I am so glad you found our web site!

This is a picture of me with my mother taken during the summer of 1982. She is on the road to feeling much, much better after eleven years of suffering with bipolar disorder.

Throughout my late grade school years, high school, and during college my mom was in and out of hospitals. She went through separations from her husband and children and she tried to commit suicide several times. I remember studying in my dorm room the night before a political science exam and getting a frantic call from my step dad.  He said that I had to come home because mom tried to shoot herself. Thankfully, she missed. The police came, took all the guns from the house and left, but mom was still in her bedroom and she needed me.

I drove home, pulled into the circle drive way in front of our house where my step dad and younger brother and sister were waiting for me. They left to find a place to spend the night and I went inside. I found my mom in her bedroom, crying. She showed me how she had been standing next to the bed when she fired the rifle backward toward her face.  She explained that this was difficult for her because of the length of the rifle barrel.  She held and balanced the weight of the gun with her left arm extended, she positioned her hand to aim the barrel and pull the trigger, and she fired. The bullet passed through the top bed sheet she held next to her face and exploded through the bedroom window behind her head.

I could not believe that the police did not take her to the hospital for help, they only removed the all the guns. I stayed the night with mom and drove back to ASU the next morning to take my exam.

Some things have changed since the 1970’s and 1980’s. The medications available for people suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, and other severe brain illnesses are much better now and there are more therapies available. However, it is still very difficult to get an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment for adults, adolescents, and children who are mentally ill. The stress and suffering our families go through trying to give loved ones a good, healthy quality of life are very difficult. Anyone reading this page, whether suffering from mental illness or loving someone who is suffering, understands the breadth and scope of that suffering, and the grief and pain.

But there is hope! This web site is a place for you to learn about the resources and valuable help that is available to you! There is hope, there is recovery, and God does hear our Prayers. He is near to you as you read these words, and He is encouraging you to reach out and continue to help your loved one, or yourself. Never give up! My mother lived, she persevered through severe symptoms of her illness with courage, and she did get better. This picture was taken of the two of us at a time of joy! With love in Messiah, – Paula