Hold Me While I Break: Faith, Mental Health, and the Sacred Work of Falling Apart (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798994221822)

Hold Me While I Break is an unflinching, compassionate companion for anyone living at the intersection of faith and mental health-where devotion is real, depression is real, and the pressure to "pray it away" can deepen the wound.

This book speaks plainly about what many people carry in private: anxiety, burnout, panic, despair, intrusive thoughts, and suicidal ideation. It does not sensationalize suffering, and it does not reduce it to a spiritual failure. Instead, it names the hidden cost of silence and offers a different framework-one where healing is not a performance, and falling apart is not the end of the story.

Through a blend of lived experience, pastoral realism, and trauma-informed guidance, Hold Me While I Break reframes recovery as sacred work: the slow, courageous practice of staying alive, telling the truth, and letting support reach you. It makes space for prayer and medication, scripture and therapy, lament and boundary-setting-without forcing you to choose one language of care at the expense of another.

Inside, you'll find language for depression that doesn't shame you, reflections that honor both the nervous system and the soul, and grounded practices designed for real life-not ideal life. You'll also find a bridge between spiritual leaders and clinicians, offering a practical way forward for readers who want faith to remain intact while their mental health receives serious, evidence-aware attention.

This is not a book of easy answers or spiritual shortcuts. It is a field guide for the middle of the night-when you don't need clichés, you need clarity; when you don't need a lecture, you need a hand to hold; when the bravest prayer you can manage is simply: Hold me.

If you have ever wondered whether your sadness disqualifies you, whether your doubt makes you dangerous, or whether you can still belong to God while your brain is at war with you, this book meets you there-without condemnation, without denial, and without asking you to suffer alone.

For readers navigating faith, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and the quiet, holy work of returning-one breath, one hour, one honest sentence at a time.