Loving Her Mind: Piecing Together the Shards of Hope

Shatter the Walls of Secrets and ShameAt thirteen, Cecile Bibawy is told that her best friend is part of a committee of evil psychiatrists who watches the family around the clock. A few of her closest friends and family members are not to be trusted and pose a great danger. If only she could know that these things are not so. Truth to a budding teen is whatever your mother says, and it is her mother that says it -- but only to her. No one else can know.When stigma traps her in a glass room of secrets, Bibawy finds herself stuck within walls named shame, fear, neglect, and loneliness. A real tragedy of mental illness is the secrecy that encloses those who struggle inside glass rooms, crystallizing their isolation. The caregivers struggle, too. In this account, Bibawy breaks free, learns to love her mother, and discovers the ability to love herself. By telling her story, despite the suffocating confines of family, culture, and stinging, penetrating stigma, Bibawy reveals how God shattered the glass, raising her mind to discover an ocean deep desire to instill hope for caregivers of the mentally ill, inspire them to tell their story, and remove the shame that secrets and stigma infuse.Are you held captive by your secrets? Are you hiding yours or your loved one’s struggle with mental illness? Open these pages to discover:• solutions instead of secrets • belonging instead of banishing • real love instead of fearLoving Her Mind pieces together the shards of hope based on the author’s experience of caring for her mother through which she discovered a stigma-slaying life.

Cecile Bibawy has a never-ending desire to spread the truth about mental illness, inspire people to tell their story, work toward ending the stigma that keeps people sick, and promote the health of mind, body, and spirit. After sunrises and coffee, that is, when she's not writing, she's exploring the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty with her children as she and her husband classically homeschool them. She teaches Zumba classes and tells her stories and struggles to anyone who will listen. Bibawy was a public relations practitioner for Faith Mission Homeless Shelters in Columbus, Ohio and also promoted Job Corps for a while in Upstate New York. She is available for key-note speaking about her story to your people. Find Cecile at cecilebibawy.com, Facebook, Instagram (@sincerelycecile), on her front porch, and at her favorite coffee shops.