Re: thoughts sparked by jared loughner situation

[Guest guest]

Hi Walking, I share many of these thoughts too. The idea of committing someone,

them losing complete freedom in their life for mental illness seems so severe.

Yet with some mental illnesses complete self-determination isn't a good idea

either and leads to overwhelming burdens on the family. I wish there were

something that was inbetween - where the person would have an assigned

caseworker who would evaluate and work with them on certain aspects. Kind of a

contract that if they break it they do end up committed so they'll have an

incentive to work with the case worker. But it seems that most social workers

are overworked and underpaid, not really valued enough by our society to do that

kind of work. My nada's main problem in terms of functioning is her hoarding

and it is a big enough problem to where I believe she needs help but not severe

enough to where anything legal could ever be done. And of course she'll never

ever listen to me or take any steps to acknowledge she has a problem.

I'm sorry to hear about your awful temporary commitment experience. I can

imagine that alone would give you PTSD. That shows the other side of this that

if someone has to be committed for whatever reason it should still need to be

treated in a decent and humane way. I hope the memory doesn't stay active for

you for very long.