Understanding Mental Illness

“A lot of people just don’t understand that you can be very intelligent and have a mental illness … and it was hard, because the first time you take a beloved family member to a psych ward and they lock them up, and the doors shut, and then they take their clothes off, and they go in the shower and you know, it depersonalized him … It was horrible.”

Centerpiece

by Harvey Yoder

I remember as a child being deathly afraid of people labeled as mentally ill. Based on the little information I got from others in my sheltered rural community, along with a lot of misinformation, I perceived those people as being quite unlike myself, as irrational, unpredictable, and even dangerous.

Starry, Starry Night

By some estimates, nearly half of us will have an episode of mental distress during our lifetime that causes us to become non-functional. Yet we can’t get the same health coverage for mental distress as we can for physical distress.

1. Write your comments about this week's program
2. Respond to the My Turn speaker
3. Tell your own story, or respond to the stories of others

Next week on Shaping Families we take you into the world of self-injury – cutting and burning oneself – a practice of an estimated two million people, mostly women. We talk to Kari, who used cutting and burning as a release from the mental anguish she experienced in her life. Get an inside look into how and why people engage in self-injury and how many find healing and a way to cope.

Michelle's Chicken Casserole

Producer Melodie Davis offers this easy recipe, created for her oldest daughter who liked recipes with exact proportions when she was learning to cook.

Download a PDF of a study guide for use in small groups, at home with the family or in Sunday school classes.