I’ve known Terica for about 18 years. Through those years I have come to love her deeply. I have hurt with her as she’s traveled some difficult paths and endured some heartbreaking losses. In the midst of loss and pain, she suffered through some manifestations of mental illness that I could neither understand nor help to alleviate. I did not know how to help, but I knew I loved her, that her potential was great and that it was also buried beneath the torture of several severe results of deep depression and anxiety.
But Terica, as she relates in her book “Tackling the Taboo” not only successfully navigated, over a period of several years, her own mental illness to become the salt, light and leaven that God intends for his people to be, but she’s now also successfully helping others who struggle with depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses to overcome and be fruitful in the kingdom of God.
“Tackling the Taboo” is raw, open and honest. Terica doesn’t hold back about the deep and tormented struggles of those dark days. Rather, she uses her own journey as a catalyst of hope for those who are dealing with mental illness, and maybe even more importantly, as a motivator for God’s people to educate ourselves about mental illnesses and prepare ourselves to help those who struggle.
Using Biblical principles and examples, Terica helps us see the power that Christians can have in helping family members and those in the family of God to manage the symptoms and even overcome the stigma that mental illness has carried through the years. Free of medical terminology that could bog us down in such a study, Terica just walks us through a subject (and life reality) that many have been hesitant to acknowledge or address. She does it from the honest perspective of someone who traveled to a very tortured spot in her life and then relied, first on God and then on the therapeutic and medical resources He has provided. It’s easy to read, but very practical for our personal lives and our sisterhood.
This book’s an easy read. A couple of hours and you’ll be good to go…good to go with understanding and a better clarity, to help someone out of a deep depression…good to go help someone understand the value of medication in improving mental health, while working to implement a holistic plan, too…good to go find help when you potentially encounter mental illness in your own life. It’s an overview—a jumpstart motivator for anyone who needs to plunge deeper into finding help for schizophrenia, agoraphobia, paranoia or any number of mental illnesses.
Tackling the Taboo is the story of a personal victory for eternity for Terica. I love that. I mean I love that on a very personal level. But, better yet, it’s a resource every woman living for Him will need at some point in this sojourn we are making together! I think it can help lots of women to the throne.
You can order from kachelmanpublications.com or you can find it on Amazon.