My Story, Part 2 of 4: My Crayon Prayer: “Get Me Outta Here God, or Else…”
Right now over 80% of the population is struggling with a Mental Health Concern directly or indirectly!
I realized that many people had friends, co-workers and family members that battled with depression and anxiety. Some had people in their lives that were diagnosed with schizophrenia, or had the symptoms of bipolar disorder but had gone undiagnosed. These people longed to help, but weren’t sure how to do it in a way that preserved dignity and privacy. Often attempts to help at ended in blow-ups, fights and or isolation. Many people where suffering silently all while saying "I'm fine!"
I remember sitting in my cell at the behavioral health facility, writing to God with a crayon (pens and pencils weren’t allowed as they could be used to cause harm to yourself and others), “God, if you're real, get me out of here…not just out of the behavioral health hospital, but out of the prison of my mind. I will not continue to live unless my life totally changes.”
And it did! I left the hospital and went to Wildwood Lifestyle Center Depression Recovery Program. There I received tools on how to process my thoughts and feelings, and even came to forgive people that harmed me and my family. I decided to give God one more try.
Less than a year later, I became the director for the depression recovery program there, and it prospered in my hands by God’s grace!
It was amazing to share my lived experience with the material and see peoples lives change! Marriages were saved, estranged parents and children were reunited, people with longstanding hurts where able to reconcile their past and look forward to the future. People that battled with drugs misuse left the program not only clean but with a determination to help others.
...But what if people could recognize the signs and symptoms BEFORE a crisis occurred or if in the midst of that crisis they felt equipped to help?
While spending 2 weeks at a private institution conducting a mental health program, a crisis occurred. There was a client that attempted to die by suicide on campus one morning, putting a staff member in danger of losing his life trying to save him. As I sat in their staff meeting after that situation, we realized how many signs and symptoms we had missed from the client that revealed that he was in danger.
Having personally lost 2 family members to suicide, my heart yearned to help that client see that his life truly mattered. I felt sorry that at that time I was not equipped to recognize that he was at a critical point!
I became desperate to find answers, practical solutions to help individuals before they became suicidal and also to empower the people that loved them! I felt that if I could be privileged to find answers, more lives could be saved!
But I’m getting ahead of myself...
Stay tuned for the next post to learn about the great mental health training resource I found!
—Mia