
Now a Mental Health Coach and Chaplain
Meet Fred Logenecker
Hi, I’m Fred. I enjoy life! And I love to meet new people! Today I am a mental health coach and a trained chaplain. I have always been a very creative, optimistic, and outgoing person. Being creative is my life.
An Unexpected Crisis
But a few years ago at age 52, anxiety and fear overtook me when I lost my longstanding job in marketing due to corporate downsizing. I entered the darkest time of my life and wouldn’t emerge from it for eight months. My creativity disappeared and a crisis replaced it—where would I find my next job? How would we pay our mortgage? Where did my friends go? My fear literally doubled when I realized I had been ignoring my need for a career change but had no idea which career to pursue next.
Soon, I was unable to sleep as my mind raced in circles trying to think of a way out. After 10 nights in a row of no sleep, for the first time in my life I became severely depressed. And my crisis didn’t go away. Instead, it got worse. I became suicidal and was hospitalized. For a long while, I was in and out of the hospital for major depression and suicide risk.
How in the world did this happen? I would need to write a book to give a full explanation, but one big factor was my unprocessed sadness. I remember the hope and relief I felt when a therapist explained to me that depression often comes from unexpressed sadness and grief.
Trusting Myself and Helping Others
If you are trying to help someone with depression, I encourage you to listen without judgment, pray, and stay in touch. Many people who struggle with depression really don’t honestly understand how they themselves got there – so it isn’t their fault, and they can easily feel helpless, misunderstood, and alone. The slow healing process is typically brought on by several “layers” of grief and unprocessed emotions, so it takes time to work through these feelings and thoughts and to rebuild new protective layers.
Part of the recovery is also learning to trust oneself again, even before learning to trust others or God. The self is so important. Finding one’s inner strength I think begins with first finding a calm place inside the self, in silence. One way to make this happen is to spend time alone. In my case, my doctors required me to spend 30 minutes alone in silence each day, and this had an enormously positive impact.
Take a Step...
For every 1 young person who takes their life, 25 will attempt and fail. This means they are able to get help.
Need hope right now? Click here.
Resources
Looking for more encouragement? Check out our hope filled quotes or our grief resources.
Leslie's Hope also recommends and implements suicide prevention programs for middle schools, high schools and colleges.
We even offer an annual scholarship.
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