From the Mother of a Mentally Ill Child

This is well worth your time to read in its entirety:

I am sharing this story because I am Adam Lanza’s mother. I am Dylan Klebold’s and Eric Harris’s mother. I am Jason Holmes’s mother. I am Jared Loughner’s mother. I am Seung-Hui Cho’s mother. And these boys—and their mothers—need help. In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it’s easy to talk about guns. But it’s time to talk about mental illness.

The system is failing her, and, I might add, failing her son.

17 thoughts on “From the Mother of a Mentally Ill Child”

  1. Her article is indeed excellent, her situation horrible. Once her son turns 18 the situation will be even worse due to his increased legal rights.

    In time, not now, but in due course exploration of this type of problem would probably be beneficial to our society as a whole.

  2. Sigh; as an example of the futility of this mental health fight, instead saying it’s OK because Bush did it, it’s OK because Reagan did it as governor of California (which may mean as little as he signed a bill that he didn’t champion in the mid-60s when this really got going). The opponents of institutionalization will stoop to anything to keep the current policies, if you can call them that.

  3. A child who argues truth against an arrogant shitbag parent is not an of mental illness.

    1. Can’t punish a child? Especially one that pulled a knife recently and threatened to kill you? I don’t think most well adjusted kids do that.

      1. This parent is deranged. A child shouldn’t have to deal with deranged and irrational adults.

          1. I’ve never met a therapist that wasn’t a money-grubbing, lying shithead.

            1. Did I mention they are sanctioned by the State. This fact introduces inherent difficulties that can’t be overcome by labeling some people sane and others insane. The initiation of the use of force often begins in the doctor’s office. Please don’t neglect the facts in your analysis of this topic.
              The parent-child relationship is also difficult because the child is necessarily subject to the coercive

                1. I’m beginning to see why you have the angry feelings about therapists that you do.

                  I’m going to go out on a limb and say that anyone who hits “Reply” a dozen times to their own comment is speaking from the voice of experience on the topic.

  4. I almost felt sorry for her. Until I saw that cartoon of her with the “I heart Che” shirt…

    1. And the beret with the red star. I hadn’t noticed, but, wow, sides with mass murdering thugs and governments, which tells us what sort of ‘anarchist’ this “Anarchist Soccer Mom” is; hard to have any sympathy for her after seeing that (her children, though :-( ).

      Comments look to have some worthwhile content, this posting had 900+ comments when I looked at it a few hours ago, 1650+ now. Gone viral, it would seem.

  5. For those who are against paying for mental health care from a financial point of view, they should compare the costs of lifetime incarceration, which is how too many mentally ill people are “treated” in this country. Intervention is a better bargain.

    1. Not only is it the better bargain, but it’s the more humane one, too. How many schizophrenics are homeless, because they can’t hold down a job or even an apartment (even when receiving disability), but can’t be locked up because they “aren’t a danger to themselves or others”? Never mind that they might just *become* a danger to themselves and others by shooting up a school, or lighting up a crowded theater on fire…

      For that matter, why isn’t sleeping on the street on a cold night a “danger to self”? Surely, more people die from hypothermia that way, than from dying in the confines of an apartment, even when it isn’t heated!

      1. Well, those who “can’t make toast” and die in the streets are probably cheaper than any other alternative. Otherwise you have a lack of a consolidated budget problem, the costs are shifted. Even worse, the police-judicial complex needs more criminals as demographics drive down the number of normal criminals. If you think I’m exaggerating that concept, look at the power of the California prison guards union for an extreme example….

        1. I would imagine that it would take a long time for someone to freeze to death on the street, even if it’s always a danger–and before that happens, the same person will likely have been in and out of jail multiple times.

          Additionally, before that person dies, he or she is likely receiving disability payments. I remember one point Clayton Cramer made in his book “My Brother Ron” was that, if you aren’t paying rent, but you are receiving disability, you tend to collect a lot of money…money which would be better spent keeping the person in an institution, rather than allowing him to roam free, incoherent.

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