Schizoprenia

Someone came to our home yesterday with schizophrenia, and I could see it in her eyes — she needed more than what we could give. She needed board and care help. With love, I suggested she go to Behavioral Mental Health in Salem, because I know what that road looks like.

She reminded me of a person many years ago, someone I roomed with during my own journey in board and care. That was when I was in the ash stage of mental illness. People don’t talk about that stage — not even therapists always understand it. You reach a dark place where trauma takes over your life. It puts you in a cocoon stage. Quiet. Hidden. Breaking down so you can be built back up.

What people don’t know is that the cocoon isn’t the end. It’s where the healing begins. It’s where God starts the work. Through mental health support, through faith, through the slow, holy work of the Holy Spirit, you go through a metamorphosis. You don’t stay ash. You become a butterfly.

That transformation is powerful. It’s not quick, and it’s not easy. But it’s real. I’ve lived it. I went from board and care to standing in my own power, from silence to speeches, from ashes to wings.

So when I saw her, I didn’t see “a problem.” I saw a sister in the cocoon. And I pray she gets the care she needs — the board and care, the therapy, the community — so she can have her own butterfly moment.

Because no one stays in the ash forever. Not when God is in the business of making all things new.

With compassion and hope,

Cathryn