“Sorry, “one word solutions” don’t work, unless that word is “kill”.”
I’m sorry to see that family is not a consideration.
I also don’t agree with your extreme rejection of family.
I’m sorry to see that family is not a consideration.
I also don’t agree with your extreme rejection of family.
until you have watched families who have been rejected by their psychotic memebers and who have no abilites or powers to change or protect their ill member, you have nothing to contribute here. Family is the first line of defense in the mental health care system. Families break down and are unable to contribute by the time it is societies issue.
Your one trick pony doesnt work here.
It is not a rejection of family in any way. Family is always the first choice, and they are usually those who suffer the worst, after the victims of mental illness.
The true story of suffering is a very dark place, from beginning to end, and even seeing it a piece at a time can break your heart.
Often it is very gradual, as severe depression is the #1 mental illness in the US. The family member slowly withdraws, losing their vitality, their personality, feeling discomfort when approached because it takes so much energy to even respond. They stop working, or helping, or being a member of the family, lethargic and exhausted. Many killed themselves not out of mental anguish, just because they couldn’t stand the endless fatigue and exhaustion. They are not kicked out by their family—if anything their family leaves them behind.
The first effective drug for depression was brutal. It had every side effect in the book, and some extremely serious ones not discovered for years. But it didn’t matter. It broke up the depression and gave people the chance to live again. At its height, it was prescribed to 2M Americans. And it was widely abused, as well, though it would not make you high. (Desipramine Hydrochloride)
But it saved countless lives, and families. Research on better drugs was guaranteed.
Depression was bad, but it was nothing compared to Schizophrenia.
Schizophrenics can be terribly irritating to even be around. Their minds are intermittent, their awareness of others fleeting. One second they are your beloved child, the next they grab a blunt object and try to hurt you with it, unaware that you are even there. Much of the time is spent intently gazing at nothing, in a state of great tension and agitation.
And it destroys their physical brain. Nobody ever really gets better. All the drugs can do is help them see more reality and less illusion. It is especially cruel because it often strikes in the early 20’s. So parents get to see the child they loved, who they had raised, viciously taken away right when they were supposed to become an adult, with all its rewards for the hard work of childhood.
And other diseases. Manic depression, severe paranoia, Alzheimer’s disease.
Oh that last one is horrible. I have seen wards that are almost nothing but old widows, sitting in wheelchairs in corridor rows, staring at the blank wall in front of them if they are conscious, or asleep. The living dead.
In this case a family might help for a long time, and many families try. But eventually the continual need for professional medical care, now becoming so expensive in America it will be outsourced to Mexico—a reasonable alternative, overwhelms even the most noble of children.
The Mexican alternative is actually a good one, and might be expanded to other kinds of mental health care. The idea is to build American communities down there, where there are many, much less expensive, but quality English speaking health care workers. The drugs and procedures are good quality, but unburdened by rampant government.
They can give the infirm elderly and the mentally ill the labor intensive care they need. In Mexico, their elderly are kept at home and cared for by their families, so die much younger. But they would care for ours.
Yes, families can do much. But as bad as the system is, it is not based in ill will, but a true desire to find solutions for sick people in need. And families who can only do so much, when confronted by horrible sickness.