Editor, Gazette-Journal:

When was the last time you told someone in recovery from cancer, who relapsed, that “you would get better if you accepted your healing.” How about “your sickness is Satan in you … you let Satan in with your sins”? Be mean to them and beat them up with The Word of God? Or say “you don’t want to get better, you don’t even try!” No? What a horrible thought.

Then why do some of you say these things to people with mental illnesses or addictions? These are just as much of an affliction as cancer. The medical books define disease as chronic, progressive, debilitating and potentially fatal, that addiction is a disease. Mental illness is a brain chemical disorder, a physical problem that causes psychological disorders, which can be fatal.

I am a Christian and these exact things, and more, have been said to me at a time in my life that I was unable to speak up and advocate for myself. Today I am advocating for tho...