AIRED: October 5, 2020
SPECIAL GUEST: Faith McDonald
With statistics in 2016 showing that 33% of college students felt so depressed that they found it difficult to function, and the number of students seeking help for anxiety has soared, it’s difficult to fathom.
Faith McDonald, author of On the Loving End of Crazy: Finding Hope and Help to Face Your Loved One’s Crippling Anxiety and Depression, offers hope and help to those who love someone who faces anxiety disorder and major depression. The story starts when Faith’s son Matt begins college; however, instead of attending classes and learning to thrive, he flounders and fails. His life becomes a series of arrests and reckless, self-destructive acts culminating in a suicide attempt. In the wake of his bewildering behavior, Faith worries that his life will never get back on track. She longs for her son to thrive. She aches, prays, and wonders how to intervene.
As Faith watches her beloved son self-destruct, she grapples with challenges that will resonate with many people who feel helpless and don’t know where to get the help they need. They feel embarrassed that we need help, and worried that their family will fall apart. Most of all, they feel misunderstood or judged as failures by their church friends and pastors, and at times, angry at the very person they are trying to help.
Join us as Faith shares how we can find Comfort in that you don’t have to face the journey alone. She speaks to important actions of: 1) persistence in seeking professional help for their loved ones, 2) finding the courage to endure the dark days of the illness of their loved one, 3) stopping the blame for themselves or others during the dark days, 4) why coping and healing involves sharing their stories to fight stigma and shame, and 5) asking for support from those around them.
ABOUT FAITH MCDONALD
Faith McDonald is currently an assistant teaching professor at Penn State University. She shares communication and writing principles with students in business and technical writing classes and likes to write stories and share them to encourage, entertain, connect, and help people learn.
She’s written for many magazines and newspapers. One of her favorite articles “I Just Want to be Happy” was published in Today’s Christian Woman magazine and voted readers’ favorite that month. For many years, she wrote a column about family life for newspapers. She followed that writing gig with a blog. When she’s not writing or reading, she loves to be outside biking and hiking with friends.
She hopes and prays that her family’s story of a young adult son’s struggle with anxiety and chronic depression will help your audience members who are in this same place, as they navigate the challenges of loving someone through mental illness. These audience members’ days aren’t easy, but their loving actions are valiant and necessary. The audience members’ loved one can’t face the struggle alone. Faith wishes them courage and hope!
