In our last session, we talked about dealing with the often challenging behaviors exhibited by our loved ones. We must learn to separate the behavior from the person. Negative and destructive behaviors are the result of the mental health difficulty or disorder and are not to be attributed to our loved ones. This is quite hard to do at times, but like Christ, we must seek out the good and healthy person within the troubled individual. When we are able to do this, we can have hope knowing that person we love and cherish is still there, though buried under pain and suffering.

There’s the story of a young man who went to the doctor to find out why he acts so erratically at times and suffers from depression. The doctor diagnosed him with schizophrenia. The young man returned home to his mother very distraught and said “my life is over, I’m a schizophrenic”. The mother looked in his eyes and said, “No you are not. You are Allan. You are still my Allan, my son, and you have a disease called schizophrenia.” Our loved ones are still are loved ones. They may have mental health challenges which lead to distressing behaviors, but they are still our loved ones.