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“Beyond Blue” shares Hope and Persistence in Mental Health Journey

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This is my review of Therese Borchard’s Beyond Blue  that appears in this weekend’s print Catholic Post.  Look next week for an exclusive Q&A with author Therese Borchard.  I think it’s appropriate, but coincidental, that this review appears in print and here on Otoboer 1, the feast of St. Therese, the Little Flower.  Happy Feast day to Therese Borchard and all “little flowers.”

You‘ve probably heard the old quip about the man who prayed to God every night for to win the lottery.  Faithfully the man prayed, night after night, unceasingly pleading to win the lottery.  Finally, he heard the voice of God: “You need to meet me halfway here—buy a ticket.”
Sometimes, people of faith can be prone to fall into a dangerous tendency, expecting prayer and a deep relationship with God to cure all ills in ourselves, in our relationships, and in our world, without any help from us.  Yet that’s not truly Catholic.  What is Catholic is to recognize the good in the world that God made, and utilize that good, along with our faith to help overcome difficulties (if not exactly win the lottery).
Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Best of Bad Genes is a searingly honest look at Therese Borchard’s struggle with mental health issues.  Borchard, a writer (formerly a syndicated young adult columnist for the Catholic Post, among other newspapers, and currently author of the popular Beyond Blue blog on Beliefnet) writes the book from a Catholic perspective, but the book is really about the good tools she uses to get to and maintain wellness.
Beyond Blue is terrifically written, but frankly, at times it’s hard to read.  Borchard shares low points that include two hospitalizations, dozens of drug combinations, bad physicians, and suicide plans.  So why read the book?  Let me quote from Borchard herself:
“My sincere intention for Beyond Blue is that anyone who struggles with anxiety or depression—even in the slightest way—might find a companion in me, some consolation in the incredibly personal details of my story, and a bit of hope to lighten an often dark and lonely path.”
I think she has absolutely succeeded with this intention—and much, much more.
Everyone can learn from the self-care principles Borchard recounts in Beyond Blue as part of her recovery.  She writes well of how prayer and the spiritual life, attention to diet, exercise and good sleep; and healthy friendships, can all help maintain or lift one’s mood.   For many people, practicing these can be enough to achieve or keep on an even keel.
But we also learn from Beyond Blue that for some people, even those who haven’t been through Borchard’s deep struggles, this kind of self-care may not be enough.   And we can and should be enormously grateful to God for the minds of scientists and physicians who create medicines to treat the mind just as they treat the body.
The overarching message of Beyond Blue is something a dear priest friend likes to say: “Keep on keeping on.”  For most, that means “keep on” practicing self-care principles.  For those who find themselves in crisis, that means “keep on” reaching out for help, and “keep on” trying to find the right counselor or physician if there is not a good fit at first.  If medicine is helpful in your journey, “keep on,” as Borchard did, working with a medical team to find the right combination of medicine and other tools to achieve mental wellness.
Jesus said, “I came so that they may have life and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10).  Beyond Blue provides an honest, inspiring and hope-filled look at how one brave person continues to seek that abundant life. 

Catholic Post Book Group Review: Beyond Blue shares Hope and Persistence in Mental Health Journey

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This is my review of Therese Borchard’s Beyond Blue  that appears in this weekend’s print Catholic Post.  Look next week for an exclusive Q&A with author Therese Borchard.  I think it’s appropriate, but coincidental, that this review appears in print and here on October 1, the feast of St. Therese, the Little Flower.  Happy Feast day to Therese Borchard and all “little flowers.”

You‘ve probably heard the old quip about the man who prayed to God every night for to win the lottery.  Faithfully the man prayed, night after night, unceasingly pleading to win the lottery.  Finally, he heard the voice of God: “You need to meet me halfway here—buy a ticket.”
Sometimes, people of faith can be prone to fall into a dangerous tendency, expecting prayer and a deep relationship with God to cure all ills in ourselves, in our relationships, and in our world, without any help from us.  Yet that’s not truly Catholic.  What is Catholic is to recognize the good in the world that God made, and utilize that good, along with our faith to help overcome difficulties (if not exactly win the lottery).
Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Best of Bad Genes is a searingly honest look at Therese Borchard’s struggle with mental health issues.  Borchard, a writer (formerly a syndicated young adult columnist for the Catholic Post, among other newspapers, and currently author of the popular Beyond Blue blog on Beliefnet) writes the book from a Catholic perspective, but the book is really about the good tools she uses to get to and maintain wellness.
Beyond Blue is terrifically written, but frankly, at times it’s hard to read.  Borchard shares low points that include two hospitalizations, dozens of drug combinations, bad physicians, and suicide plans.  So why read the book?  Let me quote from Borchard herself:
“My sincere intention for Beyond Blue is that anyone who struggles with anxiety or depression—even in the slightest way—might find a companion in me, some consolation in the incredibly personal details of my story, and a bit of hope to lighten an often dark and lonely path.”
I think she has absolutely succeeded with this intention—and much, much more.
Everyone can learn from the self-care principles Borchard recounts in Beyond Blue as part of her recovery.  She writes well of how prayer and the spiritual life, attention to diet, exercise and good sleep; and healthy friendships, can all help maintain or lift one’s mood.   For many people, practicing these can be enough to achieve or keep on an even keel.
But we also learn from Beyond Blue that for some people, even those who haven’t been through Borchard’s deep struggles, this kind of self-care may not be enough.   And we can and should be enormously grateful to God for the minds of scientists and physicians who create medicines to treat the mind just as they treat the body.
The overarching message of Beyond Blue is something a dear priest friend likes to say: “Keep on keeping on.”  For most, that means “keep on” practicing self-care principles.  For those who find themselves in crisis, that means “keep on” reaching out for help, and “keep on” trying to find the right counselor or physician if there is not a good fit at first.  If medicine is helpful in your journey, “keep on,” as Borchard did, working with a medical team to find the right combination of medicine and other tools to achieve mental wellness.
Jesus said, “I came so that they may have life and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10).  Beyond Blue provides an honest, inspiring and hope-filled look at how one brave person continues to seek that abundant life. 

I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You

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Today’s first reading is from Job 1, about all the misfortunes that happened to Job.  Servant after servant came to tell Job of losing everything, and their “line” is, “I alone have escaped to tell you.”  And Job responds with,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

naked I shall return.
The Lord gave, the Lord has taken back.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

I am reminded of several random thoughts here that I hope will be somewhat cohesive.

*the lector for daily Mass, coincidentally, happened to be the October featured “Meet a Reader” that will appear in this weekend’s edition of The Catholic Post.  You’ll just have to check back later this week to see who it is, but suffice to say she is an excellent lector.  I always think when she is the lector, “Word on Fire,” because she reads in a very deep way (for lack of a better word, not “drahmatic” but moving and heartfelt–it’s hard to let your mind wander during her reading).  You know you are hearing the Word of the Lord.    I had arrived a bit late for Mass (not that that ever happens to me! hmm), so the reading has just started, but I was instantly drawn into the narrative.

*Job, scripture tells us, “committed no sin nor offered any insult to God.”  I think that is more difficult than anything when bad things happen.  Who can say they never complain to God?  I know I am extremely prone to this, for small things and big things.

*A suggestion for your Ipod: (and it happens to be on my running playlist), Blessed Be Your Name is a great song by the CCM band Tree 63, a meditation of sorts on this passage from Job.


*I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You: My Life and Pastimes
is the title of the excellent memoir by Ralph McInerny, who died last year.  He was a personal hero of mine and I wrote about him several times in my blogging life, so I’ve mined one of those old posts to share:

I met him once many years ago, when my husband and I were first married. McInerny gave a speech at Bradley University, and one of the hosting professors invited us to the after-speech gathering at his house.  I brought along a super chocolate cake.  It was good, with a chocolate-sour cream ganache frosting–now where is that recipe?

McInerny praised it by saying it was the “most chocolatey chocolate cake” he had ever tasted.  My husband, the philosopher in the family (by trade, degree, and temperament), said this was the highest compliment given by a philosopher.  McInerny agreed, and we all had a good laugh.

Several years ago my husband presented a paper at a conference at Notre Dame. I tagged along with the two children we had at the time.  McInerny was one of the organizers, and even though I saw him walking around the conference, I was always too shy to re-introduce myself and tell him how much I admired him.  Usually I am pretty bold about introducing myself to people.  Now I wish I had.

How he discusses writing in I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You is brilliant.    He takes the craft of writing seriously but not too seriously.  He speaks of it being a discipline and work, and the luck/serendipity involved in his success.

He has referred to Anthony Trollope, one of my favorite authors, at least three times in the few chapters I have read. He and/or his family regularly spent several years, and weeks of others, in Europe. He is a faithful Catholic family man with a large family.  What’s not to love?

Prayer of Blessed John Henry Newman

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I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created; I have a place in God’s counsels, in God’s world, which no one else has; whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man, God knows me and calls me by name.

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which he not committed to another.  I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.  Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his…I have a part in this great wor; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons.  He has not created me for naught.  I shall do good, I shall do his work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away.  If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.  My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us.  He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it.  He knows what He is about.  He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me-still He knows what He is about . . .

I ask not to see-ask not to know-I ask simply to be used.

Cardinal Newman, Patron Saint of Catholic Novelists…and Readers, too?

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I didn’t realize until I stumbled upon this Catholic Fiction website that Blessed John Henry Newman was considered the patron saint of Catholic novelists. I love this!  Perhaps he could also be the patron saint of Catholic fiction readers.  The site is run by a publishing house I had not encountered before–Idyllis Press, “publishing the catholic imagination.”

Newman is adopted as patron of Catholic novelists because he himself wrote two novels.  I have not read either of them, but I have seen in various places that they are well-done.

Incidentally, this site is chock full of interesting information and a book list of “Catholic fiction.”  Here is an explanation of “what constitutes Catholic fiction.”  I note the list includes all of my favorite author Jane Austen’s full-length novels, and the site includes tons of reviews of Catholic fiction and commentary.

Check it out!

A Great Read: New Feature at the Catholic Post Book Group

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I’ve been wanting for some time to highlight great reads, of all types of books.  Initially, I had intended to do this to highlight great fiction, especially those that are more family-friendly, but may have been missed by busy families.  I know that both for the voracious readers and the reluctant readers, there’s a need for fiction that will delight and inspire and just be great fun.  So primarily we’ll be highlighting fiction, especially those intended for kids, but enjoyed by all.  I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that any book worth reading when you are 10 is worth reading as an adult.  I heartily endorse that!

I would love to feature students from the diocese of Peoria who can even write about their favorite books, and I’ve started reaching out to solicit some of these reviews.  So plan to look for guest reviewers in the coming months.  And if you would like to contribute a review, please contact me through the comments or by sending an email to nmpiccione at me dot com.

Even though I plan to feature classic and great fiction, I also keep learning of terrific books that are new, and I want to highlight these.

One new book I read almost immediately upon receiving was How to Get to “I Do”: A Dating Guide for Catholic Women,  by Amy Bonaccorso.    Wow, what a great book!  I’m preparing a review and I hope to do an author Q&A in the near future.  Watch for it.

My dear husband has not commented on seeing this provocatively titled book around the my laptop, on the living room coffee table, and elsewhere in the house, either showing he is not paying attention or feels extremely secure–ha!  Actually, I am happily married for many years, but I found this book a fascinating and mature look at Catholic dating in these days.   Can’t wait to talk about it here and more with the author.