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I remember the day. It was shortly after leaving the mental hospital and support house I was first in. I was living with my Dad and I saw a cartoon about Humpty Dumpty. Humpty Dumpty was in a hundred pieces after falling from the wall and nobody could put him back together again. I remember seeing that cartoon and realizing I too, was now broken into a hundred pieces. I could see no way of ever being whole, in one piece, ever again, and this realization felt tragic. I left it at that.
As I write this 35 years later, I'm whole. I'm mentally sound and fit. I have a far better spiritual, interior life than I ever dreamed or knew was possible. Back then when all I saw of myself was a tragic brokenness with no remedy. I didn't know that God can, will, and does restore His broken, mentally ill children. He can recreate, and remake you. He can remove the illness from your mind, and the pain that goes with it. He will give the gift of a new mind, and a new spirit, to allow the living of a new life in a fruitful and effective way.
The healing process occurs over a long period of time. It requires your help, your own mental effort, if you want to think in a new way, and adopt new beliefs. You must be willing to work for the life you want. You must persevere and never give up. The life that awaits is far better than you can dream, or imagine, when suffering with mental illness. It's kept hidden from view.
Mental illness is a catalyst in our life. It's meant to bring about a dramatic, and radical change in who we are. Mental illness is terrible and tragic while it is being endured. But the person who can come out of it is one we didn't know we could be.