We had a member of the extended family that was often severely depressed, manic, suicidal, sometimes all three at once. The whole family would try to help the person, call the police when it got really bad— but if the person can hold it together when the police arrive and cover up that they are not a danger to themselves or others when the police are there, nothing is done. Even if they go to a mental health facility they are usually out in 2-3 days and they can’t make a person take any medication or go to any therapy. So you can threaten to kill yourself, be stuck in mental health for three days doing nothing to get better, and then walk out. Who knows what else the person is thinking? In the 1980’s this same individual would be taken in and told they couldn’t leave until they were better, not just not a threat. And if that meant medication and therapy you had to do it. We would have a healthy family member emerge from the hospital. I remember the doctor saying,when this relative was having another bought with mania, and I was just a teen, that he could no longer force medication or therapy, but with keeping this person in for a month or two they would be in a safe environment and generally come around to where they were ok with receiving treatment. Than all that ended and we would get this relative to the hospital but they would emerge 3 days later with the same scary look in their eyes. Nothing was different. It’s crushing trying to take care of a seriously mentally ill person. This relative always seemed like a threat to just themselves (suicide) and never was violent with others. But what if they were to became so? Mental health services have really gone downhill. And one last thing— when people say the meds cause things to get worse— I don’t know, maybe they can in some people. We saw improvement in my relative when we made sure they took what was prescribed everyday as prescribed. They were worse than worse if you couldn’t control it because they would take it one day, skip a few days, take more. I really saw some scary, crazy behavior when said person did this. I think 20 year olds are really susceptible to taking meds, skipping, than taking some more. I really think that’s how the newer meds make people really nuts. It’s in there system, out, back in Crazy levels up and down. It’s just my theory. They have some longer lasting schizophrenia meds that can be given by injection so the doctor knows you’re taking it. But I don’t know if that’s the answer. I do know guns don’t get mental illness and shoot people.
How’s your relative doing now? Did he/she ever get any better, achieve any kind of balance?