Tealgrove, she was at Camh and told that there was a long wait to get the help she needed. A person that goes there said there are emergency services and I don't know why she did not receive them she was in a serious crisis. Her mental illness did not kill her she was murdered. I know many people with both addictions and mental health problems and they are doing okay with a lot of help. Without the support that is why she was making bad decisions and putting herself in risky situations. She was able to be preyed on by someone like DM because that is what he does. I think on this site it posted about his past with other gf s and one committed suicide, we don't know since we know he is a psychopath if he had something to do with that.
BBM
There is no question that LB did NOT die as a result of her mental health issues. 100% she was murdered. I think everyone here agrees that this is the case. I was never suggesting anything other than this.
The problem is that a lot of people with mental health conditions do not treat their conditions as an illness. It is extremely complicated. In order for Laura to get help, she needed to take the meds she was prescribed and take advantage of the emergency services that are in place at CAMH until she was able to get long term care, i.e., a psychiatrist or psychologist. She needed to stop taking street drugs. She needed to care for herself. We really don't know what she was doing between the emerg visits. Did she follow up? We don't know and we certainly cannot armchair diagnose.
What a lot of people don't understand is that once diagnosed, a pill still isn't going to fix everything. The affected person has to take ownership of their condition and work to combat it or manage it. The person has to be honest with their caregivers, doctors, therapists etc. They have to want to do the work to help themselves although it is extremely difficult and complex.
Yes, unscrupulous people were supplying her with drugs. They did. But Laura took them and it appears to have enjoyed them because she continued to take them. Sometimes it's easier to mask the pain than working to make it go away or deal with it. I think Laura was self medicating and that's extremely common. I get it.
I am come from a family that is rife with mental illness. I too have had my struggles, but I chose to combat it and deal with it and understand it. No one helped me or supported me. I did it for myself, by myself. My parents never knew and neither did my sister. I just dealt with it. Different people cope differently.
There was help available for Laura. She was incapable of accepting the type of help that was offered. She may have eventually been able to find a way to deal with it, but we will never know because Dellen Millard and Mark Smich came along and decided to kill her (allegedly
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Laura's story is nothing but tragic. Mental illness, in general, is tragic and complicated. We have no idea what could have been done, or should have been done, to help her. We can only guess.
MOO