Honestly

Mental illness treatment needs are important and Shelia explained how shaming shouldn't occur in churches. Revealing true self opens one's spirit and mind to healing. My book AND MAY GOD BLESS by RUTH ANN COMER covers the church's part in healing mental illness

I knew Sheila Walsh as a really great rock musician. I remembered the work she did with Steve Taylor, and to this day treasure her song "Under the Gun". She wrote and sang with real edge, something all to rare these days in CCM."We were born under the gun,And just like every mother's son,we are hostage to the megaton,and the world could end tonight!There's a finger on the button,But if it's pressed we're not forgotten.Millions speak,Feel no fear,The road to change is in ascendance here."In a world that was convinced that the world could (would?) end tonight because of globalthermonuclear war, where the political beliefs of many Christians were based on this universe of fear, Sheila offered a very different understanding.But my understanding of her was as a kid. And mysteriously, she disappeared one day.I wasn't in those Christian circles that supported the 700 Club, and so wasn't aware of her joining up with them and being a regular anchor. While most might know her from these years, I knew her as a rock star, and then never heard anything of her afterward.Thank you Wikipedia. On a whim, I wikied her, and learned some about her amazing history- and a book she wrote. I was surprised to discover that she attended the very same grad school that I did, graduating only months before I began.There is some real depth here, just as I once read in her lyrics. This isn't just a book for those struggling with depression, although it can help there. It is also a book that will encourage you in the midst of the more humdrum sadness that we all experience in the normal course of human events. And the title breaths true- there is some real honesty here. Sheila has helped to open the door on the Scarlet D, so much a topic of shame in Evangelical circles.But for me there is another challenge. While not being in the circles that supported the 700 Club, I also have never found anything to like from that TV show and network. Hearing how many people were touched and helped and healed by Sheila's work, both before and after her depression, was a challenge to me. I have made my God too small. And he has done some good work through Sheila- and the 700 Club- as well.

Sheila Walsh was fired from her four-year-long job at the 700 club because they were ashamed that she broke down emotionally and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Sheila's father had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1961 when Walsh was 5 years old. The hemorrhage left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak. The incident changed his personality dramatically. He became abusive toward Sheila. He was later placed in a psychiatric hospital. After he escaped from the hospital, he was found dead in a river at the age of 34. Sheila Walsh said her father's death left her to live with a profound sense of guilt and confusion.This book--though it's not Sheila's intent--revealed the unfair punishment inflicted upon those who had the courage to check themselves in to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. I realized that she had to deal with the SHAME of spending a month in a mental hospital. It wasn't her shame only--it was the shame of leaders in Christian Television of having someone in the public eye who had broken down and gone voluntarily to a mental hospital.If she had committed adultery she would have been forgiven.If she had become addicted to drugs or alcohol and kicked it, she would almost be a testimony hero.But she never broke the law. She did something worse. She checked herself into a mental hospital!Although she doesn't complain about being fired from her job, it becomes apparent to this reader that she is being punished for the unforgivable sin of bringing embarrassment upon Christian TV.Reading this book, one realizes that anybody could wind up in a mental hospital and that the patients there are damaged but not crazy. The reader see that real life in a short term psychiatric ward is nothing like, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest."One vicariously experiences the group therapy where all are sad but none are crazy. They talk about the brokenness of their lives--lives that seem just like you and me.Sheila bares her soul and as we read, we see the nakedness of our own soul. She asks the hard questions of God and God answers her slowly though the experience of life, His Word and through that still small voice.

Beautifully written story of Sheila Walsh's journey as she walks away from the frenetic, hectic life as Talk Show Host and musician and voluntarily enters the doors of a psychiatric hospital. Under the skilled and compassionate care of hospital staff, physicians, and psychiatrists, she sorts the pain of her childhood experience, when her father viciously lashes out at her. As a child, she had no way of understanding that her father's brain injury could manifest itself in such an ex[plosive, damaging way. She was devastated. The time in the Psych ward morphs into a a place of healing and growth for her. How the Lord tenderly cares for her when she leaves the treatment center is a touching piece of the book. When she reluctantly accepts a speaking assignment, she shares her story HONESTLY--before a group of classy ladies at a luncheon. Much to Sheila's surprise, the Lord uses this experience to open her eyes to the hurt and pain that women too often hide from each other. Books that follow tell the rest of her story.