PROVO — Deciding to walk to Brazil with his two young daughters to preach his personal gospel wasn't a true religious experience for Brad Butler.
It was a cry for help.
"Something inside me snapped," Butler said, speaking at Thursday's dedication of a new Utah State Hospital mental health wing.
"I began seeing hidden images, symbols and words, and receiving special messages from the scriptures," added Butler, who also served an LDS Church mission to Brazil. "This was extremely difficult to deal with emotionally, and I started becoming depressed."
Over the years, Butler would be hospitalized 10 times for similar bouts of depression and psychosis, with limited success.
When a second attempt to preach his beliefs landed him at Utah State Hospital's Lucybeth Rampton Residential Facility, Butler finally found lasting relief.
"I imagined a place with rubber rooms, straitjackets, electric shock therapy and Nurse Ratcheds," said Butler, reminiscing on his first — and last — stay at the hospital. "I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived on the northeast unit of the Rampton building and found that it was not such a bad place after all."
With the opening of the second phase of the Rampton facility — a $11.5 million project — more people will get a chance like Butler's to heal at a hospital that feels more like a home.
The 83,000-square-foot building boasts recreational, physical and occupational therapy space designed to meet the needs of mental health patients.
"It's nice to know this building will house youth, adults and geriatrics," said Utah Lt. Gov. Olene Walker.
Lucybeth Rampton — wife of former Utah Gov. Calvin Rampton — spoke seriously about her dedication to fighting mental illness. Rampton's willingness to publicly share her lifelong struggle with severe depression helped get her name attached to both buildings.
"Look at all the fuss they make over cancer and other acceptable illnesses," Rampton told the Deseret Morning News. "Mental illness is just another category of disease."
Butler can attest to that personally. Though he has found employment with the hospital as a patient advocate and relative normalcy through medication, Butler says he will always battle with his mental health.
"There is no cure for schizophrenia at this point, so I still deal with my ideas on a daily basis," Butler said, "but I am able to control my mind so that I can get through the day and accomplish what I need to do."
E-mail: lwarner@desnews.com