A Path Through the Sea: One Woman's Journey from Depression to WholenessWm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1993 - 244 pages In this frank, instructive, and heartening personal story, Lillian Grissen tells about the severe depression that she herself experienced. Her pain - mental, emotional, and physical pain - was excruciating, and at first she felt hopelessly trapped in it. But with the help of a gifted Christian psychiatrist, Grissen began to stop blaming herself and to confront the core of her problem - her relationship as a child with her mother. Over a period of five long years - also with her husband's support, her pastor's compassionate counsel, and the right combination of therapy and medication, and God's gracious strength - Grissen gradually climbed out of the pit of her depression. "A profound yet simple book about a complex condition: clinical depression. Only one who has experienced the pain of the darkness of depression and the joy of the light of recovery could have had the courage to trace the arduous journey." - Katie Funk Wiebe, author of Bless Me Too, My Father |
Contents
A Rude Awakening | 1 |
Case No 5352 | 5 |
Hopes Thief | 9 |
My Own Fault | 11 |
Hitting Bottom | 16 |
Womans Role? | 20 |
Mercy | 26 |
The Kings Business | 31 |
The Core of the Matter | 108 |
Beginning | 121 |
Home | 129 |
Just for Credit | 136 |
Again | 143 |
How Long? | 149 |
Respite | 156 |
Truth and Its Perception | 160 |
I Cant | 38 |
The Girl with the Curl | 45 |
Lost Weekend | 54 |
Pa | 58 |
A Flicker of Courage | 64 |
Ma | 69 |
Sunday and Monday | 77 |
Fear | 87 |
Like Mother Like Daughter | 94 |
Easy Way Out | 100 |
Family Finally | 168 |
Tugging at Ties | 176 |
Yes There Is Life after Depression | 185 |
Afterword | 193 |
Understanding Depression | 195 |
A Husband Looks at Depression | 207 |
How a Parents Depression Can Affect Children | 213 |
Books That Have Helped Me in My Continuing Journey | 217 |
Common terms and phrases
able accept anger angry Anita antidepressant anxiety asked became began believed better Bible bless brothers called my doctor Calvin Seerveld Calvinist cause child childhood Christ Christian church clinical depression daughter depressed person Electroconvulsive therapy emotional enjoyed father fear feel felt forgive frequently friends girl go to college God's Grand Rapids Grissen guilt Hausa healing Hoekema hospital housework hurt husband idea illness John Trent knew learned live looked Lord Lost Weekend Lupwe Ma's Manic Depressive mental health minister mission field missionaries Monday months mother needed Netherlands neurotransmitters never Nigeria NRSV nurse Pa's pain parents patient prayed problems Psalm Psalm 23 psychiatrist realize relationship remember Scott Peck seemed session shock treatments sick Smedes sometimes spiritual stanza suffering from depression Sunday talk teacher tell therapy things thought told took understand wanted weeks woman wondered wrong