JCPhoenix:
If the OP has a metally ill parent, then it is important to find someone to discuss this with…a. trusted ADULT, not just a peer. Someone who is balanced and can see the difference between a concerned parent and actual irrationality.
Excellent advice. The key word here is TRUSTED. Just because they are in a position of authority does NOT make them trusted, as many adults, especially teachers, are required by law to take certain issues directly to the government, which has a poor track record of applying “treatment” that is worse than the cure.
I’ve found that many times, unfortunately, teenagers are better at dealing with other teenagers without hysteria and imagined “role hats” than adults, because adults (especially non-parental adult authorities) have a habit of “pulling the trigger” and unleashing cures which cause harmful effects of their own which can be even more permanent than the problem. I wish people would really, really, understand what they are saying before they easily tell a child to “tell an adult.” A couple kids I know about found out the hard way that telling a teacher about a problem is NOT a wise course of action for either the person involved or the friend “helping him out.”
In fact, I think this mentalilty is partly why we lack unity. We are trained as kids to be suspicious of each other and even ourselves, and that the solution is not turning to God but to an “institutionally connected” adult.
At least if you talk to a priest in a confessional it’s supposed to be private so the chances of it becoming worse for having told are reduced.
Someone who is willing to actually care and not pooh-pooh and dismiss a real complaint from a contrived complaint.
Someone who is able to distinguish a real problem .
Parental mental illness is a real and serious problem, and often, those who are experiencing the results of it, and were raised to be obedient, do the parent’s will, etc…have a very difficult time in overcoming “obedience” in order to obtain real help. And the mental health system actually requires physical abuse or attempted suicide in order to actually function.
My first act as an adult was to sign my mother inot the hospital on a 72 hour hold after she had attempted suicide.
Had I known then what I know now, this would not have happened.
Exactly! They tried like hell to get my wife to sign papers against me because they had locked me up with no authorization and their deadlines was coming up. They would get me into contrived meetings and then call her at home and lie to her about me because there was only one thing important: to cover their butt for illegally locking me up in the first place.
I finally went along with it and signed myself in after three days when I had neither even ever met the doctor who signed the order to lock me up, or refused to even address, much less anser, my repeated questions to them on why they have locked me up and how was it my civil liberties were being taken away when they have not even made the claim that I am a danger to myself or others.
This is how the mental health system works. Its most important feature is to maintain Apostolic Succession clear since Sigmund Freud, and to keep the “manna” that they pass down totally in-house. It is a vicious system, worse in ways than the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system would not dare have treated BTK like they did me or he would be walking the streets (save possible vigilante justice) because is it illegal to treat a criminal like a “suspected” mentally ill patient.
My advice to the OP is, that if there is really a problem, call a crisis hotline, explain your situation and ask what you can do to help your mother. If she is mentally ill, then it is not about YOU, but about getting her the help that she needs.
Thank you. This is excellent advice.
I might add that as a trained telephone crisis hotline counselor with the Kansas Children’s Services League, I can do this work.
PMV, I will send you contact information by PM, and you are welcome to contact me. Your secrets are safe, your sanity will be verified but not tested as we sort these issues out. You sound like a lovely young person dealing with a difficult situation and I am certain I can help at least to the extent where you can get this sorted out a bit and maybe reframe your point of view. Not claiming any particular results, but I have seen some very convincing healing in the past.
Alan
