Help! I've Been Diagnosed with a Mental Disorder is the fruit of my own lived experiences. I know first-hand what it’s like to be labeled with a mental disorder.
Recently, Nate Brooks reviewed Help! I've Been Diagnosed with a Mental Disorder. He writes, "If you’re looking for a bite-sized book to walk through with someone distressed by a diagnosis, this book will serve you well."
Written by author Christine Chappell and produced under the editorial direction of Dr. Paul Tautges, this new resource offers stabilizing biblical truths to those who have been recently labeled with a psychiatric disorder.
In this episode of the 15:14 podcast, I speak with host Curtis Solomon about my minibook, Help! I've Been Diagnosed with a Mental Disorder. This interview originally aired on October 30, 2021.
In this episode of the 4-Freedom Podcast, I speak with hosts Jon Hollifield & James Safrit about my minibook, Help! I've Been Diagnosed with a Mental Disorder.
In this episode of the Equipping You in Grace podcast, I speak with host Dave Jenkins about my minibook, Help! I've Been Diagnosed with a Mental Disorder.
A book review by Christine M. Chappell of David R. Dunham's 31-day devotional with P&R Publishing, Addictive Habits: Changing for Good, which originally appeared at the Biblical Counseling Coalition.
"God’s Word provides powerful comfort in grief. Because scripture is alive and active, time in the Word settles our heart and anchors our emotions in loss. I’ve asked several friends who’ve walked through grief from various kinds of loss to share their favorite Bible verses to comfort in grief. These writers and ministry leaders each share a favorite scripture and how that verse impacted their grief." -Lisa Appelo
Forewarning our kids about the realities of sorrow can forearm them to face it by faith. Christ said these seasons would come, and that we would find comfort, hope, and peace by looking to him when they do.
In today's episode, Christine M. Chappell joins Bethany for a conversation about how to give our kids true, biblical comfort when they’re hurting. This isn’t about empty platitudes or band-aid fixes, but rather acknowledging our children’s suffering while pointing them to the trustworthy and eternal promises of God. Christine and Bethany discuss how we should respond to our children in these situations, and take a look at the comfort God’s word offers.
If you’ve found yourself caring for a depressed teen, maybe you’re wondering what God is up to in the midst of this heartbreaking time. While we cannot know all the ways that God intends to work in your teen’s despondency, the Scriptures do tell us what his goal is for you in this season.
On this episiode of Equipping You in Grace, host Dave Jenkins and Christine Chappell discuss how to walk with a teenager through depression, how the local church can help teenagers who are depressed and minister to them, along with her mini-book, "Help! My Teen is Depressed" (Shepherd Press, 2020).
It’s disorienting when a child is suffering. Our parental instinct is to come to our children’s rescue and “make it better.” But life lived in a fallen world means that we cannot always protect our children from disease and death. Money and medicine has its limitations. The truth is that our children are not immune to experiencing the effects of the curse on this world, which means they will look to those charged with their care for comfort, hope, and help when suffering strikes.
This interview originally aired live on March 12, 2020. Special thanks to host and Pastor Kevin Boling for inviting me to have a conversation about my new mini-book, "Help! My Teen is Depressed."
This message was originally presented during the 2020 Rooted Women's Conference at Community Bible Church in Savannah, GA on February, 29th, 2020.
The recording has been generously provided by the CBC communications team.
My family and I were honored to have been invited by our Pastor, Tracy Turner, to share about our journey through depression over the last 20 years. During this pastoral interview, I share my history with depression how I resolved to fix myself by faith when I became a new believer in Christ. My husband shares some of his perspective on what the challenges were when trying to walk alongside me during my depressive seasons. We talk about the dangers of idolizing healing (both physical and spiritual), the problem with pursuing personal goals rather than God's goals, and how the Lord worked through nearly two decades of our suffering sorrows in order to act as ministers of comfort to our teenager, who unexpectedly endured an intense period of autoimmune disease and despair herself. Pastor Tracy, Brett, and I seek to illumine the importance of being willing to comfort others with the same comfort that we ourselves have been comforted by God.
I had the pleasure of being interviewed on The Ride Home with John & Kathy radio show regarding how parents and caregivers can approach responding to the threat of coronavirus in their communities.
As the podcast completes its transition from The Hope + Help Project to IBCD's Hope + Help Podcast, this episode features a discussion between IBCD Director of Communications Ann Maree Goudzwaard and podcast founder Christine Chappell, exploring the various ways biblical counseling has personally impacted Christine's life and ministry.
The truth of Christ as our merciful high priest may, upon first glance, appear as an irrelevant consolation in times of need, but the book of Hebrews highlights the critical importance of Jesus’ role of the true and better priest of God’s people. Not only has the Son of Man entered into the Father’s presence as a forerunner on our behalf (Hebrews 6:20), but the book makes eight assurances of “better” things which directly result from Jesus’s permanent high priestly duty.
It was not until I became a follower of Christ that my perspective on death changed, and I came to understand it as something more than an instrument of destruction. In Christ, death is no doomsday — it’s a gateway.
While Revelation 21 specifically lists death, mourning, crying, and pain as fundamental grievances believers will face, there's a shocking lack of corporate preparation to meet with such sorrows. Removing the stigma of deeply painful sadness requires the local church’s unhurried commitment to making room for it on Sunday mornings and a desire to equip leaders in one-another care.
I had the pleasure of being interviewed on The Ride Home with John & Kathy radio show regarding my article at The Gospel Coalition, "How to Talk to Your Depressed Child." For fifteen minutes, we spoke about some of the challenges and necessities of caring for a child who is walking through depression. While I would have loved to have been able to expand on certain points (and of course, I neglected to say a few things I wish I would have), I hope the interview offers some helpful insights into the incredible difficulty of the situation, and stresses the need for compassion, grace, and God's truth in the midst of a disorienting season.
As parents, we can’t take the place of medical professionals, licensed counselors, or pastoral care. A child’s depressed feelings can indicate ordinary sadness or a more serious disorder, and we’ll typically need outside help to identify the nature of our child’s struggle. But parents do have something valuable to offer: love and encouragement.
Psalm 126 is a song of hope for those held captive by present sorrows and dire affliction. It encourages those who walk with weighted steps to wait expectantly for their God. There is a special promise for those who shed tears in desperate places—the sorrow will not endure forever. God will restore us once more, and our joy will be made all the greater for having endured the tribulation by faith. When rock bottom feels like the end of us, we can trust that Christ will hold us fast—for “with him is plentiful redemption” (Psalm 130:7).
Drinking to drown our sorrows, contrary to the chart-topping songs, is a dangerous—potentially deadly—way to respond to seasons of excessive sadness. Alcohol won’t lay its life down for us, but it can demand we lay down our life for it.
It’s true, the experience of depression is exhausting—both physically and spiritually. We find ourselves desperately feeling around for a light switch that we may finally land our fingers on a toggle. But alas, there are no quick remedies for instantly illuminating our gloom—no switch to flip, no immediate assuage of our pain. Yet, while depression is a season where our capabilities may be diminished, there are small sustaining graces to partake of which can carry us along while we wait.
Grief can often feel like a bully. It’s not uncommon for those who have suffered the loss of a loved one to be overtaken by waves of sorrow when they least expect it. Sometimes it’s a simple sight or smell that brings us to our knees; we’ll find ourselves head-in-hand, weeping as if the loss […]
Our faithful pursuit of taking pleasure in Jesus is the best witness we can offer our family. By taking the time to share how God is working in our lives, we attract our children to the larger story of God’s redemption. If Jesus is the Gift that keeps on giving, what better way to share the treasure than by inviting our children to come and see for themselves?
How we respond to disappointment reveals what we really trust and treasure. But there is a path forward for the dejected heart, and it involves trusting the protection and the promise of God’s providence.
Serve food for the sheep while growing the fold—these are not mutually exclusive tasks. The Good Shepherd wastes not an opportunity to carry one of His wanderers to safety. Let the church be a place where saints are built up in quality and converts are built up in quantity, for such is the work of kingdom people.
Depression demands to be heard—to have a voice. Ed Welch writes, “There are times when depression is saying something and we must listen.” If we don’t take notice of the dirges despondency sings, we fail to capitalize on an important catalyst for spiritual growth.
Sometimes disappointment comes in the form of forced humility—the moment when we must admit we cannot fix our problems or ourselves in our own strength. Sometimes we compound our sorrows by not recognizing the season we are in, and the error only serves to make things worse.
When mothers mourn their inability to "do better" and "be better," they can use it as an opportunity to press into God's grace or as an occasion to fall away from grace, believing they ought to be law-keepers instead of grace-receivers. What rebukes and encouragements does the Apostle Paul have to say on this matter? Continue reading...
Mental health issues can be complex in nature, and parents can run the risk of overlooking particular facets of treatment because of prejudices about underlying causes. But when we look to the Scriptures and see God serving the sorrowing with individualized, calculated affection, we see a multifaceted approach to managing mental anguish — one that acknowledges the dichotomy of man (as body and soul) and the necessity of the body of Christ.
In this video produced by Thrive Moms, I share five biblical truths that help mothers overcome anger by grace. Post also includes helpful links to biblical resources and audios to equip mothers to examine their hearts on the subject.
Walking through depression can be a dark, deep, lonely season of life–especially for mothers. It’s a topic I’ve written about in a number of ways, and a battle I continue to fight against by faith with every ounce of strength I am afforded by the Spirit. In this most recent video feature at Thrive Moms, […]
Join Christine Chappell as she shares a collection of stories, convictions, encouragements, and Scriptures from her book, “Clean Home, Messy Heart: Promises of Renewal, Hope, and Change for Overwhelmed Moms.” This live audio recording was taped at Cornerstone Community Church’s Mom2Mom group in Wildomar, CA on October 6th, 2016.
Mental health recovery can be a season plagued by fear and doubt. Our fears become particularly burdensome when we meditate upon the question, “Will I ever get better?” If you find yourself asking this question, I'd like to share some hard-learned encouragements from my own journey through recovery.
Extremes of wretchedness. Charles Spurgeon once said, “I am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to.” Suicidal ideations often begin in the crosshairs of extremes, where always and never intersect. The wretched “always be this way” and […]
In this Facebook LIVE recording, I share a message on the topic of “mom-envy,” exploring what it is, what the Bible calls it, ways it manifests itself in our lives, and how we can work in tandem with the Word and the Spirit for lasting heart change. This video was hosted by Laura Fleetwood, author/podcast […]