Our son, Tim, has struggled with mental illness since 1990. While in training to become a Marine officer, he suffered his first episode and was rushed to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. After psychiatric care for more than five months, he was released to return to our home in St. Louis, Mo. He lost the scholarship he had as a student at the University of Missouri because he was no longer medically qualified to serve as a Marine officer.
Over the past twenty-six years, Tim has experienced times of recovery with medication and therapy, and times of relapse. After we moved to Michigan, he attended a ten-week course on mental illness in Midland twice in 1992, first with my wife, Laura, and then with me. This three-hour-a-week course was attended by people with mental illness, members of their families, and mental health professionals. It provided information and support that helped us understand that mental illness is a brain disorder that affects one out of every five families in the United States. Because of stigma, families often do not want to let other people know about their loved one who suffers with the illness.
Tim has been an advocate for people with mental illness since completing this course. After participating in a program called Give Me Shelter, which encourages people with mental illness to use their talents before an audience, he shared his experience with his illness on public television. After moving to Alpena in 2002, he worked with Northeast Michigan Community Mental Health in developing a drop-in center for people with mental illness to receive support and encouragement.
Tim has served as a reader for our worship services at Good Shepherd in Ossineke. He has also served as vice-president of the congregation.
Tim wrote a book, The Isolated Variable, published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, LLC. In the book, he describes how he felt he was losing his mind for his country in 1990. The book takes the reader through what the clinical term “loose associations” really means. It helps the reader understand why recovery is always ongoing.
The first week in October has been designated by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) as Mental Illness Awareness Week. While I was serving as chairman of our Michigan District Committee on Mental Illness, we prepared a Mental Illness Manual (later revised in 2011). The manual includes a section on understanding mental illness and the article Mental Illness and You by Dr. Carolyn Koppenol (then the Medical Director at Northeast Michigan Community Mental Health; she is a recipient of the NAMI Exemplary Psychiatrist Award, a member of Immanuel, Alpena and served as a member of the Michigan District Committee on Mental Illlness). The manual also includes: an article on what congregations and pastors can do; passages from Scripture providing hope and encouragement; and the article Our Theology of the Cross by Rev. Dr. Herbert C. Mueller, Jr., First Vice-President of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. The October/November 2006 issue of Michigan in Touch was devoted to Mental Illness Awareness and was reported to be the issue with the most additional copies requested. Download the Mental Illness Manual and all articles at michigandistrict.org/congregations/christian-care/mentalillness.
My prayer is that this blog will help families affected by mental illness in our District and beyond find hope and encouragement, and that congregations will provide support for those who struggle under the stigma of mental illness and keep them in our prayers.
Stock photo. Posed by model. Photo (c) Ridvan Celik/iStock.
