Living with mental illness can suck the hope right out of you. When my depression and dissociative identity disorder were at their worst I had no hope; no hope for my marriage, no hope for my career, no hope of healing. At times, in my despair, blowing my head off or running my car into a concrete wall seemed like my only hope of relief from pain. It was at these times that my pastor was a voice of encouragement to me and taught me that compassionate treatment of mental illness requires a mouth that speaks encouragement.

My pastor believed in me when I no longer believed in myself. He encouraged me to see the light at the end of the tunnel that my mental illness had become for me. My pastor drew me back again and again to the words of hope contained in my religious tradition. He encouraged me to begin speaking and writing about my experience with mental illness, and when I did I found a new purpose and with that purpose hope. My pastor spoke words of encouragement to my wife as I wrestled with mental illness. Those words kept her going through some very dark days.

A mouth that speaks encouragement can counter the despair of stigmatization. A mouth that speaks encouragement can lighten the darkness of depression. A mouth that speaks encouragement can unshackle the chains of guilt and shame that often bind us in a hopeless dungeon of despair.

You don’t have to be a member of the clergy to have a mouth that speaks encouragement. Who needs you to be a mouth that speaks encouragement to them as they struggle with mental illness? If you have a mental illness do you take time to speak encouragement to yourself? Compassionate treatment of mental illness requires a mouth that speaks encouragement.

57.7 million Americans with a mental illness need people with a heart that forgives, an ear that listens, and a mouth that speaks encouragement. Will you help just one?