This is rather long and I do apoligize.

My previous posting was this

I am 62 years old. I have a workshop in a run down area. I have an apartment in there where I live. It is fairly large. About three weeks ago a young lady (I'm guessing 27) wandered in and wanted some food Instead of clothes she was wearing bedsheets. I fed her and after she ate she began organizing my shop which is qiute messy. She did this for awhile and left. Later she came back and she had a cloth covering her mouth and would only write. She wanted to know if she could help around the shop and if she could use the large dog house (she calls it the small house) on the property to live in. She has all the symptoms listed for this and told me during one of her lucid periods the she had been dianosed and hospitalized and medicated and never wanted to go back. She related some horrible things to me concerning her treatment by the hospitals and authorities. The life she is living within her mind is breaking my heart. She seems to have some kind of religous war going on in which she is an evil person. A bad person. Much of the time when she is around she is unreachably tormented. Is there anything I can do or say to her that can help? I have plenty of time and patience, I am just not sure how to approach her. I am very hesitante to call the authorities as I really don't trust them too much myself and she has expressed that she is estranged from her family.
Can natural remedies really help?

About a month has passed and I built her a room of her own in the shop. She rarely sleeps in it although I expect the comming cold weather to change that. I would really like to help her but she does not seem to be able to accept this help. I am not the sort of person who dials 911 to get the authorities to take care of things, so of she doesn't accept my help I will just let things remain status quo until I move on with my life. I am planning to move to Missouri to retire.

I am planning to give her this letter. My question is should I and do any of you have any suggestions about the wording or suggestion about a better way to help her. I really do need help here as I am not sure of a proper direction.

The letter

To you.

If what I am writing means nothing to you and you would really like to continue the path you are on, then so be it. You are welcome here no matter what.

I don't know your name and that is alright. A name does not make a person.

I see a person. A being who has a great many very good qualities. Great qualities, an excellent person. But who is this being really? Is she the one who is tormented? Is she the one who seeks a greater embrace with God? Is she the one who thinks everyone is out to harm her? Is she the one who has to fight the voices that tell her to do harm?

She is all these. She is one person who somehow became fragmented. This fragmentation has a name. The being does not want it to have a name because perhaps she feels that nothing is wrong with her. Perhaps she realizes that something is wrong, but thinks this wrongness makes her special. Maybe, most of the time she likes whats happening like an addict likes drugs. I can't know. Only you can know. But know this, you do not need this illness to be special. You were born special and unique. There can only be one you. Please do not let an illness destroy the only you that will ever be.

The thing about this illness that we both know is called Schizophrenia is that it is progressive. It gets worse and worse until it passes a point of no return. Your fragmented self can never be unified again. The consequences of that are horrible.

The terrors get worse. The ability to react in the here and now all but disappears. Your ability to remember things deterioates. Your personal hygine will become no existant. This illness destroys brain cells. Your ability to communicate with other people will go away and your hallucinations and terror will rule your waking and sleeping life. You will be a living being in the grips of an eternal nightmare.

The end result of this illness is that sooner or later something will happen and you will end up institutionalized and drugged against your will. Perhaps they will be able to help you and that would be wonderful. Perhaps not. In that case you will remain in the care of the clinic in a perpetually drugged state and live out the rest of your life not even knowing that you are living.

If what I am writing does mean something. If you recognize that you have something not right with you and if you want help I am willing to help. I will spend the time and the money it takes to do what it takes to help you. I will be your advocate who tells the doctors that you can be treated outside the clinics, hospitals or institutions. I will pay for your theraphy and be surpportive until you are able to be on your own back in the mainstream realities of life, even if it means delaying my move to Missouri.

I can only help you if you trust me and believe that I mean only good for your being and that I have no hidden reason to do this. It will have to be you who says to yourself that you want this help.

If you decide you might want help then let me know and we can discuss what would be the best approach for you. Know this though. The approach has to be real. Based in the real world. Nutrition, therapy, and to begin with, herbal and vitamin supplements in an attempt to avoid any drugs.

If you are happy as you are and do not want this help please know, this place here and now is your home and your presence is welcome without reservation.

As with all things, sooner or later things come to an end and eventually I will move on in my own direction. I can only hope you will be able to move on in a direction of your choosing and not a path that an illness dictates. That would be such a horrible fate for you.