Getting better takes time

Ray is currently one of our rising stars; he’s participating in our Tier 3 Project in his own apartment, works full time for UNC Animal Lab, is a connoisseur of restaurants and dining, and just got his Ford Probe back on the road. He’s a young guy with ambition and interests and plans.

He’s also a great example of how feeling and getting better takes time.

Ray first got sick and diagnosed in 2000, which pretty much derailed his life. In 2001, he came to Caramore and lasted just days. He felt he wasn’t ready and chose to leave and went to an assisted living facility where he stayed until July of 2005—returning to Caramore.

So what happened? Why could he pull off in 2005 what he could not in 2001? Was it a psychopharmacological miracle, a gradually developed new prospective, physical healing, or just natural maturation? It is likely some of all of those things, with the thread that unites them all being time. Ray needed time to heal and rest and sort things out and desire for more.

Battling a mental illness is a struggle and Ray deserves a tremendous amount of credit for adapting to it, living with it, and transcending it—with patience. His plans for 2007 are even more ambitious…

D. Cooley