[Love2cruise]

Originally Posted by redwitch

For all I care, the whole thing could have been a work of fiction. The reality is that there are parents struggling daily with trying to survive and trying to get help for their mentally ill children. I do know of households where all sharp objects where kept in a safe, where there were no glass items in the house (even all windows were acrylic), where there was a "safe" room they could lock their child into while the child raged.

Have you ever seen a 7-year-old use a stick to hit the pet dog and screaming to his mom to help him stop? I have. Have you ever seen a child chase his younger sister with a knife with the intent to kill? I have. Have you ever held a child down as his mother raced to the hospital to get him admitted for the nth odd time because he was too violent to be home? I have.

Mental illness is ugly even when treatable. Now, imagine you are the parent of a child that you're terrified will harm his siblings, neighbors, you. A child that can be sunny, lovable and the child of your dreams one second and a hallucinating monster the next. Meds work for awhile but then quit working or the side effects are so severe you can't give them to anyone, let alone your child. Imagine that the "help" suggested is to give up custody and have him institutionalized. Not with any goal of getting him help but simply to keep him medicated (usually with meds that work regardless of the side effects) for the rest of his life with no chance of ever leaving. (This may be the ultimate answer, but not yet, not for these parents or parents like them -- they need to try every other avenue first.)

Fine, this mother did not speak the truth if the quotes are accurate, if they're not taken out of context and edited to show just one side of a very complex issue. (I don't know of any child psychiatric ward that would admit a child for simply not cleaning their room. Yet, this is what is implied by the counter to the original article.) Something tells me the truth lies somewhere between the two articles -- she's not the reasoned saint she claims to be; she's not the total fraud of the second article.

I have never seen the scenes that you have described and my heart goes out to you and anyone who has. I am sure it is not any easy road. May God bless all parents/relatives that go through this, and give them the strength to deal with it.