“I was praying without ceasing,” said Mark. “I was afraid of breaking. I thought I was going crazy.”
When Mark vulnerably described to Dr. Sutton how he was doing emotionally with all the trauma that he had experienced, Dr. Sutton said it was ordinary human capacity trying to adapt to abnormal stress.
“Mark, post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder are not mental illnesses,” Dr. Sutton told Mark in his office. “You’re not going crazy. All this stuff that’s going on right now is not your fault.”
Mark agreed with Dr. Sutton to go get counseling, but only as long as it was faith-based. “The only thing I was hanging onto was my belief in Jesus as a Christ-follower,” said Mark. “If I didn’t start off with faith-based counseling, then it would be a futile endeavor.”
As soon as he began his series of counseling, Mark noticed a positive change. “That’s because with Dr. Sutton I had an emotional breakdown, and then the confirmation that I wasn’t going crazy from someone who studies the mind, the psyche, and PTSD,” said Mark. “It was so reassuring to learn that all these circumstances of this trauma weren’t my fault. All these feelings that I was having were a normal response to extraordinary trauma.”
Mark was also told that PTSD is the only clinically diagnosed anxiety order that’s directly associated with a known cause. “These were landmark things for me because when I thought I going crazy, when I thought I was losing everything, and then I hear the diagnosis, I knew there was hope,” he said. “There was hope for recovery not only some recovery but complete recovery, to go back to feeling again, to loving again, to establishing relationships again.”
Lord, thank you for the hope we have because of your mighty power and grace.
“Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!” (Psalm 66:20)