Going to change thread name - Sandy Hook - To Dennis

[Diane]

I just wanted to answer Dennis' post about the person who is bi-polar. I
have two cousins who are brothers who are in their 50's now and both are
bi-polar. One, Greg, lives in the Philippines with his second wife and baby
son. I have no idea if he has stayed on his meds or not. It *sounds* like
he has stayed on his meds. I truly hope so. Greg's brother, Butch (Henry),
has not been on his meds for a really long time and it shows. I feel so
sorry for him, but he is his own enemy. He insists he does not need a
doctor or his meds or anything. He is an extremely intelligent man who has
two college degrees. He comes from a family (mine also) will all sorts of
mental issues. He had a really nice job at IBM for quite awhile. Then he
and his first wife and son moved to Calif. where he got another very good
job. I forget the name of the place. He and his wife, Judy, tried to have
another baby and spent a lot of money trying through In-Vitro, but it did
not work. As soon as they stopped trying, it was a matter of months I
think, Judy became pregnant with Leah. They were ecstatic and so was the
rest of the family, including me. :-) I don't know when he started
cheating on Judy, but he got involved with another woman, Lisa, who I
believe he worked with. She got pregnant and he moved into her house. They
had a beautiful son and everything seemed to be okay. One day, we heard
that she wanted him to move out of the house and would not let him see his
son at all. To make a long story short, he stopped paying child support
because he lost his job. We knew by then he was off of his meds. He cursed
Lisa, the lawyers, the judges, etc., over and over again. Don and I went to
visit my Mom in Florida this past Aug. and Butch drove down from CT to visit
us too. His mother, my Aunt Tess, passed away in Jan. 2012 and Butch was
there for her and continued to stay in the house even after she passed on.
So anyway, we had a nice visit with him. He acted fine pretty much, but
always wanted to be on the go, going somewhere, doing something, but always
had intelligent conversations with him. Then we left Florida early because
I became ill. My Mom told me he was at it again with that awful, negative
talk about Lisa, etc. He finally drove back to Calif. where they put him in
prison for not sending child support. He has been in prison for a few
months now and says (to my Mom) that he thinks he will be released on Jan.
15 or 16. It's such a long story. I will just say one more thing about
him. We all thought he would get the help, he so desperately needs, while
in prison, but he wrote a letter to my Mom and said something about not
needing to be on any meds, and he didn't know they had a *doctor* in the
family. Such a nasty note to my Mom who had supported him for months. Just
a shame. I guess he will be getting out of prison without the meds and
psychiatric treatment that he needs!!! If you only knew him when he was on
his meds. Such a waste of a man, such a waste of a life. :-( Sorry to go
on like this, but you pushed a button, Dennis. :-) Thank you all for
listening to me today.

Hugs,

Diane

[Mary]

"Diane" <***@gmail.com> wrote in message news:***@mid.individual.net...

<Diane, sorry for having to cut some of your post for brevity> but I will
just add a short note.

Post by Diane
him. We all thought he would get the help, he so desperately needs, while
in prison, but he wrote a letter to my Mom and said something about not
needing to be on any meds, and he didn't know they had a *doctor* in the
family. Such a nasty note to my Mom who had supported him for months.
Just a shame. I guess he will be getting out of prison without the meds
and psychiatric treatment that he needs!!! If you only knew him when he
was on his meds. Such a waste of a man, such a waste of a life. :-(
Sorry to go on like this, but you pushed a button, Dennis. :-) Thank you
all for listening to me today.

This is probably the biggest problem with mentally ill people. They are
mostly ok when they are taking medication for their mental illness, but part
of their mental illness thinking is they don't need the medication, so they
go off it. Most meds given to them has strong side effects so I have read
and been told. So once they are off the meds, they can become dangerous and
imagine all kinds of things, and be dangerous to the public. People who are
schizophrenic or mentally ill in other ways, must be kept on medication to
control their illness andmake them more able to think normally, and those
who are not being cared for in hospitals and are living independently,,
cannot be trusted to take their meds unless they are strictly monitored.
Therein lies the problem.

They may stop going to the hospital to be checked when they should, and
hospitals and clinics are too busy and never enough staff to follow them up,
and they drop out of sight, and thats when they could become dangerous. The
meds are what kept them balanced, and without it, well.. you can see what
can happen. The only solution would be to keep closer check on mentally ill
people who are on meds, but I can't see that happening because the
government won't put enough money into psychiatric hospitals. In Canada at
least, they used to keep mentally ill who have been shown to be a danger to
themselves or others, in hospital for much longer periods of time, maybe
forever in some cases. Then the Canadian govt. had the big idea that they
would just have them report to clinics but wouldn't need to be in hospital.
That has proved to have failed miserably and the mentally ill are left on
the streets too fend for themselves and they are not monitored which they
need to be becaue their mentally ill thinking tells them they don't need to
be monitored which can put the public in danger. It's a sad situation and
more should be done by governments to identify mentally ill, put more money
into their care which they did before, and should go back to doing.

You will see my post today to Dennis which is somewhat along the lines of
what you are saying in your post.

Mary

[Diane]

Post by Mary
<Diane, sorry for having to cut some of your post for brevity> but I will
just add a short note.

Oh Mary, don't give it another thought. :-) I get very mouthy some times,
lately. LOL

Post by Mary

Post by Diane
him. We all thought he would get the help, he so desperately needs,
while in prison, but he wrote a letter to my Mom and said something about
not needing to be on any meds, and he didn't know they had a *doctor* in
the family. Such a nasty note to my Mom who had supported him for
months. Just a shame. I guess he will be getting out of prison without
the meds and psychiatric treatment that he needs!!! If you only knew him
when he was on his meds. Such a waste of a man, such a waste of a life.
:-( Sorry to go on like this, but you pushed a button, Dennis. :-)
Thank you all for listening to me today.

This is probably the biggest problem with mentally ill people. They are
mostly ok when they are taking medication for their mental illness, but
part of their mental illness thinking is they don't need the medication,
so they go off it. Most meds given to them has strong side effects so I
have read and been told. So once they are off the meds, they can become
dangerous and imagine all kinds of things, and be dangerous to the public.
People who are schizophrenic or mentally ill in other ways, must be kept
on medication to control their illness andmake them more able to think
normally, and those who are not being cared for in hospitals and are
living independently,, cannot be trusted to take their meds unless they
are strictly monitored. Therein lies the problem.

Yes! Exactly! They seem to *think* that now they are cured or something
and that's when they get off their meds. I don't know what Butch was
thinking because he lives in Calif. and we hardly ever spoke on the phone in
recent years. It's only this year that I actually got to talk with him and
listen to him. It's been years since we spoke. I can't even remember the
last time we spoke on the phone. You are soooo right! He was never
monitored, I don't think. And I have no idea when, exactly, he went off
those meds.

Post by Mary
They may stop going to the hospital to be checked when they should, and
hospitals and clinics are too busy and never enough staff to follow them
up, and they drop out of sight, and thats when they could become
dangerous. The meds are what kept them balanced, and without it, well..
you can see what can happen. The only solution would be to keep closer
check on mentally ill people who are on meds, but I can't see that
happening because the government won't put enough money into psychiatric
hospitals. In Canada at least, they used to keep mentally ill who have
been shown to be a danger to themselves or others, in hospital for much
longer periods of time, maybe forever in some cases. Then the Canadian
govt. had the big idea that they would just have them report to clinics
but wouldn't need to be in hospital. That has proved to have failed
miserably and the mentally ill are left on the streets too fend for
themselves and they are not monitored which they need to be becaue their
mentally ill thinking tells them they don't need to be monitored which can
put the public in danger. It's a sad situation and more should be done by
governments to identify mentally ill, put more money into their care which
they did before, and should go back to doing.

I agree with you whole-heartedly, Mary. It just goes round and round,
doesn't it? Boggles my mind! The States are no better and I can attest to
that.

Post by Mary
You will see my post today to Dennis which is somewhat along the lines of
what you are saying in your post.

I will go there now and read. Thank you Mary. I appreciate your input. I
really love my cousin and it just makes me so sad to see him like that and
to hear the stories my Mom tells me lately about him. :-(

Post by Mary
Mary

Hugs,

Diane