| “Matthew was actively suicidal for so long that we lived on the edge every single day. We woke up going, ‘Is this the day? Is today gonna be the day that we lose him?’” This is how Kay Warren describes the fear and isolation she and her husband Rick experienced as their beloved son Mathew suffered through mental illness. Matthew’s condition continued to deteriorate and, in 2013, Matthew ended his own life. “After Matthew died,” Warren explains in this week’s featured article, “I talked to hundreds of parents who have kids with mental illness. And it slowly began to dawn on me that not only did parents not have enough support, they didn’t have good community.” “When there is serious mental illness [in a family],” Warren continues, “there can be extreme chaos, violence, or threats of violence. There is extreme dysfunction. … And so parents don’t have a place where they can really say, ‘This is what my life is like.’” Warren recently held a retreat for moms facing this sort of situation. Her aim: to provide a setting “where they can be real, where they can tell their story, where they can find community.” In this week’s article, Warren and writer Kelly Rosati (who participated in the retreat) discuss Warren’s drive to provide a space for mothers to grieve over their child’s illness, to be honest about the fears and hardships they face, and to comfort one another with the deep comfort that comes only from God. You may be experiencing a similar burden of worry and isolation as you love a child who’s dealing with mental illness. Or you may know someone in your church, neighborhood, community, or extended family who is facing this sort of difficulty. Read Warren’s insights from her retreat with other moms—they may provide you with comfort, or may prompt you to consider how you can provide needed support for a fellow parent who’s doing their best to love their child through a scary and turbulent reality. |
