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You make a strong point gulas. Makes me wonder why I stick around to inflict such selfish behaviour on loved ones. A long time friend just the other day told me to f-off because she was sick and tired of me not answering the phone or returning her calls.
This is an issue without a one size fits all solution. People can be more or less of a danger to themselves and/or others. We often don’t know until it is too late. There is a kind of sliding scale at play. At one end you have MI’s with mild to no psychosis. On the other you have MI with major psychotic breaks leading to horrific violence. The risks escalate as you move up the scale.
It would be impossible to find a one size fits all policy that protects both our individual and collective rights in every situation. It can't be done. That poses a huge challenge for a collective free society. Where is that elusive line between safe and dangerous? How do we respect human rights while protecting citizen rights within the elusive realities of MI?
It is always easy to say after the fact that a person who suffers a major psychotic break was not 'taking their meds'. The message to the public then translates to ..... if you know someone with mental illness who is not taking meds than YOU are in danger. Encourage them to stay with their meds and watch your back. Stay safe.
We know the issue is much deeper than a question of compliance or non-compliance with med treatment. From a societal perspective meds are the most cost effective. Or at least that is what they are told. Personal support is the most effective treatment but it is also the most expensive.
As has been suggested already, people with MI often isolate from others by choice or abandoned by circumstance. Many of us have little to no access to on-going therapeutic support. We get the dx, go to the pharmacy, take the meds and report back when the meds run out. We are put on waitlists for talk therapy but you never make it to the top of the list. That is reality for a lot of people with MI. We walk through the illness without a support system.
I would venture to guess that the lack of a quality and consistent support system is a better predictor of dangerous behaviour than straight up med-compliance. I think of some of those extreme horrific cases involving psychosis. It seems consistently that the broken sole has no one in their life to support them either personally or professionally. No one is there. No one has ever been there. No one is going to be there when things start to spiral. Any one that may have been in their lives had long since thrown in the towel or were oblivious to any problems. Society has no safety net without someone being there for the MI person in crisis.
We can force people to comply for a short time by authority or we can encourage people by loving them and being there for them; giving them hope; reinforcing their value as a human being. We need more people loving people through MI. We need to see medication as one piece not the whole. We need loving relationships if any sort of treatment option is going to be effective. We can’t abandon people to medications that could in themselves trigger psychosis. We must stand with people in need. Give of ourselves to people in need. Not enough of that happens amid the fast paced lives commanding the world today.
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