Three Good Prayer Lines For Those Emotional Rollercoaster Rides (and other harrowing times!)

1/4/21

(Disclaimer:  I am not a mental health professional.  Everything I write about in my blog is from a consumer’s point of view, is a completely personal account, and is not an endorsement for any type of therapy for anyone else.)

 (Thank you, blog guru Kris (coachkris.lindsay@gmail.com) for this title & all your other help!)

Hello Good Person, 

Welcome to 2022!  I hope it’s a year of increasing love and peace for you.

How’ve you been?  Are you glad for the new year and ready to move on, or are you o.k. with how the last year’s been and lookin’ forward to more of the same?

Do you think it’s possible to be both?  To be appreciative of where you’re at and who you are right now while continuing on with the ‘personal discovery and growth’ journey? I hope so!  I have moments when I can be both, but then when it’s time to actually move forward in healing I start throwing a snit fit (or ineffective internal temper tantrum ;)) while trying to keep reminding myself this is what I really want and am capable of doing (with God – I’d be too overwhelmed to do this without Him, for sure).

In order to TRY to step out of the negative attitude I can have about the discomfort of emotional/internal growth process, I’m gonna describe this past month as being a Heaven (ahem) of an opportunity to face some serious growing pains.  Been learning more about how I came to have a dissociative disorder and how it’s effecting my behaviors, thank God (I think!).  And amazingly enough, underneath all the God-awful emotional pain I’m working through (or trying to face, anyway), memories, and connections I’m making, is a newly forming gratitude for self!  I’m  beginning to understand all I’ve done, (in a good way!) to keep from succumbing to all the b.s. of the abuse, its effects, and the bitter, lazy, complacent ‘tude that still tries to prevail at times.

There a couple of significant things I opted to do this past month that have contributed to pushing the emotional mayhem and deepening healing. (Besides the usual, significant, holiday triggers, that is, and the Penelope aspect of psyche that popped up several months ago and is revealing its own secrets and truths.)  

It’s funny (sort of!) but after the shooting that occurred at the school I graduated from, I was talking with my therapist, ‘B’.  We were getting into how much grief was coming up because of the situation I went through when I was attending the school several decades ago (as was written about in the post “Forgiving Myself” dated 12/14/21).  We also discussed how this was going to be bringing up a lot of the repressed emotions and memories from the abuses I was enduring during that time.  She told me I was going to need to give myself permission to take the next several weeks slowly, gently, in order to give myself the time, energy, and self-compassion needed to grieve and process everything.

So, of course, when I saw that the therapy dog group I’m a part of was looking for volunteers to bring their dogs to comfort the survivors in Oxford,  I immediately found someone I could ride with even though I couldn’t take my dog.  (He’s not certified yet and they only wanted fully certified animals.)   I so wanted to be a part of the healing process for the survivors, hoped I could help.  It turns out, it helped me instead, and that’ll be it’s own post coming up soon.  

While at the Oxford event I met a therapist who is a practitioner of a type of PTSD healing called Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART).  It’s relatively new and still considered experimental, but I’m familiar with another therapy it’s a derivative of (Eye Movement Desensitation and Reprocessing, {EMDR}) so even though I’d never heard of ART, I was willing to give it a try.  

I’ve had a couple of sessions so far and I’d say it’s definitely causing added ‘movement’ in the psyche.  I think part of what I’ve been experiencing is called emotional ‘flooding’ where there’re overwhelming amounts of feelings and thoughts coming up. 

I think it’s safe to say, I definitely enjoy rollercoasters at amusement parks much more than the emotional one I’ve been on!

This too, will be written about in a near-future post.

The one thing that has been getting me through this past month (and all these years of recovery) has been prayer.  I’m so grateful for the faith that allows Jesus/God to minister to me, but I do so very much wish God/Jesus/angels were a bit less permeable and could offer a physical hand to hold on to or shoulder to lean on, since mortals are so busy with their own ‘tribes’, especially during the holidays.  (Actually, I hate to be too needy any day of the year.)  So, I turn to the Bible (“God’s Love Letter to Humanity”) (Well, psalms and the new testament more so, anyway :)), personal prayer, (can really slow the racing thoughts and helps me to gain a clearer perspective when the past is muddying up the present’s waters too much, so to speak), and telephone prayer lines.  It can be a God-send to talk to a compassionate person of faith, even if I don’t know them personally, when I can’t figure out who else to reach out to.  I’ve only ‘sampled’ a few of them, and these are the ones I keep going back to.  Maybe one of them could help you, too, if you ever need it.

The best prayer lines (for me) are:

• First and foremost, TBN. (1-888-731-1000 or 1-714-731-1000).  I like this line because I’ve never had a negative experience with them.  They also don’t ask for donations or personal information beyond a name, and are ‘open’ 24/7.  (Although a caller usually does stay on hold for a minute or several, and if they are too backed up they’ll end up asking you to call back at a later time.) They also have a secure website you can use ( https://www.tbn.org/prayer ) to send a request.
• Bishop T.D. Jakes (800 247-4672) is a good line, too, but they’re only open during the day.  They don’t ask for any personal info or donations, and have always been kind and empathetic.   What I really like about these good people is they’ll pray for your request for one month.  There’s also a ‘virtual’ prayer room you can choose when you call (at any time) where there are recorded messages of Bishop Jakes praying for various reasons.  (There’s an options menu you choose from). They also have a secure website and online chat you can use at https://www.tdjakes.org/contact/ .
• My other favorite telephone prayer partner is Joyce Meyer Ministries (800-727-9673).  This one is also only available during the day, and has an e-mail option on their secure website at https://joycemeyer.org/everydayanswers/requestprayer .

There have been several prayer lines (that aren’t mentioned) that do hit a caller up for an address and/or donation when asking for prayer, so that’s why I really appreciate these three.  They seem to be more about the spirit of prayer, genuinely caring for others rather than building up their coffers. 

Well, Good Person, I’ma hoping (and praying, literally) you have a good week &/or, some amazing moments at least!

Looking forward to meeting with you here next week.

I was planning on using song a by Kim Mitchell but I think that’ll be better suited for one of the next posts.  This week’s tune is “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M.  Have always loved this song – it’s so tender and understanding.. Sometimes, it seems like there’s no one and no where to turn. Please hang on, I promise, things will get better (and maybe use a prayer line, or one of the other resources/phone numbers we have listed on the home page (tab down, if necessary, to get to them. Hope to be moving them up soon.)