What is Reddit's opinion of Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness?

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This far? I don't think we can fairly assess that due to "this far" meaning they're so detached from reality that they kill someone. Many many states just chuck them in prison so we don't have good data on their recovery rates. People who are entirely detached from reality, but haven't killed someone may be more likely to get treatment and with the right meds they can totally return to reality. I don't have stats right in front of me, but I know it's often enough it's worth trying. How much control? At this stage basically none. I think really the only way for you to understand that is to read case studies. I can tell you that they basically have no control at that point, but if you really want to understand I would seriously recommend reading a case study.

This book will tell you a lot about how the mentally ill are treated in the US and will provide a decent amount of info on schizophrenia. If you choose to read it 2 things: 1) It's disgusting. Mentally ill people are treated worse than you think prisoners are treated so be prepared for how horrible it is. 2) You may be tempted to think that because this book was published 13 years ago things are different now, they're not. It is legitimately still this bad.

TL;DR: Don't give up on severely mentally ill people (note this does not mean I am advocating for someone w/schizophrenia who murdered people to just be turned free and attend therapy once a week, but incarceration isn't the answer either) and they don't have control.

People go to jail for this sort of thing all the time. Buy it varies by state/country and can sometimes depend on if the other party wants to press charges.

If you are interested in the topic you can check out this book. It tells the story of how the author's son narrowly dodged a felony conviction for something he did during psychosis and the story of other people who were less lucky.

If this is more than a hypothetical, Alex should try to get legal representation.

If you'd like to learn more about mental health service in the US, search "US mental health care quality"

I'd also recommend a book by Pete Earley titled <em>Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness</em>. It is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and describes what is known as the revolving door in mental health, which is the cycle of illness and incarceration due to inadequate mental health treatment.

If this woman goes to jail, she is even more likely to become trapped in that cycle, by being denied access to basic needs due to a criminal record. What she did to the dog is tragic, but the treatment of mental illness in the US is the real tragedy that results in incidents like this and far worse.

These people aren't going off this singe sample, merely adding it to the long list of occurrences. If you'd like to learn more about mental health service in the US, search "US mental health care quality"

I'd also recommend a book by Pete Earley titled <em>Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness</em>. It is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and describes what is known as the revolving door in mental health, which is the cycle of illness and incarceration due to inadequate mental health treatment.

If this woman goes to jail, she is even more likely to become trapped in that cycle, by being denied access to basic needs due to a criminal record. What she did to the dog is tragic, but the treatment of mental illness in the US is the real tragedy that results in incidents like this and far worse.

Sounds terrifying, but think of it this way:

They claimed they had psychological symptoms indicative of schizophrenia or bipolar. Why shouldn't they be treated for this?

If they'd really had the hallucinations (and weren't on street drugs) then the hallucinations would be coming back soon enough if they didn't accept treatment.

This study was part of the wave of the antipsychiatry movement that exposed problems with mental hospitals, but a disastrous backlash: deinstitutionalization, which led shittons of people to end up worse off: in prison, on the street, or addicted.

The book <em>Crazy</em> by Pete Earley is a fascinating look at the experiences of a journalist whose bipolar son broke into a neighbors' house and caused a mess. Earley embarks on an investigation, meeting those who have perspective on how we got where we are and those trying to help the mentally ill.

This is a hugely important issue for our nation, for EVERYONE, that does not get the attention it deserves. We need stronger commitment laws (we should be able to medically test whether a person is experiencing psychosis) and more funding for psychiatry care!!

For a good discussion of what family members deal with, see, https://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Fathers-Through-Americas-Madness/dp/0425213897/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1542128703&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=pete+earley+crazy

Please do a long (and accessible, explain-like-I'm-five) post about the full story when you get time. It's so hard to find anyone who knows the real story and even harder to get a word in edgewise when people around me are spouting the conventional wisdom.

At least one journalist, maybe more, have had personal experience and found out how hard to impossible it is to force a family member to take their meds/go into treatment.

https://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Fathers-Through-Americas-Madness/dp/0425213897#:~:text=Book%20details&amp;text=Former%20Washington%20Post%20reporter%20Pete,people%20who%20break%20a%20law.

The person with schizophrenia who threw Kendra Webdale in front of a subway train was from a wealthy and well-connected family. They tried everything.

Every time something happens, you hear this conventional wisdom endlessly:

1) "Why didn't the family do something?" Endless blaming of the family by people who don't know it's next to impossible to force a family member to take meds/go to treatment.

2) "People with mental illness are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators." Yes, but that does not mean a person with mental illness will never do a violent act. People do not understand statistics.

3) "Ronald Reagan closed the mental hospitals and turned all the residents out into the streets." Before Reagan, there was supposed to be a network of community mental health centers that took the place of residential treatment. The community centers were supposed to dispense meds and help clients manage their daily lives etc. This network never finished getting built and no one did anything after that (to my understanding) and what there was fell apart.

4) As you point out, when antispychotic medications were first invented, they looked so promising, but no one figured on the patients not wanting and refusing to take the meds.

5) One reason so many people with mental illness are on the street is they do not want to take meds. Their families want them to take meds, so they are avoiding their families. They may also avoid shelters and such because the shelters and/or helpers will try to get them to a mental hospital and they do not want to be locked up and given meds. This is not "blaming them" but people do not understand that the families cannot do anything until...

6) It is almost impossible to force someone into treatment before that person has committed a violent act and gotten involved with the criminal justice system. Sometimes the criminal justice system can take it from there. I read one long article by a family (Forgot where, sorry) where they had to wait until their family member had committed an act serious enough to get involved with the criminal justice system, and FINALLY they could force the family member into treatment. Not until then.

I am mercifully not dealing with this personally in my family but I have read accounts. Wish I'd bookmarked and kept them. I'm just so tired of people shouting the conventional wisdom instead of listening to how the problem is larger and made up of lots of components by well-meaning people but a lot of places where plans fell through the cracks.

And no one has taken up the banner yet (except maybe California with its upcoming CARE courts)

I had to look that up. I'm not engaged in covert advertising. =/ I actually put a lot of thought into the response. Here's one of the textbooks I would have cited if I thought it was more easily accessible to everyone.

I think that medications are overprescribed and I think that insurance companies demand medication because medications are more concrete than psychotherapy. While I think that the long-term use of psychotropic medication has negative consequences, so does the long-term use of cancer medication and any other medication, really... to say that it leads to violent crime is a really, really big leap.

I stand by my previous statement that saying things like this insults people who suffer from real illnesses. This book does a wonderful job of outlining the problems in our mental health system and how we actually need better access to powerful psychotropic medications in terms of curbing violent crime and crime rates in general.

I'm basing this information on the book 'Crazy' (I can't remember the author's name.) It was a serious look at how the mentally ill are cared for in America and it was extremely well reviewed.

And this conversation is over. Don't expect any replies.

Edit: Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness