Support Monadnock Family Services

One of the unfortunate mysteries of the mind that science still can’t explain is how the brain can convince itself that everything around the person – all facets of life — are nothing but danger. Tim’s thinking was such that by the time he was 18, he couldn’t even enter his own home, preferring the perceived safety of a van in his parents’ driveway where he would live. A dark period of constant worry, his world became smaller and smaller, and his distress more and more severe.

“One morning in September,” his mother told us, “he just left and I had to let him go.” She would get fleeting bits of information about her son from time to time, and letters she would send him would always come back unopened. Though as an infant, Tim was born with a hole in his heart that surgery had to correct, now the hole was hers. It would be fifteen years before the heartbreak of Tim’s mom could heal.

In those years, Tim’s struggle with his illness was a private battle. “I was so terrified that I didn’t even want to take my trash out for fear that my family would find me,” he says. It was a time in his life that involved many false starts on his journey to health; a time that had no life, no happiness, no relationships, no connections.

Fortunately however, another mystery of the mind is our innate capacity for survival and the drive for health. It was this motivation that the talented and compassionate staff at Monadnock Family Services painstakingly, gently, and patiently helped Tim discover and trust. Tim had finally found the help he needed.

With an enduring message of hope, validation, support, and the right treatments, our team of case managers, therapists and medical professionals helped Tim find the path to recovery and the return to his family.

Looking back, Tim now sees that this inward desert of feelings was why he would only wear white clothing, from head to toe, at all times, because it was empty of color. When that didn’t work, he switched his wardrobe to all black.

Like a breath-taking sunrise, today Tim’s life is blossoming with step-by-step progress, success, and color. As the symptoms of illness retreat, the signs of health and healing are unmistakable – pleasant conversations, friendships, a new car, daily activities once impossible are now commonplace. Most of all, a return to the warm bonds of his family is priceless beyond gold.