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Ava82 -> RE: committing a crime=bi-polar?!?! (10/24/2006 8:23:00 AM)
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A lot of problems come from being unable to afford treatment. Depakote, for example, in a relatively moderate dosage without insurance, is going to run a person $1000.00-1200.00 a month. (I know this because I worked in an acute care psychiatric ward. There was a chart posted with costs of medication, so doctors could use that to decide whether to try something new and expensive, or fall back on the old cheaper standby of lithium.) And insurance is so awful about it. I just got turned down for insurance because of panic disorder. Even when they do accept me, they call it a pre-existing condition and I have to shell out a hundred bucks a month for meds for the first six months. This is an enormous strain on me, and I don't even have kids!
Treatment is also hard to get and scarce for the uninsured. Beds are always filled. Waiting lists are months long. And the thing is, a patient can't be put on a 72-hour hold unless they have demonstrated that they are a danger to themselves or others. So you can have someone getting extremely bad, extremely unbalanced, and you can't do anything about it until they do something dangerous. Even the best psychiatrists cannot make beds appear in treatment facilities whenever they are desperately needed. And that's if you can afford a psychiatrist. People with serious mental illness often have spotty employment. It is hard to get up and go in the morning when you have so much going on. I have spotty employment, and most psychiatrists would not say I have a very serious mental illness.
A characteristic of bipolar is poor impulse control. While sharky lawyers can exploit it, it does happen. It's not an excuse, and the person should have to serve the sentence, but I would take it into account as a mitigating factor. As long as the person had a history of biopolar, or two court appointed psychiatrists have concurred with the lawyer's opinion.
Whoever said that people who are insane and cannot control themselves should be put down-Dude, that was really hurtful. I sit here every day and try to decide whether or not I will ever have children, knowing my family history and genetics like I do. Do I want to risk them having lifelong disorders, maltreatment, meds everyday, insurance struggles, and shame? Do I? Believe me, I have studied the heydays of eugenics, sterilization, and icepick lobotomies. I am even going to go out on a limb here and say my great uncle had one done. It was a horrifying day when I learned that, that he was a victim of such ruthlessness, such madness to shut these patients the hell up and make them behave. I would love to be a mother someday, and I would make a great one. But no doubt they will read comments like this too, and be hurt like I am.
You can write me off as a shit stirring noob, that's cool. But putting people down like dogs because it's hard to find treatment in a field that doesn't receive half the funding of cancer or AIDS, and affects so many people? Ouch.
For those interested, NARSAD's Silver Ribbon Campaign for the Brain is a great cause to donate to. No money goes to administrative overhead, all straight to research. Check it out.
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