I may not agree with this woman’s politics or her take on gay marriage, but I sympathize wholeheartedly with the dilemma she faces and the terror she lives every day.
If you’ve never had a mentally ill family member, you simply can’t understand.
What this woman is saying is terrible truth.
We closed the asylums. We made the process of removing the dangerous from among us very very hard. They basically have to hurt someone and get the law involved before they are isolated from society.
Treatments are highly effective, but the mentally ill very often do not feel ill, and they won’t cooperate.
She has no where to turn.
Look at all the mass murders in recent years. How many times did friends and family know the perp was not “right,” yet our current system gives them virtually no tools to protect themselves and others.
I’ve read numerous suggestions that his mom should just have her son committed. Where? Who will take him? I can tell you she can get him admitted for evaluation and treatment, and it will last a few days at most, because he will either take meds that calm him down or, more likely, convince the shrinks that he’s OK.
Been there. Seen it firsthand.
Bless this poor woman, and so many other family members like her, and this sick society that wants to blame the victims rather than give them tools to protect us all.
>>I may not agree with this woman’s politics or her take on gay marriage, but I sympathize wholeheartedly with the dilemma she faces and the terror she lives every day.<<
And it could be some WP writer with a blog making the whole thing up.
“The Anarchist Soccer Mom”
Sounds legit to me ;)
Agreed. Society should support parents living this hell, but does not.
“We closed the asylums. We made the process of removing the dangerous from among us very very hard. They basically have to hurt someone and get the law involved before they are isolated from society.
Treatments are highly effective, but the mentally ill very often do not feel ill, and they won’t cooperate.
She has no where to turn.”
You are SO right. We are SO screwed...
I can totally relate. A family member has psychological problems which can be treated with drugs, but the person with the problem has to be willing to put themselves on the treatment; which is frustrating as all get out. It's truly a case of the inmates running the asylum, or in this case dictating the treatment.
“We closed the asylums. We made the process of removing the dangerous from among us very very hard. They basically have to hurt someone and get the law involved before they are isolated from society.
Treatments are highly effective, but the mentally ill very often do not feel ill, and they won’t cooperate.
She has no where to turn.”
You are SO right. We are SO screwed...
Jedidiah,
What of the argument that the mother had no right to inflict her genetically deficient son on the rest of the family, much less the community. While we are our brother’s keeper, the balancing of rights which is our inescapable responsibility as a consequence of our Free Will, to endlessly try to do the impossible (cure the crazy) and side effects be damned - that may be why the Shooter was still free.
Ironically, the loving mother was the first to be killed.
It is virtually impossible to have even a child ‘commited’. Yes they will evaluate medicate, then send them home worse off than they wewe to begin with. There IS no meaningful help until they can be charged with a crime. By then it is too late for meaningful help to help. At that point it is blamed on the parents for not seeking help! Half the time when you DO seek help the ‘help’ you get is an investigation from child welfare.