You nailed it. I mentioned on another thread earlier that denial is a big problem in mental health care. Since teens are often troubled just by the nature of being a teenager parents hope the problems will go away. They often delay getting their child help for years. What may be a small problem for a 14 year old is a big problem for a 20 year old (of course, years of drug or alcohol abuse also magnify the problems).
Once the child turns 18 it is much harder to compel using medication or getting therapy. I hope people will learn to not delay getting help for their kids, especially ones that have had a emotional trauma. Unfortunately, there is still a stigma attached to psychological issues and kids often suffer as a result.
I'm sure that was the case. None of my kids is psychotic, thank God, but I wonder what I would have done if I started noticing weird things. In retrospect, I think I would have sought out somebody somewhere to discuss this with and find out my options.
Or maybe not. It's very hard to know what any of us might have done in a situation like this. I worked with the mentally ill so I would probably have recognized the problem earlier, but other people might not.