Bipolar Mental Illness

Christine Chappell

Help! I’ve Been Diagnosed with a Mental Illness! 

The words, “You have a mental illness” bring fear, uncertainty, sometimes shame, loneliness, and even hopelessness.

Christine Chappell heard those words as a young woman. They helped her understand many of her struggles with depression and self-harming behavior but also took her into a foreign land where she had no road map. Christine talks to Sharon Betters about how her journey began as a young adult until she knew if she didn’t get help, she might take her own life. While her diagnosis helped make sense of her disturbing emotions, it also confronted her with numerous decisions about treatment and how this diagnosis impacted her identity. Christine shares her story and gives practical ways she learned to navigate this hard place and even found healing.

One key for her was to understand her diagnosis did not define her so she talks about the importance of understanding our identity in Christ. This conversation is filled with “salty peanuts”, that is, we are hoping you hear just enough to make you want to know more. In this message, Christine develops the truth of bettering understanding how our perspective on our identity is a freeing part of living with depression or mental illness.

Learn more about Christine at christinemchappell.com.

Check out Christine’s Hope + Help for Aging Women podcast where she interviews Susan Hunt and myself on this topic.

 Buy Christine’s book: Help! I've Been Diagnosed with a Mental Disorder 

 Christine Chappell is the author of Help! I've Been Diagnosed with a Mental Disorder, Clean Home, Messy Heart: Promises of Renewal, Hope, and Change for Overwhelmed Moms, and Help! My Teen is Depressed. She presently serves as Outreach Director and Hope + Help Podcast Host for the Institute for Biblical Counseling & Discipleship and is passionate about advocating for biblical one-another care in the context of the local church. Her writing has been featured at Desiring God, The Gospel Coalition, Risen Motherhood, and other Christian platforms. Christine blogs regularly at christinemchappell.com and lives in South Carolina with her husband and three children.