At Eden's Gate: Whole Health and Well-Being

Introduction

People who need and want help with the stresses of mental health concerns rarely have instant access to an appointment. I had written a self-help book, At Eden’s Gate: Whole Health and Well-Being, published in September 1997 by Carlsons' of Lindsborg, Kansas, that was helpful to many local people and was not matched by anything I could find on the market. In 2013, realizing that much additional nutritional research has occurred and after failing again to find a comparable self-help book, I decided to update my book as a weekly blog. You can see the updates and subsequent articles as a WordPress blog under the title "Here's to Your Health!" at http://evelynmmaxwell.com.

At Eden's Gate is a “how to” book of very specific suggestions that complement your professional help, and aid you while waiting for your appointments. By reading it you examine many physical, mental, family, social and spiritual aspects of mental health. You CAN find a way out of vicious circles, find peace and happiness. However, it is not a substitute for individualized professional care and I encourage you to make an appointment as soon as possible while continuing to read At Eden's Gate.

I have added major updates to the original 252 pages of the book in the sections on vitamins, minerals, family, spirituality, finance and community. As you read, please make sure you get rest, exercise and adequate nutrition, which are often neglected while dealing with emotional stress.

When I graduated in 1955 with a Bachelor's in Nursing Science, there was almost no professional help for patients with mental health problems and nothing of self-help. After the birth of our fourth child amid the stresses of applying for missionary work in India, leaving our home and moving to the mission orientation centers, I found myself in the mentally ill category with a diagnosis that ordinarily was considered hopeless. My own need for counseling, self-help and recovery from some serious episodes of illness with different diagnostic labels over a number of years led me to read everything I could find for self-help, enter seminars aimed at mental health patients, or "consumers", and gradually, with God's help, to become a new self on the path to being a whole person. When the youngest was a junior in high school I realized I would need something besides homemaking in my future. An unusual recurrent dream, that you will read about later, led me to enroll at my alma mater (University of Kansas) for the Master’s Degree in Mental Health Nursing. While finishing my degree, I co-taught mental health and other aspects of health to nursing students at Marymount College in Salina, Kansas.

Marymount College closed in 1985. Again I asked God for direction for my future. I had learned so much from experiences as a patient, my studies and teaching nursing students! I became convinced that I should use everything I could think of from my life experience that would be helpful to patients regardless of their health condition by writing a book. I want the reader to find the lilies--the benefits and blessings--the hope, to be found in the valleys of illness, and the strength to step out of the sticky muddle of illness that drags one down, to find solid footing on the stepping stones to wholeness and health. During the seven years of writing, I called upon specialists in psychiatry and nutrition to review and make suggestions to the text. I have them to thank as well as my publishing mentor Dave Barbo, now deceased, and his staff, particularly Jay Richardson. Many clients allowed me to paraphrase their comments. My friends, Weeden Nichols, read the manuscript for sense, continuity and grammar, and Grace Ketterman, M.D., children's psychiatrist, gave suggestions, encouragement and wrote the foreword that prefaced the original edition. My obstetrician husband, Gordon Maxwell, M.D., has been loyal in persevering throughout my trials, encouraged me in my lowest moments and wrote the preface.

You have the ability to change what is happening to you. In At Eden's Gate, you will find ways to help you do that. You will begin to see how life is inter-related in many ways, that stress comes with many contributing factors and that change begins with yourself.

You have a way to understand your feelings better using the chart "More Feeling Words" that features the intensity of feeling for each word.

You learn ways to improve your physical and mental health by paying attention to your basic habits of life, what and when you eat, sleep, exercise, rest, the Variety of Foods Required to Meet Physical Needs and introduction to the U.S. Food Guide.

You have "tools" to change how you think about life's happenings and how you relate to people and events by using the Cognitive Therapy Worksheet and the illustration and planning method for Stepping Out of Vicious Circles. You decrease your anxiety level by using progressive relaxation, controlled breathing, and stress inoculation techniques. You learn how to confront people and situations by using the Social Adjustment Rating Scale, Self-Assessment Form and developing a plan. You learn how you can help others and how they may help you.

You learn how to relate to God, by whatever name you use for the Supreme Power of the Universe, and how Jesus can make relating easier.

You have examples of dialogue, scripture from the Christian Bible, notes on resources, a report on my Self-Esteem Research and in the print version, an index to help you find what you want.

Welcome to the adventure of the path, the stepping stones to health.