Behind The Mike Podcast
Behind The Mike Podcast is a Christ-centered show where host Mike Stone dives deep into inspiring stories and profound insights from guests who view life through a biblical lens. Each episode offers hope, encouragement and wisdom to help you navigate life's challenges with faith and purpose.
Tune in for conversations that uplift your spirit and strengthen your walk with Christ.
Send your questions or topics to Mike@BehindTheMike.net
The podcast is also available on YouTube at
https://youtube.com/@behindthemikepodcast
Behind The Mike Podcast
Overcoming the Darkness: Kate Basinger's Journey to Hope
How do you navigate life when everything seems to be falling apart? Join us on Behind the Mic Podcast as we feature the inspiring journey of Kate Basinger. Raised in a single-parent home, Kate battled anxiety and depression from a young age. Despite her initial reluctance, she eventually found some relief through antidepressants, though not without facing significant side effects. Her life took a dramatic turn during a spring break trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where she met her future husband. Kate believes in the transformative power of sharing personal stories, and we delve into how doing so can offer hope and healing to those in similar situations.
Learn valuable insights on coping with anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Don't miss this transformative episode.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline 24/7 at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Additionally, you can get help with:
- Anxiety
- Bipolar Disorder
- Depression
- OCD
- Panic Disorder
- Paranoia
- PTSD, and
- Scizophrenia
by visiting
https://mentalhealthhotline.org/christian-faith-resources
or call them at 866-903-3787
God loves you and so do we! There is hope!
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Introduction: Kate Basinger
01:22 - Kate's Story
20:23 - Mike Responds to Kate's Anxiety Story
23:32 - Kate, Grateful to God, Family & Friends for Support
37:00 - Kate's Family Today
54:14 - Kate's Words of Advice & Encouragement
#mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #anxiety #depression #suicide #hope #resilience #faith #support #community #personalstory #KateBasinger #BehindTheMikePodcastThank you, Kate, for sharing your powerful story with us.
All right guys. Well, thank you for joining us again on Behind the Mic Podcast, and we always want to try to offer hope in what we do. Sometimes it's more informational. Today is definitely about hope, and I met this young lady not too long ago, kate Basinger. Thank you for joining us on the podcast today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's a real honor.
Speaker 1:So we met on a project that we were both doing for the Women's Resource Center here in town and you shared a little bit of your story, which just really intrigued me. When I am walking through everyday life, god just drops people into my path. They have amazing stories and I'm such a big believer in all of us sharing our story because somebody's going through the same things we are and we can use those moments in our lives that are not so great to help others and, I think, even provide some healing in our own lives. So I want you to, I just want you to share kind of what we talked about and I know you speak, and so I kind of just want to allow you just to share your story and kind of where you were at years ago, where you're at now, and and offer some hope to those out there listening and watching.
Speaker 2:Sure, absolutely. I would be glad to share. So just to give you a little backstory on my life in a nutshell, I was raised in a single parent home from age two on. My parents divorced when I was very young. I was raised by my dad and I won't get into all the details of that, but basically I was raised by my dad and I won't get into all the details of that, but basically I was raised by my dad and he is a believer now. I want to make sure I say that in case he's listening to the podcast. So he is definitely walking with the Lord now and is back in church with his wife after many years of not attending church. So I'm very thankful for that.
Speaker 2:But at the time I would say I was not being raised in a Christ-centered home. I'll say that my grandparents, his parents, were very influential on me from a young age and I would say that I was a very moral person. I liked to follow the rules. I didn't like to get in trouble. So I would have deemed myself quote unquote a good person.
Speaker 2:But it wasn't until well, I guess, when I was in elementary school I struggled with anxiety. I wouldn't have labeled it that at that time. But looking back in hindsight I can definitely see that I was an anxious child. I can remember every year before school, at least until probably third or fourth grade until probably third or fourth grade, maybe even later. I'd have to ask my dad on that one, but I remember I would get so nervous about going to school each year that for like the first week I would like make myself physically sick before I would go to school and my dad would have to talk to the teachers about it.
Speaker 2:And I was a great student and I had a lot of great friends. But, for whatever reason, I was just really anxious about making that transition each year. I'm definitely not a person I found out over the years that deals well with change and I'll get into that more as I share more about my story later. But so I started off, you know, as an anxious child and I, like I said, I was a good student. I went to high school, I was in sports and I was a golfer. My family owns a golf course or did own a golf course in Illinois, where I'm from originally at the time, and so I was a golfer, I was big into music and I probably didn't really recognize that I was dealing with some issues of depression until I went to college. I was very popular in high school. My boyfriend and I were prom king and queen. So you know I went from being a big fish to a small fish very quickly when I went away to college.
Speaker 2:And my roommate was local and so she wasn't around very much and growing up as an only child, I was very excited to have a roommate. I was like, oh my gosh, I've never had a roommate. You know, this is so exciting. And so when she wasn't there very much, I was, you know, pretty down and I was just missing my family a lot.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:I was very homesick. So it was probably I don't think it was until my sophomore year of college that I actually decided to seek medical help about it. It wasn't so much that I wasn't open to doing that, as I just don't think I realized that that's what was really happening. You know, my family probably just talked it up as though you're just freshmen. You're homesick, you know. But it definitely continued. And so I went to a doctor and they prescribed me an antidepressant, which was helpful. It did make me very tired.
Speaker 2:I remember in college being that student that was always falling asleep in my afternoon classes and it kind of became a running joke like is Kate going to make it through this afternoon class or not? I'm like very funny, this afternoon class or not, I'm like very funny. But yeah, that was definitely a side effect of one of the medications I was taking at that time. And so, fast forward my senior year of college. I went to Puerto Vallarta, mexico, with some of my friends. We were there for spring break. It was kind of our last hurrah before we graduated. I still had one more year of school to finish up my master's in occupational therapy, but we went to Puerto Vallarta and we met some people on the beach behind our resort, and one of those people that we met is my husband today. Wow, we did. We met on vacation in Mexico and I know they say what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico, but in our case, we ended up making it a lifelong story.
Speaker 1:Hard to keep a secret with that right. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So he was a great influence on me. I guess I should backtrack just to get into the Christian aspect of that a little bit. So my junior year of college I got plugged into a church and I attended youth group and things like that in high school, but I wouldn't say I was real active in my faith. I did decide to get baptized. My senior year my grandfather actually baptized me, which was really special, and I was really on fire for the Lord right before I went to college. But then I definitely got involved with people that weren't making that a priority and so I did the party scene and things like that in college which you know I wish I could have changed. But I know that God brought me through all of that and led me to meeting my husband, who was a great influence on me as a Christian. He came from a very godly home, was raised in a Christian school, his whole life just a real strong foundation His family built. You know they did devotions together as a family on a regular basis, and so it was just very different than what my upbringing looked like and so we met.
Speaker 2:I finished up my fifth year of college and I moved to Ohio because he was five years older than me and had already bought a house, and so we didn't believe in living together before we were married, and so I lived with a friend of his in her apartment for a while before we got married. For a while before we got married, and when I moved to Ohio, I was dealing with a lot of change which, I mentioned before, I don't handle very well. Yeah right, and I was actually diagnosed by a local doctor with adjustment disorder because I was trying to plan our wedding, which was, let's see. So we started dating in March of 2005 and we were scheduled to get married in March of 2007. And so I had a little over a year that I was planning our wedding.
Speaker 2:I was planning our wedding in a different state, in Illinois, which is where I'm from, was not in that state, was studying for my national certification exam to become a licensed occupational therapist and was living with a complete stranger.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:Who was wonderful, but he was a stranger to me at the time. Sure, yeah, yeah, right. And I actually got to the point where I really didn't like my job at all. I started having panic attacks when I would have to see new patients and my anxiety just got really, really bad. I lost a ton of weight. I was just not mentally healthy at all. I was coming home crying almost every night from work and I told my fiancé at the time I just home crying almost every night from work and I was just. I told my fiance at the time. I just said something's got to give. I can't, I can't keep going on like this. And he really discouraged me from quitting my job because I had gone to school, you know, for five years and did all my clinical rotations and everything, um, and I won't get into all of that. I did have some, unfortunately, bad experiences that weren't necessarily my fault, but I think there was just a miscommunication or something, and so I got pulled from one of my clinical rotation sites and it was really humiliating for me. And so I didn't have a lot of confidence as myself, as an occupational therapist, going into the career and into my first job. And, um, I was just doing a lot. I was doing outpatient, I was doing nursing home care, I was doing home health all in a single day and it was just too much for me as a new graduate, and so I ended up quitting my job.
Speaker 2:And this was before Scott and I got married and I hit rock bottom depression. And when I say rock bottom I mean rock bottom, like I would lay in bed till one or two o'clock in the afternoon at my apartment. My roommate didn't know what to do. You know, she was concerned about me, but she was just like, and she was a Christian and she was very kind, but again, she just didn't probably know how to handle it. And so, um, that was when I went to the doctor and got diagnosed with adjustment disorder and depression and they put me on a medication which unfortunately made me suicidal. So here I am trying to plan my wedding in a couple of months and I'm on the verge of wanting to kill myself. And it was such a scary place to be. But I think I had enough positive things driving me, like my future wedding, that I just kind of pushed through it and I was like, okay, like I changed medications and I started to get better.
Speaker 2:Um, so, fast forward, I switched careers. I started working at the University of Findlay as an admissions counselor and I loved my job, it was really fun. But they have an occupational therapy program there and some of the faculty at the time had gotten word that I used to be an OT, and so they started questioning me like what are you doing in admissions? Why aren't you working as an OT? And like you should come over to our department, and those kind of things. And so I started really questioning myself like, did I do the right thing? Should I not have quit my career? And so I started to have panic attacks really badly.
Speaker 2:And this was in the first year of my marriage. I moved in with Scott and things were kind of rocky at first for us because I was kind of spoiled growing up by my dad and, let's just say, scott didn't exactly roll off the red carpet for me, and so I didn't handle that very well and thought why aren't you treating me like the queen that I deserve to be treated as? And so there was just, you know, some tension with that. But then the panic attacks started and they just got worse and worse and worse, to the point where I was scared to go to bed at night. I was scared to wake up and have to deal with it all over again. Sleeping was kind of my coping mechanism, because I knew that was the only way I could shut my brain off. Because I knew that was the only way I could shut my brain off.
Speaker 2:And so one Saturday morning in November of 2007, I went downstairs and I got on our computer and I started looking up ways to kill myself and I decided I would take a bunch of pills, because I'm a chicken and I would never want to do anything to physically harm myself, and so I felt like that was the easiest way. It wasn't so much that I wanted to die, it was just I just couldn't get my brain to turn off and I'm like I don't know what else to do, like I don't want to live like this for the rest of my life. This is horrible. And so I had you know I was and my husband came downstairs this was in the morning and I was just sitting on our couch in the dark in the living room and he said what are you doing? And I just said I just took a bunch of pills. And he's like what? And I said just took a bunch of pills. And he's like what? And I said I took a bunch of pills. I just I can't do this anymore. And so he's shrieking and crying hysterically and he grabs me and he throws me in the car and drives me to the nearest hospital and they pumped my stomach. I don't remember any of it.
Speaker 2:And I was admitted to Lima Memorial Hospital to their inpatient psych unit, and it's nothing against Lima Memorial. I didn't have a very good experience there. Nothing against Lima Memorial. I didn't have a very good experience there. They just kind of take away a lot of your dignity because you're a suicide risk. So they're constantly watching you all the time. And so I just felt like I had no privacy. I mean, I couldn't even take a shower without somebody watching me and it was just very humiliating to me. And I know that wasn't their intention and I'm sure their program is good for some people and has been helpful for some.
Speaker 2:By the time it just I just kind of felt like I was going through the motions just to say what I needed to say so I could get out of the hospital and get back to my normal life again.
Speaker 2:But when I was in the hospital, I had just finished like a small group where we all worked together talking and meeting with the counselor, and I went back to my room and I had my Bible. I wasn't really reading it regularly at the time, but I had it and I just felt God nudging me to open my Bible. I didn't know where I was supposed to look in my Bible, but I just felt like he was nudging me to look at my Bible and so I opened my Bible and I opened it to Psalm 40. And I'm just going to read it here to you so you can hear the verses that literally just jumped off the page at me. So in Psalm 40, verse 12 through 14, it says For troubles without number surround me, my sins have overtaken me and I cannot see. 14. It says to take my life be put to shame and confusion.
Speaker 2:May all who desire my room be turned back in disgrace amen and I am literally getting chills right now um yeah I was just like, oh my goodness, like I just started weeping and I've never heard God speak so clearly to me before that day, and it was from that day on that I knew okay, god, you saved me for a reason. Why am I here and some other people are not here?
Speaker 2:yeah and I knew that he had a purpose for my life. I didn't 100% know what it was at that time, but I knew he has a purpose for my life. I'm here for a reason and thank God for that. So, yeah, I just wanted to share those verses because it's. Yeah, I almost got that verse tattooed actually on my wrist just because I thought, oh, this will be a good way for me to share my testimony with others, but my husband's not a big tattoo person. So.
Speaker 2:I decided to not do that, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:You know, kate, one thing that I have learned over the years just very clear, is that we are all broken, and I know that you have more to share and I'm excited to hear more. But I think it took me. We're very similar growing up. I remember going to school. It was through the school year and I would always be sick to my stomach all the time. My parents found that if I got the old roll of roll aids and I put them in my pocket, I never used them, but if I had them I was great.
Speaker 1:I remember there were days when I forgot them and I was just freaking out. It was my calming mechanism just to know that it was there if I needed them, and I do. I remember dealing with that type of anxiety as well. I don't know why. I grew up in a great family. I had great parents, but I think there's a lot of people out there listening to your story that go I know what you're talking about and you know you mentioned mental health and that's kind of a taboo word in our society is you know there's something mentally wrong? No, taboo word in our society is you know there's something mentally wrong? No, you know, we just came out of a season of COVID a few years ago and you know, if we have something physically wrong like a virus or something like that, you know we're not ashamed to go say, hey, I need to go to a doctor and I need to get some help to fix this, but we don't.
Speaker 1:There's still a stigma that surrounds the mental health, the anxiety, the depression, suicidal thoughts, all those things. And the enemy you know, it says in scripture the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. He can push us in those areas that will make us harm ourselves because we can't face the fact that we are all broken. We are only, like you said, god has a purpose for your life. Well, he has a purpose for all of our lives. We just need to understand that and know that even when we're so fallible and we're so feeble, he uses that to see the greatness we're allowing God to use us to reveal how great he is in our lives. And so, yeah, I kind of wanted to give you a little break there, but also just to share that.
Speaker 1:You know, I struggle the same way. So I resonate with that as a young person and I struggle with anxiety and still do at times, and I think that it's okay that we talk about that and it's healthy and it can help us. So, yeah, so, coming out of that, you're at Lima Memorial Hospital. Not a lot of dignity there because of what you were diagnosed with at the time. Where does it go from there? You're a believer, you're married. Your husband is involved in this as well. Where does it go from there?
Speaker 2:So I definitely want to give a shout out to my church just because, since I'm not from here, they have become my family. They were there and I will do some name drops, if that's okay. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Grace Brooke. It was Grace Burke Holder at the time. She's a dear friend of mine and she was the deaconess of our children's ministries at our church, which our church used to be called St John Mennonite in Pandora, ohio. It's now called St John Bible Church, but my husband and I have gone there for over 20, well, over almost 20 years. For me he's gone there for over 20 years and it's just an amazing body of believers that just come alongside of you. I say Grace Dan Amstutz he has since passed away, but just an awesome man of God that was like a second father to me and I'm just. They were there for me. They saw me in the ugliest times when I was just in a ball on my floor just shaking and crying and just not myself. But they were there praying over me. And, grace, I remember when we used to live in Pandora.
Speaker 2:I remember her walking through my house and I want to mention this just because I think not only as believers, if we do deal with mental issues, is it just that for me it was a chemical imbalance, but there was also spiritual warfare majorly going on because when Grace walked up to my house the one time she said, it physically felt heavy to her, and so she went around my house and anointed all the different rooms with oil and prayed over them and she came up to my bedroom and that was where I struggled the most was getting in and out of bed yeah she didn't know that.
Speaker 2:she said she felt the heaviest presence on my side of the bed. She didn't know what side of the bed I slept on, and so I know for a fact that satan was trying to wrestle me and attack me and attack me and attack me and it me and it was like physically a battle every day just trying to get out of bed. So if you have been there with depression, with anxiety, I just want to encourage you that you are not alone, that there are so many people that deal with this and are scared to talk about it because they think that they're the only ones that deal with this and you're not. You're not so many people.
Speaker 2:Maybe your story is not exactly the same as mine, but so many people deal with this and I would not have gotten through this if it wasn't for my faith in Jesus Christ, my church family, my husband and my own family walking alongside of me through this. I mean it has been a journey and my husband and my husband God bless him. He's like. I don't believe in divorce. I attempted suicide in our first year of marriage.
Speaker 2:He could have easily said this lady's crazy, I'm leaving. And he didn't. He stood right by my side. He didn't understand, but he would talk to people and he would read things and he would try to just learn more about what I was dealing with so that he could understand and be a supportive husband, and I'm so grateful for that, so grateful.
Speaker 1:That's not always the case, and so, yeah, how amazing to have that support there, so incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I guess fast forward from there. So that was in 2007. 2008, we were at church and it was like a sharing Sunday where they would just pass the microphone around and allow different people to stand up and just talk about how God's been moving in their lives. And I was literally shaking in my chair, like I physically felt like somebody was just like pushing me forward to get out of my chair and I'm like I look at my husband and I'm like what's going on? You know, he's like I don't know and, um, I was like I have to go speak and he's like what? And I'm like I think the Holy Spirit is telling me to get up and speak. I cannot tell you what I even said to this day, mike. I have no idea what I even said, but I got up and I told my story in front of my whole church.
Speaker 2:And that was probably over 400 people. You know that I got up in front of and shared that story with. So I had people reaching out to me that were just like I never would have realized this about you, because on the outside I carry myself a certain way, and I was very good at putting my mask on, my happy mask on when I would go to church on Sundays and Kate's fine, I'm all fine, you know, but really inside, there wasn't fine at all, and so I was just thankful for the people that reached out to me after that and encouraged me, and I developed some really close friendships from people that had reached out to me after that that were so supportive and so um, so that was just amazing.
Speaker 2:And then I was doing really well, like I had gotten on a medication when I was hospitalized in 2007, and it was really helping me and I mentally was doing really well and I was still working as an admissions counselor and that was going really well counselor, and that was going really well. And in 2000, in February of 2011, my husband and I decided to go on a mission trip with Mission Possible, which is an organization in Findlay, and they were very active, like with our church, and a lot of people from our congregation have gone there many times, and so my husband and I decided to join this team that was going and it was such an amazing experience. I thought we were going to go and help these people and I came back and I just realized how much they helped me in return. I really started to question myself and why am I where I'm at? Why am I in America and I'm turning my water on and wasting it, while they're just like walking miles upon miles and hours upon hours just to get dirty water, and I just it just made me really think about things and appreciate things a lot more. But I was really struggling and I was just really wrestling with why am I here and there, there? And I started to kind of spiral again and I just I'm not sure what exactly. I don't. I don't want to say that that trip like caused me to go into one of those mental states again, because I it may have just been the timing, I don't know, but I had stopped taking my medication that fall before because I was doing so well, I decided on my own, without seeking my doctor, to stop my meds, and I never should have done that.
Speaker 2:So fast forward from February, when we went to Haiti, to May of 2011,. I attempted suicide a second time and this time I just got in my car in the garage and shut the garage and turned it on and I was actually writing notes to family members. But I had my phone with me and my husband just happened to call while I was in the car and, for whatever reason, I was like no, I'm not going to pick it up, I'm not going to pick it up. But I picked it up and told him and so so obviously he's like get out of the car, open the garage, like I will be home as quickly as I can, and I was just like I'm not going back to Lima Memorial. I said I will go to an inpatient facility but I will not go back there.
Speaker 2:So he sent me to Orchard Hall in Finley through Blanchard Valley and I had a wonderful experience there. So he sent me to Orchard Hall in Findlay through Blanchard Valley and I had a wonderful experience there. They got me back on some meds again and kind of panged things up a little bit and I went back home and was doing really well and I don't want to say I haven't had any episodes of depression or anxiety since then, but nothing to the extent like I did back then. So fast forward to 2012,. My husband and I had been trying to get pregnant for several years. Um and my doctor put us on some fertility meds and I was only on it for a month and I got pregnant, and I got pregnant with five babies.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 2:And so I went to my first ultrasound appointment Never been to an ultrasound appointment before and I remember the ultrasound tech saying just a minute, I'm going to go grab somebody. And I'm thinking I'm looking at my husband like, oh no, what's wrong, you know? And so she grabs the doctor, and the doctor comes in and they're like well, we have some good news and we have some bad news. And I'm like, ok, and they said, well, the good news is that you still have two viable babies, but the bad news is is that you've lost three.
Speaker 2:And I remember just looking at my husband like they were speaking in a foreign language or something Like. What did they just say to me? I just couldn't gonna mentally process it, um. But I share that because god kept reminding me when I was pregnant with my twin daughters, morgan and natalie, um, that even though I had tried to take my life not one time but two times here, he blessed me with twins. And it just gives me goosebumps thinking about it, because it just shows what an amazing God we serve and just the faithfulness that he has and how much he cares for us, and so I just love that part of my journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we've all seen in our lives those things that God just brings to our attention and he doesn't have to show us anything, he doesn't owe us anything. But I think we just experienced that this past weekend when we took my son back to college. And God is such a good God.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I think that so many people feel like he's this. I think it was Jonathan Edwards that said you know that I feel like I'm. You know he's holding me by a thread over the fires of hell, and that's not the way that God operates. If you read scripture, he loves us. He loved us to send his own son to go through what he did on the cross. And why wouldn't he care about us and do good things for us? And so he does redeem. Just reading a story about another guest that will be on the podcast soon about redeeming tragedy. And that's the way God works. He loves us. We experience the love that we have for our children. We can't fathom that God loves us more, but he does, and your story conveys that. And how amazing. Just yeah, and you don't have just two now nope.
Speaker 2:So my twins were, I think, 11 months old and I was at the doctor's office and I thought I had a sinus infection that was making me nauseous, and it was not a sinus infection.
Speaker 2:I was pregnant, so then I had my amazing my third beautiful daughter, brooklyn, and, uh, she was born in may of 2014, so my twins were born in September of 2012. And then Brooklyn came along 20 months later. So, yes, I did have three in diapers at one time. Yes, it was a lot. And were there times where I probably wasn't the greatest mom?
Speaker 1:Yes, were there times where I probably wasn't the greatest mom, yes, um, but those first few years were, were definitely survival mode for me, and um but my girls are amazing.
Speaker 2:Um, they all have accepted the Lord. Um, we pray together as a family every night. Um, I'm just so thankful. Um, I didn't have what they've had growing up, and so I just don't want them to take it for granted. You know what I mean. Like um, and we try to remind them that um cause they have been spoiled by having a multitude of grandparents, with having me, having divorced parents and things like that. Um, they definitely have a lot of people, a lot of extra people that love them. Um, that's right, extra people that love them.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:But I just don't want them to take for granted that they live in a home where all their needs are met and they are genuinely loved.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just. I'm just thankful that they want to learn more about God and that they want to go to church camps and they want to attend Awana at our church and just all these things, that I've just seen growth in them and how they have handled adversity so much more maturely than I ever would have at their age, so that's been really cool.
Speaker 1:When you look back on your life. I'm sure that you've had those moments where you sit and just kind of sit back and look at what you have, what God has given you the husband, the three daughters where you're at in your life right now and do you wonder how things would be different had you been successful in the suicide attempts earlier, and have you ever seen how God really has redeemed that? Can you talk to that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So. There's been many a time I've thought of that a lot when I've heard of other people that have attempted suicide and I don't really like to use the word successfully but where they have actually put themselves in it does. It makes me stop and think and be thankful to God. That God, why? Why then? Why not me? Why did you choose me?
Speaker 2:And I believe that he has given me the personality that I have to be vulnerable and just willing to share with other people, because people need to know that they're not walking alone through this. And, um, it's a really, really difficult thing dealing with mental illness. Um, but honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. Um, because I, I, I have a dear friend who also deals with anxiety and she said that if she wasn't dealing with it, that she's not sure she would be walking with the Lord like she is, that she doesn't feel like maybe she would be leaning on him like she does for that strength if she didn't feel like maybe she would be leaning on him like she does for that strength if she didn't have it. And I'm really glad that she shared that with me because it really just gave me a new perspective on, yes, it's a difficult thing to deal with and, yeah, there are days where I'm like, oh, my goodness, lord, I really wish I didn't have to deal with this, of course, but in the big picture, I am thankful because God has used it to help many other people. I've been able to reach out. I've been able to mentor at the Women's Resource Center through just friends and people, through my church, my own children. My youngest daughter has dealt with same anxiety over the last year and it was really affecting her, and so I've been able to pour into her.
Speaker 2:And so I know that God uses our trials. You know our trials become our testimony and our messes become our message. You know there's so much truth in that and, like you said before, we're all broken people and we all just need the Lord. We need the Lord to guide us and sustain us and give us peace. I mean, I can't even tell you the amount of peace that God has given me.
Speaker 2:Like my husband has been dealing with cancer for the last three years and people are just like always commenting on like how strong we are, and I'm just like it's not me. None of this is me. It's the Lord working through me and the Lord, working through my husband, that we've been able to be a testimony to God's grace and God's peace, because I haven't been worried about my husband through this whole process. I mean at times, yeah, maybe a little bit I don't want to say not at all process. I mean at times, yeah, maybe a little bit I don't want to say not at all but overall I've had so much peace and it's just amazing.
Speaker 2:I had so much peace when my twins were born seven weeks early and they were in the hospital for almost a month Like times where someone with anxiety shouldn't have peace. I had peace and I really don't sit around and worry about things because I know that it doesn't do me any good. Matthew 6 talks about tomorrow having enough worry of its own. So we're just, we're called to just live and have the hope and the peace and you know all those different fruits of the spirit that God gives us if we just live with an attitude of gratefulness and gratitude and just yeah, I'm just so thankful that I have God in my life and I'm thankful for changes I've seen in family members.
Speaker 2:You know like I shared that my dad and my stepmom are actively going to church it's just been. I mean, my dad hadn't been in church for 40 years and he actually verbalized to my husband and I that the reason that he was back in church was because of Scott, my husband, and everything that he's been going through and just seeing how he's handled it. It just really spoke to my dad's heart and I'm so thankful for that.
Speaker 1:Wow, very well said, and I just want to thank you for sharing your story. I don't care how many times you do it. I don't take for granted anytime somebody shares their story with me, because you do have to be vulnerable. We live in a society today where social media is who we are, you know. It becomes the face of who we are, and nobody wants to share the junk, nobody wants to pretend like there's anything wrong. So being vulnerable in our society today is such a huge thing and the thing is too, kate, there are many that are listening and watching right now who are resonating with what you're saying, and Jesus Christ is our hope, is our hope.
Speaker 1:I think that when we have such problems today with alcoholism and drugs and all the other things, addictions and I think it's because we as a society are trying to fill that hole in ourselves that only God can fill, and when we find that it clicks, and I also think that when we go through those difficult times, it helps us to, like you said, it helps us to lean on God, because if we had everything that we wanted, would we need God? I think it would be so easy in our world just to say you know God is an afterthought, because my life is great and that's a deception by the enemy, because what we have here is temporal and what you're talking about in your story all pushes us to look toward the eternal and I'm so grateful for that and thank you for sharing your story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:For those that are listening, and you've given some great advice. What would be your final thoughts to those who are struggling with maybe it's anxiety, maybe it's depression, maybe both. Maybe some have suicidal thoughts. What would be your advice to them if they were sitting in front of you right now?
Speaker 2:I mean, first and foremost, I would say, if you don't know Jesus, I would just encourage you to accept him as your Lord and Savior and put your hope in him, because he's the only way, he's the way and the truth and the life. I could quote so many wonderful verses that God has just laid on my heart to memorize over the years, but, um, he's, he's the most important thing in my life and, again, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him and his mercy, um and grace, so, um, but then also I want to say don't think that you're alone. And I know I kind of talked about that earlier, but just just knowing, I mean, there's millions of people, millions of Americans, that, and other nationalities as well, but there's just millions of people that deal with depression and anxiety every single day and, um, suicide is just becoming so rampant, um, and I think, especially just with social media and other things that have just negatively fed into people that were already struggling. Don't be afraid to reach out. Reach out to your parents, reach out to a teacher if you're a student. Reach out to if you are a Christian and you attend church. Reach out to your pastor or somebody on your church staff. Don't be afraid to reach out and don't keep those feelings all inside to yourself, because you're not alone and other people that have dealt with that are most of the time very willing to walk alongside of you and help you through that.
Speaker 2:So, um, so I would say talking about it, and if you do have to seek medical help I know that sometimes that's temporary for some people. For myself, I have a chemical imbalance and so I know that I will have to be on medication for the rest of my life and I have come to accept that because it's not a weakness. I think a lot of times, especially even in the Christian church, a lot of people want to treat it as you're not trusting God. If you're having to take your medicine and do these things, that's right. We don't treat people with other physical ailments that way. You know I'm not going to say, oh, if my husband's taking chemo, he's less of a Christian, he's not trusting God to heal him. Well, god provides medical professionals with the knowledge that they have been given for a reason, and so don't be afraid to talk to someone, don't be afraid to seek medical help, and if your doctors are telling you you need to be taking a medication. They're telling you that for a reason, and even if you start to feel better, it's because the medication is working and doing what it's supposed to be doing that you're feeling better. That doesn't mean that you should just stop taking it.
Speaker 2:Medication compliance is one of the biggest issues with people that deal with mental health issues, and so staying on your medication is really, really important. If you ever feel like something's not working correctly, or you just don't feel right or something feels different, don't be afraid to contact your medical provider and just let them know, and maybe they need to adjust your dosage or change you to a different medication. It happens I've been on a multitude of medications throughout the years because sometimes certain medications start to lose their efficacy and they don't work as well and your body kind of becomes immune to it, and so it happens. And don't be afraid to talk to a medical provider if you need medication or if you need to make changes to your medications. Those would be probably my most important recommendations.
Speaker 1:That's great advice, really great advice. If you're listening and you're struggling, follow that advice, because that will get you on the right path. Kate, thank you so much for sharing. It has been an encouragement to me that you've been able to share your story and help others, and for what you continue to do. It's such a huge problem in our society. We would love to hear back from you and hear more about how you are fighting this and bringing this to light, because it needs to be out in the open where we can deal with it. So thank you for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you again so much for asking me to be a part of your podcast. It was an honor.
