Someone I'll refer to as "A" has been coming off and on to dinner for the better part of a year now. Her four children are currently wards of the state, and she's working towards getting them back. Just this past week she elected to share more of her personal story. She was widowed a few years ago, saddling her with a lot of debt. That along with other things led to a mental breakdown, culminating in "A" attempting to take her own life by overdosing on drugs. This prompted the state to step in and place her four children in foster care.
"A" is now working part time and going to school part time with the goal of finishing her bachelor's and eventually teaching special education. She's also in therapy and she hopes to get her eldest into therapy as well; her eldest still believes that the overdose was the result of an accident.
"A" clearly has a ways to go, but I believe that she's going to be all right eventually. Therapy has been a positive influence in "A"; she describing as reprogramming her crazy thinking. I shared my take on insanity based on Chesteron's suggestion that none of those we consider insane have lost their reason - it's that reason is the only thing they have left. Their universe of facts are so small, they can't help but reach the same conclusion over and over. We can reach new conclusions only we allow more truth to enter our universe of facts. "A" said that made sense, so I asked her what new fact she'd incorporated in her universe. She thought about it for a little bit, and said that she wasn't a bad mother. I suggested that that had been a huge source of shame, and that shame makes us want to withdraw while shame is healed within a healthy community but it's not easy to find among the homeless. She agreed and said that she had made a few friends at the shelter where she was staying. We talked about a few more things and then we called it an evening.
I don't know how much I actually helped, but I was encouraged to see the progress she was making.
