Caring for a person with true mental illness is not the same as angry spouses calling each other crazy. Stop misusing the word crazy! Only those people who have lived with a person or persons enduring true mental illnesses have that honor. I am that person. I am native born Texan and the proud mom of four grown children, two on the Autism Spectrum and one diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. If you have ever found yourself jumping out the window, chasing a teenager who stole the truck keys you were literally sleeping on so that he would not steal the keys to escape, and running after him down the street at 2am, you cannot use the word crazy. He then disappeared for two weeks and told everyone he was homeless.
He would randomly disappear from school and be brought home by police who found him in a sewer pipe crying his eyes out with no shoes on and matted hair and he could not remember his name or address. His phone had been stolen and he had two black eyes. Luckily, he had his wallet on him with his ID for identification and home address. Once he turned 18, he could not be forced to take his medication and things grew worse. I could no longer advocate for him in the medical world because he was an adult. And when he overdosed one New Years’ Day, I could not sign the consent form to put him on the ambulance because he was an adult. He had literally taken too much of his own medication because he could not remember when he had taken it last and sank into a deep depression.
He refused to open up or get counseling, he became paranoid the entire world hated him and acted erratically. He wrecked three cars and I could not work for two solid years due to managing his medical, legal, financial, and academic matters, trying desperately to save him from sinking into the dark abyss of mental illness. He could only hold down a job for a maximum of 6month and then felt as if everyone hated him when he would go off his medication and he would disappear for days and thus lose the job. He does not qualify for SSI because we were told he has proven he can work. He has 4 separate doctor diagnoses of bipolar disorder and MDD, yet, he is ok, according to the Social Security Disability office, because “he can work”.
I am always on edge, on alert for when he goes off his medication again, there is no rest. No, people cannot toss that word “crazy” around at their ex girlfriend or boyfriend or ex spouse or a friendship gone awry. People and families enduring caring for and living with someone who truly has a mental illness are the only ones who get to use that term.
May is national mental health awareness month. If you have a story to share concerning mental illness, you may want to go to: nami.org/get-involved/share-your-story.
