I believe she is mentally unstable from the beginning. What the music tells me is that, for her, it all comes down to Darkness and Light. All is minor and foreboding, until she speaks of sources of light - at first the moon (a sudden shift to Major), then the phantom's glow, and then when she first describes her love for Edgardo, "he is the light to all my days".
She experiences a sudden giddiness (musically) when she speaks of blood. It thrills her. Perhaps Color is the next best thing to Light, if Light is not provided? She lacks the ability to create anything but Darkness for herself, and must always look to another source. Perhaps the Phantom appears to have something she covets?
The libretto dictates that Lucia is always in reaction to an event outside of herself. Various people and their behaviors provide Dark and Light. We know that Darkness, in the end, gets its way with her, and she succumbs.
What is the journey? The insanity must make sense for her. There must be a reality that I can create for this character, so that there is a linear (if logically and morally skewed) arc.
Perhaps the reason she finally gives in to Raimondo's pious manipulation is that she has been told, all her life, that religion will provide the Light that makes her so happy. She believes, for a brief spell, that marrying Arturo is merely a small detail that fits into a bigger plan that will lead her to Light.
And then she suddenly wakes up, and sees the reality of the wrong man in her bridal chamber. Darkness has returned. And so, if she cannot have Light, she will have Color!!!!
By the infamous "mad scene", Lucia sees nothing else, hears nothing else - except an inexplicable call (as illustrated by the flute or water whistle) to join her Phantom, where there can be Color and Light forever.
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