Don’t get mad at me
Three people sent me the following story about a mother whose son (right) killed his father (left) and stabbed himself after she unsuccessfully tried to get him help. This kind of case is something I’ve written about time and again, and each time I do, people get angry at me and accuse me of stigmatizing the mentally ill. I understand those concerns, but we have to face the facts: These things do happen, and we don’t have a system in place to address them. Sometimes the people who know the person best are those who live with him. The phrase “lack of insight” is too loaded, but we need to come up with something to address the problem.
Most people with mental illnesses are not violent, but this issue doesn’t only pertain to the small number of cases when a catastrophe like this one occurs. This issue — what standards we use for involuntary committment — needs to be addressed in a way that takes the concerns of consumers seriously. I don’t want my rights infringed upon, but I have far more often found myself stuck in the opposite position: as an advocate or friend who can’t get my loved one help, no matter what I do.
How many people have to commit suicide, or suffer needlessly, or commit a violent act, before we demand change? How much collateral damage are we willing to take to protect our rights in a way that seems increasingly arbitrary?
I’m not suggesting we create new standards, necessarily, for involuntary committment. But I am suggesting that we reevaluate our priorities and process, in the same way we do with police training. Let’s educate ourselves and the healthcare institutions that serve us. Let’s banish the easy buzz words — “a threat to himself or others” — and admit that this issue is far more complex and that each person is different. Let’s put aside our fear and admit that the system isn’t working.
Gary Miller’s mother has basically lost her husband and her son. It didn’t have to happen that way.
liz | 9:11 AM | Uncategorized
Liz, I guess I kind of disagree. I don’t think these deaths are preventable unless we’re willing to take away the civil liberties of everyone else with mental illness. I’m not willing to go there. Psychiatrists are not good at predicting who will commit a violent act, in fact they pretty much suck at it. Don’t make me pay for the actions of the minority.
Unfortunately what Liz and the TAC seem to be advocating is having people commiting soley on the words of their relatives with no bearing given to the opinions of psychiatrists and no investigation into the mental health and/or motives of the relatives. Scary stuff.
It is always striking to me that common sense is not permitted by those who feel loving family members or good caring psychiatrists know nothing compared to a person who is clearly mentally ill. The mentally ill person says, “Leave me alone. You don’t know what I need”. The parents and doctors are left to despair as they witness the continued deterioration of a psychotic mind. Humane laws allowing intervention before it is too late will save lives and minds. TAC’s model laws do not discount psychiatrists. Were that the case, the American Psychiatric Association would not have awarded TAC its Special Presidential Commendation for extraordinary advocacy in 2006. Sad but true, those TAC-minded people must endure brutal criticism in their efforts to bring some common sense to this issue.
Liz, I do think you’re dealing with a real problem. Especially when we consider how many mentally ill folks end up in prison.
But I’ve got another story, which I can’t send a newslink on, because the full story never hit the news — I had a friend who was stabbed to death by his adult son with schizophrenia. The son had just been released from three days in the hospital where they gave him a wild assortment of “antipsychotic” drugs including Haldol. The guy had a long documented history of adverse reactions to Haldol. He begged them not to shoot him up with that stuff. But hell, what does a crazy person know?
So my friend is dead, his family is devastated, and most everyone who knows of the tragedy blames “the terrible disease.” His family knows that the disease is indeed terrible, but that without Haldol (and the unknown cocktail of other powerful shit) the tragedy would probably have never happened.
I wonder how much of the serious violence caused by mentally ill people (and it is out there) is linked to akathesia, withdrawal reactions, and other very very scary effects of these much-ballyhooed drugs? At any rate, I wish to hell my friend’s son had had a choice. I would hate to see a guy in his shoes court-ordered to take some shit that was tearing him up inside, because a doctor convinced a parent, who convinced a judge, that it was “for his own good.”
Preventive detention is a seductive idea, and not only for the mentally ill. Many societies have tried to lock up those with “criminal dispositions” as a way to prevent awful crimes. (In the old soviet union it was known as being “socially dangerous”). It always comes back to bite the average citizen. Always. I don’t support it for the nineteen year old kid on the corner who is “obviously a gangbanger” and I don’t support it for the “dangerously mentally ill” who haven’t committed any crimes “yet.”
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