Our son, who is 24 years old, is suffering from paranoid delusions with his obvious psychosis. Because he doesn’t acknowledge or even see that he has a problem, he will not seek the mental health treatment he so desperately needs. He was a good kid who suddenly after college and coming home, started having delusions that he was being watched and followed. He has expressed his fear about wars, spies, vans in the neighborhood, and so many other things that he believes to be true. His fear has caused him to become a completely different person in the last year. His anger and threatening stares have made us, his family, feel unsafe. We sleep with doors locked, knives put up, and have to constantly watch him to keep him safe and possibly others safe.
We have urged and pleaded with him to go in for a mental health evaluation, but he does not recognize he has a problem.
As parents, our hands are tied by the law and health privacy laws, and we have no power to force him into treatment. It feels as though we are waiting for an unfortunate event to happen before he will be taken into involuntary care.
Sometimes we hope something that won’t harm anyone will happen, and he can be taken for a psychiatric ER hold for evaluation.
This is a terrible thing to want. We see how paranoid his reality is and his distrust of people around him, including family. We fear that the paranoia will make him do something bad, and we are scared. Since this started affecting our family, we have done so much research and are so let down with what little we can do.
Hearing stories from other families going through the same situation has broken our spirits. Laws must be changed to help those with mental health problems and to protect the families and the public. I hope my son is never on the news one day because his untreated psychosis caused him to harm himself or others. There has to be a way to help those who won’t help themselves.
Each story is shared by someone impacted by untreated SMI,
lightly edited for clarity, never for meaning.
Do you have an ask? If you were sitting down with your legislator, how would you ask them to help you?
What can we do to allow us families to have some power in placing our loved ones suffering from mental illnesses into treatment when they do not recognize they need it. There has to be something to allow a family member to help.
