Rhonda Ryan doesn't seem like someone familiar with what it is to be a patient in a psychiatric hospital.

She seems, rather, like a mother who picks her daughter up from swim-team practice. She seems like a woman who is active in her church and makes sure her family eats more produce than processed foods.

And she is what she seems. But beneath what's obvious about her on the surface is a long struggle with bipolar disorder - one the St. Joseph woman has been able to overcome and that she tells about in a book, "Take Me Higher," that she had published earlier this year.

"The fact that it was such an extreme battle made me want people (with bipolar disorder) to know they can have a better quality of life," she says. "I want them to see someone who had been down so far and has come through, to give them hope they don't have to suffer like that."

Mrs. Ryan's battle with bipolar disorder began in high school, when, as she says in her book, she went from being a "highly involved A student and cheerleader to a zombie with no motivation." After an episode in which she exhibited characteristics at the other end of the behavioral spectrum - becoming extremely talkative, energetic and unable to sleep - she received her diagnosis.

Because bipolar disorder (or manic depression, as it was called at the time Mrs. Ryan was diagnosed) is the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain, medication often was effective in helping her achieve stability. But there were also times the disorder would strike seemingly out of nowhere, resulting in her being committed to a psychiatric hospital for days or weeks as her medication was adjusted.

"One of the most difficult things I ever had to do was petition a local judge to commit my wife to a psychiatric hospital for 21 days," remembers Mrs. Ryan's husband, John, in a preface to the book.

She experienced more than 25 of these hospitalizations in the span of a decade. Compounding the difficulty of her bipolar disorder was drug and alcohol addiction - something Mrs. Ryan formed through her attempts to self-medicate but that actually only created an additional hurdle to overcome. There were times, she says, when the possibility of having a stable, healthy life seemed very out of reach.

But there was also the time, 17 years ago, when she, her husband and their oldest child - the first of four they have today - became involved with Word of Life Church. Mrs. Ryan looks back at this now as the point when her healing began in that it was when she began to consistently receive the biblical teaching that, for her, was key to overcoming the disorder.

"I was renewing my mind with the word of God, changing my way of thinking," she says. "I was having a struggle in my body yet believing I was healed by the stripes of Jesus and that that was going to manifest itself in my life."

This is further explained in her book, where she says her words began to line up with God's word, which brought healing to her body and brain chemicals. She didn't abandon medication immediately, nor was her healing process completely free from relapse. But today, she has been medication free and stable for years - a feat she attributes both to God's work in her and to lifestyle choices such as abandoning drugs and alcohol and adopting healthy eating and exercise habits.

She doesn't mean for her book to serve as a medical guide for others to follow in making their own treatment decisions, she says, but rather as a source of hope for people experiencing what she has. Her story shows, too, the compassion that can be cultivated through experiences like hers.

"The difficulties she suffered have helped form a heart that is wholly dedicated to helping others with similar struggles," Peri Zahnd, wife of Word of Life pastor the Rev. Brian Zahnd, says in a preface to the book. "She is an amazing testimony of God's grace."

Mrs. Ryan hopes that by sharing what she's been through, others might one day have a testimony like this, as well.

"Several people who have read the book have come and told me, 'This is my story,'" she says. "I just want everyone to know that with God, all things are possible."

Lifestyles reporter Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com.