and for her.

  12. Paul
    Feb 22nd 2006

    Hey Chris,

    I’m throw­ing some up for you man. I under­stand to an extent to watch a mother do dam­ag­ing things to them­selves.

    But I want you to know that I’ve also seen God restore and do mar­velous things years later with my rela­tion­ship with my mother.

    He loves you. Stay strong.
    -PW

  13. Beth
    Feb 22nd 2006

    I am so very sorry, Chris.

  14. Sarah
    Feb 23rd 2006

    Chris, I’m so sorry to hear about your mom. That is a really tough thing to have to deal with. I’ll be pray­ing for you and your family in this sit­u­a­tion. Just con­tinue to talk with your mom about her sal­va­tion status as I’m sure you have been.

    (And in response to your xanga com­ment today, yes, since valentine’s he’s been at boyfriend status…although that doesn’t elim­i­nate us having cer­tain spir­i­tual issues to con­tinue to work through, at least it’s finally offi­cial).

  15. Greg
    Feb 23rd 2006

    Chris,

    Having dealt with depres­sion myself, I know a little of what your Mom might be going through. (I am look­ing right now, but can’t find the chap­ter and verse, how­ever even the apos­tle Paul suf­fered with some depres­sion). I don’t know you very well (we’ve met once), but my advice to you is to echo what some­one said above. Do NOT let Satan use this as a foothold for apathy, either in your rela­tion­ship with your par­ents, or with Christ (I doubt you would in the latter). Keep fight­ing the good fight, know­ing that your Chris­t­ian broth­ers and sis­ters gen­uinely have your back. Pray with­out ceas­ing about your Mom’s mental con­di­tion and her walk. I will add you and your family to my prayer list. You are to be com­mended for your trans­parency.

  16. Greg
    Feb 25th 2006

    I finally found where the apos­tle Paul talks about his despair and how he has sought como­fort from God. I hope this helps.

    2 Corinthi­ans 1:3-11 (NIV)

    The God of All Com­fort
    3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of com­pas­sion and the God of all com­fort, 4who com­forts us in all our trou­bles, so that we can com­fort those in any trou­ble with the com­fort we our­selves have received from God. 5For just as the suf­fer­ings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our com­fort over­flows. 6If we are dis­tressed, it is for your com­fort and sal­va­tion; if we are com­forted, it is for your com­fort, which pro­duces in you patient endurance of the same suf­fer­ings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our suf­fer­ings, so also you share in our com­fort.
    8We do not want you to be unin­formed, broth­ers, about the hard­ships we suf­fered in the province of Asia. We were under great pres­sure, far beyond our abil­ity to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sen­tence of death. But this hap­pened that we might not rely on our­selves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has deliv­ered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will con­tinue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gra­cious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

  17. Jason Zastrow
    Mar 4th 2006

    You and yours are in my con­stant prayer.

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