Amen, CatHerd. Amen.
Disowning a family member with schizophrenia is no different than throwing a retarded or crippled sibling out into the snow. No different.
At least if somebody is in a wheelchair, they get sympathy. Our mentally ill, in too many cases, get only ridicule and rejection. As if they asked God for their affliction.
News flash: They did not.
Yes, we were all horrified at her family’s cruelty. We moved her into the unused rectory next to the church where church staff and members could keep a close eye on her, and took turns hiring her so she could have some pocket money. We also took turns inviting her to dinner and taking her on outings. Of course we also took her to her appointments to make sure her meds were correctly adjusted. She did pretty well!
She was very sweet, and compliant about keeping her appointments and taking her meds. Not all mentally ill people are, and families and friends can’t force them to do so. What a nightmare for those families!
We just dumped the mentally ill out of the hospitals and onto the streets back when. They claimed they would set up group homes for them, but of course never did. Most are harmless and end up as victims of crime. Some commit one minor offense after the other and are constantly in and out of jail. It’s so sad.
They did not. And Gov’t is not there to help unless certain tools are in place and that the required hoops are jumped through in a certain order. Schizophrenia may severely restrict a person from taking that rational step. It has become a daunting process.
It is not unusual. Schizophrenia frequently hits around the late teens. The family may rationalize that the person has to learn to live on their own so they refuse to respond to the inevitable crises. It is heartbreaking for the victim, those around him and even for the family.
+1 and not only is it to our moral detriment, it is to our societal detriment as mentally ill people are left to their own devices.
Disowning a family member with schizophrenia is no different than throwing a retarded or crippled sibling out into the snow. No different.
At least if somebody is in a wheelchair, they get sympathy. Our mentally ill, in too many cases, get only ridicule and rejection.
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I absolutely agree.
Big difference though. Families often cannot on their own care for severely mentally ill. The big state mental hospitals were an attempt at compassion and to prevent the mentally ill from being locked in basements, attics and sheds or killed.
Nothing is harder to deal with than an out of control, no judgment, sometimes violent, often unmedicated, adult.
And leftist laws have made it difficult to have any ability to care for them.