Friends, the link that CARIIS provided with the multiple videos of severely autistic individuals will break. your. heart. Be forewarned. Thank you, CARIIS, for sharing this with us. I watched, and wept, and wept.
There are many takeaways - too many. But, you can certainly see that there is such a HUGE spectrum in the category of mental illness. As I think CARIIS mentioned briefly in another post, it is/would be similar to lumping cancer in with the flu. Both are illnesses. But .... I am speechless. It goes back to what many have posted about not lumping anybody and everybody with a mental illness into one bucket. THAT is where the stigma comes from (at least once of the causes).
So, we have these extremely autistic souls, who I do not think could hurt anyone if they wanted to. (I take that back a bit, one of my best friends has an autistic son who is now 20. When he has a meltdown, she can no longer handle him because he is bigger and stronger than she is. She is, as all these parents are in these videos, a slave to their child's disability). My point is that these types of individuals with this type of mental illness, are harmless.
Then there is the majority of the population who could be categorized under the category as mentally ill. Those who suffer from depression, anxiety, OCD, PST, panic, phobias, etc. If you research the number of patients on antidepressants, it will blow you away. Unfortunately, it's just not talked about. It's still a taboo topic. Why? One of the reasons is that, once again, MANY if not MOST of the population are completely ignorant about mental illness. I can understand why. It is beyond comprehension to understand something you don't experience.
Then there are the schizophrenics. Again, a range of symptoms and severity from A to Z. My mom spent most of her life behind a locked bedroom door certain that spies were watching us. She would disappear for months at a time while I was growing up. Police would eventually find "this woman" sleeping in the woods clear across the country. Yet, she would never hurt anyone, but, I must share...she did have an evil, dark side. Perhaps multiple personalities. And depending on what personality she was experiencing, her behavior, her voice, her demeanor was living the evil personality. I lived in fear.
I have another dear friend who has a daughter in a clinic for a 5 year program, especially for adolescent schizophrenics. First, he is wealthy. Very wealthy. It costs him $200K a year for her to be in this clinic in Chicago. His younger son committed suicide. The daughter never recovered. She eventually began cutting herself, tried suicide, accused her parents of abusing her....and on and on and on. Mental Illness shatters lives. Families. The mentally healthy siblings suffer. Did you see the little girl curled up on the coach with the pillow over her head when her brother was having a melt-down and screaming in one of the videos? She, my friend's daughter, is not EVER expected to be well. Ever.
And ironically enough, my other best friend also has an autistic son. But it is completely different. He is off the charts OCD, and she is a slave to his obsessions: watching the star spangled banner being sung on the computer for hour upon hour upon hour upon weeks upon months. He can't tolerate change. Has no friends. Is very smart. Legally blind. And - an outcast, because he is 'odd'. Her older son, my son's best friend, is off-the-charts brilliant and finally off to college this year, but he, my son's friend, is FILLED with RAGE & ANGER. His simply cannot tolerate his brothers absolute non stop 24x7 behavior. My girlfriend is a saint. He screams, cries, and then when something happens, he absolutely cannot let it go. The 'issue' goes on for hours. I am at her house on most holidays, and it is always derailed by her son's disability.
THEN - we have the sickos we've been talking about on this thread. Do you see how vastly different the illnesses are within the mental illness category? And CARIIS is right, alot of people still think anyone who has a mental illness is 'crazy' and talks to clouds. (a bit of an exaggeration, but on point).
The sadistic, sociopaths we have been referencing in this thread were...are in a different category. MOST cannot be helped. There is no 'cure' for such severe personality disorders. You cannot 'teach someone' to have empathy, to care, to feel emotion. You either have it or you don't. No pill or therapy gives you the basic human emotions that most of us feel without even recognizing it. So when we see these horrific criminals, "we" just can't understand it. Well, of course we can't.
I am now thinking the whole issue is bigger than guns, bigger than mental illness - How has our government continued to ignore what we should do here? Why has no hopeful POTUS politician addressed the mental health/crisis in the context of offering up a going-forward solution. Me thinks: it is just too damn big of a problem, is still taboo, is surrounded by shame and secrecy, and most of all, misunderstood as a result of ignorance.
The parents on these videos have no where to place their child for care. (Unless they are over the top wealthy). Outplacement would be better for the child AND better for the family. IMO. Watching my friends handle their autistic children - is exhausting. They NEVER get a break.
One last final personal story, my own son came home over winter break during his freshman year...depressed and anxious. Fairly serious. He is also suffering from PSTD post Superstorm Sandy where we lost everything we owned and I am a single parent. ---- I had to go down and pick him up mid-semester as he was sobbing. What I want to share is this:
I spent the entire months of December and January trying to get him an appointment with a psychiatrist (in NJ). Guess what? I couldn't get one. Insurance or no insurance. Didn't matter. I called NYC, I called Johns Hopkins. Waiting time for an appointment? Average: 3 months! What makes me crazy (no pun intended) is that when someone is in crisis, they are in crisis! They need help now - not three months from now. The only alternative I was given, which I did not take, was to take him to the ER. And - I wasn't going there. He certainly didn't need any escalation in drama. OR - I could call the police and they would call in a psychiatric nurse, and she/he would come to the house and decide if he needed to go the ER. Again, did not do.
This is such a big issue, the elephant on the table, - the mentally ill aren't important to our govt (IMO) - just as many others (unemployed, etc) -- that are dismissed, which to me means, are simply cast aside and deemed unworthy. 'Not my problem'.
Thanks for listening. xoxox
