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For what it's worth, I have two sons. One is an Air Force Pilot (just got back from his umpteenth deployment to Iraq). The other son was diagnosed with a debilitating mental illness called Schizo Affective Disorder (sort of a cross between schizophrenia and BiPolar).

I'm going to take the opportunity of this thread to hopefully educate a few folks here about mental illness. Too often, mental illness is used as the basis of jokes and ridicule. What makes dealing with these illnesses so difficult in a loved one is the utter ignorance displayed by people regarding mental illness. Sadly, people don't view mental illness as "real" illness, and hence don't offer the same compassion as they do for other "real" illnesses, like cancer. Trust me, mental illness is a real biological illness and deserves the same compassion as any other serious illness.

I'd urge folks to get educated about Mental Illness before expressing uninformed opinions or making thoughtless comments. Remember the old adage "There but for the grace of God go I". Mental illness can strike any family. A good place to start is www.nami.org. I am my State's coordinator for family education and the Family-to-Family 12-week education program.

This story breaks my heart and is the sort of thing that is very rare, but it does happen. My son was involuntarily hospitalized twice for 30 days each time. After his first release, we knew he wasn't ready, but legally they had to release him anyway. Three days later he was back on another court-ordered commitment when he had a second psychotic break. This time, after 30 days, they finally got him on a medication that really seems to be working and he is not currently experiencing any psychosis nor hearing voices. We're lucky in that our son knows he has this illness and is compliant with his medication. He is doing much much better now and is back in college. Too often, people are in denial that they have mental illness and hence too often they are not compliant with their medication.

This is a very tragic story and its really a shame that this family did not get the help and support they needed. Honestly folks, mental illness is devastating and stops cold all the hopes and dreams a parent may have had for child and it pains me to hear people in our society making light of these illnesses and not extending the compassion that we would extend to someone with any other deliberating illness.

Thanks for listening.