Ms. Lessard had been a successful first-grade teacher until she developed late-onset paranoid schizophrenia in her early 40s. After shouting that the Communists were taking over the country and jumping from her second-floor window to escape them, she was involuntarily hospitalized.
…
And what happened to Ms. Lessard in the intervening decades until she died last month at the age of 94? Much of the time she lived in apartments, but at other times she was homeless, sleeping on city buses or in dumpsters.
She was arrested dozens of times for misdemeanors such as striking a court clerk and breaking the glass door of the district attorney’s office. On one occasion she led police on a four-mile chase through Milwaukee as she ran six red lights.
On another she made “repeated threats to shoot school board members with a gun.”
Because of her psychotic behavior she was briefly hospitalized more than 20 times, but, because of the new focus on immediate danger in commitment standards, she could never be held long enough to be properly treated.
When I interviewed her in 2006 she complained bitterly of what she perceived to be ongoing electronic surveillance, and constant harassment by public officials who were angry at her for exposing public corruption.
When I asked her directly whether she had ever had schizophrenia, she responded: “Absolutely not. I have never had any of the symptoms.”
It is possible to be a victim of a crime and to also have schizophrenia since many of us are so vulnerable to perpetrators who want to cause us mental anguish. I don’t see why it has to be you either are mentally ill, or you are a victim of a heinous crime.
If someone isn’t a danger to themselves or others, then they have a right to live their lives as they see fit imho. In this case though, she was clearly a danger to others. Perhaps a law that forced people into wards for a longer amount of time if they’re forced in involuntarily a certain amount of times. Sadly a lot of MI end up homeless or in prison in this country.
It’s a shame that things are like this. I’ve read that during the 80’s a lot of the government funding for public mental health facilities was cut. Dorothea Dix mental hospital in NC is being turned into a public park. I wonder if homeless people (most of whom are MI) that try to sleep there will be arrested?
Yes, it is called free speech. If white supremacists can advocate the genocide of jews, this woman has a right to speak freely about what she really thinks.
Put more limitations on our freedoms and we’ll just be more sneaky in our ways of advocating our agenda and connecting with each other. I am prepared to lie about my beliefs with people in the mental health profession and family. But I’ll still be on these foums speaking my mind behind the scenes.
“Torrey has been a vocal critic of the failures of deinstitutionalization and inadequate community mental health services.
He has generally linked this to issues of violence, homelessness and
medication noncompliance, as well as lack of proper focus by the
relevant governmental organizations.[45]
He has been accused of gaining influence by sensationalizing and
exaggerating the incidence of violence and its link to medication
noncompliance, including disseminating unsubstantiated and unreliable
statistics. When a California NAMI journal editor included a questioning
of Torrey’s statistics, the local board glued together the pages and
effectively shut down the journal.[46][37]
Others, while agreeing that public mental health care in the U.S. falls
far short of what people with serious psychiatric disorders need and
deserve, have argued that Torrey’s solutions are outdated and that his
book The Insanity Offense is based on unsubstantiated portrayals
of certainty on the statistics on violence, outpatient commitment and
medication, stigmatizing tens of thousands of people, deeply offending
and insulting those who hold views differing from his own, and
promulgating one-dimensional solutions. TAC’s attempts to associate
violent incidents in the news with lack of medication have been
described as wild hyperbole, and the use of the term “assisted treatment” has been described as a euphemism for forced drugging.[47]”
it’s quite the question. Do I believe we have the right to believe as we see fit even if those beliefs are unusual? Yes absolutely. I tend to err on the side of personal freedom in my opinions on this type of subject. I guess I would rather see a more understanding and patient oriented mental health system that doesn’t turn as many suffering people away than a regression back to the days of mass institutionalization.
Besides, where would the money come from to hospitalize these people? I know in my state there aren’t enough beds in the state hospital for those who present a real and immediate danger anyway and the right wing wants to cut THAT funding even more.
I realize that the severely mentally ill cost society a great amount of money but I would have to put forward the question…is locking people up against their will the way to go about it? Or is a radical change in the approach of our mental health “system”…gulp…perhaps something that might yield better results?
And besides even if the ‘forced treatment’ were outpatient, I put forward the devil’s advocate comment that, well alcohol costs our societies money and lives so why stop there, why not legally force our alcoholics into treatment and sobriety. Where does it stop? One in how many of us experience a mental health crisis of one sort or another in their lifetimes?
I can totally empathize with the old woman who never got treated. I didn’t have insurance and was released to suffer more than seven months with schizophrenia until I landed in a state hospital where they didn’t care if I had insurance…unbelievable!
I found it interesting that Elyn Saks never mentions Torrey or NAMI in her book. As I recall she did some work on this subject, although I’m not sure of her position. I Met Torrey at a NAMI function before he took his more controversial stands, seemed like brilliant man. I admire that he keeps sz in the spotlight even if I don’t always agree with him.
This is a hard one for me… I might have to think about this one some more…
I got pretty out of my head and left home to live on the streets… I got worse… and eventually the cops got me and put me in hospital.
This is a fine line… on one hand… people should have the right to live how they want and if they aren’t hurting anyone… then who cares if they see aliens and have long conversations with the trees…
but at the same time… If I got like that again… I’d like to think someone would help me get back to level so I don’t suffer like this for years and years.
Lack of insight is the most insidious part of this illness I think. there are times were I am CONVINCED I’m Ok… I’m making perfect sense… I have this under control… (as I get naked and start ranting about some injustice that hasn’t happened yet.)
She was legally insane. People do have a right to do what they ahem do, whatever it may be, whilst floridly psychotic without going to prison. She was without a doubt legally insane. I have been there.
I did similar ■■■■ but not quite as repeatedly, I got arrested and sent to a crisis assessment center and lied my way out the next morning saying that I didn’t hear voices or anything they wanted to hear. I learned to not behave violently after that. They sent seven cops.
We have a right to be mentally ill but some of us are stripped of the right to behave like we are mentally ill due to improvements with drugs and therapy. I would probably get in deep ■■■■ and have to be very drunk or something to keep out of prison for say I don’t know just stabbing someone for looking at me in a way that displeases me. I would get in deep ■■■■. Elite psychology student cannot equal legally insane unless drugs or alcohol are involved, that and psychosis. Perhaps if I had no clue about psychology I could do something nuts. I don’t really want any trouble, I want peace, I’ve been through enough hell and I’m still at war with schizophrenia. Why would I ■■■■ with some innocent person?
We have a right to be mentally ill, yet people like me have no right to carry a gun or hurt others. Since I can’t own a gun, I brushed up on Krav Maga, and I keep my body hard and imposing. My body is a weapon, that and I sometimes carry a knife when I go to the shitty parts of town. I live in Memphis where people get mugged raped murdered all the time.
It would be easier to just carry a gun. That would end a lot of paranoia for me.
