Sariah Harrison could not have been more excited to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Dominican Republic back in 2022.
Her mission experience was far from what she ever expected. Shortly after arriving in the Dominican Republic, everything about life became incredibly heavy and dark. She felt like she was living in an absolute mental hell & wanted nothing more than for it all to end.
Having never experienced debilitating mental health challenges, Sariah discusses the difficulty of coming to accept that she was experiencing serious anxiety and needed to return home to receive help.
Sariah expresses her journey towards healing and the Saviour's role in it all.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/uLOZ2cMVr_A
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-----Contents of this episode-----
00:00-Intro
00:09-Background
01:28-God speaks to me in the night
03:53-Final preparations
04:14-There’s something special about darkness
04:52-Zion is in reach!
05:55-My goal in sharing this message
06:22-My mission call
06:47-Diving in to my story
07:22-By being my happy self, I thought I’d never experience debilitating mental health challenges
07:49-Having a mental illness is like having a broken bone
08:26-Perfectionism fueled by anxiety
09:22-This is what anxiety does
10:04-Expectations vs. reality
10:14-I felt like I was sinning constantly
10:20-I knew I was going to Hell
10:34-I felt like my connection to the Saviour was cut
11:04-My life felt incredibly hopeless
11:21-Turning to anything religious made things worse
11:47- I felt like I HAD to leave
12:03- I felt like I was being cut off from everything I desired
12:07- Reading my patriarchal blessing was the worst
12:24-I felt like I’d ruined my eternity
12:40-What happened when I told my companions my thoughts
14:27-It felt like a hopeless, unfixable problem
14:46-I was praying to die
15:08-How “Popcorn Popping” describes anxiety
16:56-Supporting my physical body with vitamins & minerals
17:25-When I got home I was still in a really dark place
18:59-It was a living mental hell
19:45-How taking vitamins helped
20:02-I did not want to meet with counselors
20:55-Getting connected with a therapist who specializes in scrupulosity
21:10-The anxiety cycle
22:53-I realized how I was fueling the anxiety cycle
23:50-Exposure therapy to break the anxiety cycle
24:54-Exposure therapy with the Book of Mormon
27:33-The Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus
28:16-I accepted the problem was anxiety & Not me
29:20-When I began to notice miracles in my healing
29:50-Trying to find words for what my healing felt like
30:53-Trying to get back out on my mission
33:04-Seeking God’s Will
33:32-“This didn’t come as a surprise to God”
34:57-Perfectionism played a part
36:33-Experiencing hope by hearing other’s similar struggles
38:00-God told me “Sariah-It is finished”
39:25-He called me to the DR but that was not my mission
40:17-Jesus is a God of miracles
40:26-Concluding Testimony in Spanish & English
Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Positive Thinking
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
