Dear Bochur

Dear Bochur,

I, like you, have read many stories and articles on the pages of this magazine dealing with mental illness. I, like you, have a hard time understanding the complexities of mental illness, and frankly it scares me, too. Having had a tangential brush, through a relative, with a not so positive struggle with mental illness, I, too, planned for my daughter to stay far away from anyone on the shidduch scene with an issue in this realm.

Still, when my very normal, bright, talented, energetic, happy, productive, and (clearly quite) self-aware daughter approached my husband and I to discuss some “low” feelings she was occasionally experiencing, by the week’s end, she’d already met with a therapist who began to teach her tools to deal with these feelings. She “graduated” three months later with a tool box that allowed her to successfully decrease the intensity and duration of these feelings.

But the onset of these feelings, I’ve since learned, are not in man’s control. This is the way Hashem created my daughter. And while she was feeling a lot more in control using her new set of tools, she wanted to feel even better. So she chose to begin medication, which has baruch Hashem brought her to exactly where she wants to be. I applaud her for confidently making a mature, responsible, safe decision.

Not a very exciting LifeLines story. A boring journey.