Andrea Yates

I remember when that story came out. My sister was post partum and I was pregnant. Our OB/gyn had a talk with both of us about the case. This was before I was diagnosed BP. I did have pp psychosis after that birth but it was more like intrusive thoughts. My pdoc at te time just diagnosed me with post partum depression.

here, where I live...

NGRI usually= state hospital, then a long time, possibly a lifetime, of state-sponsored psychiatric control, 'treatment,' and surveillance. it used to be that NGRI convictions could be sealed, but no longer. I guess its 'therapeutic' to have a permanent "insane in the membrane' stain on the rap sheet? I don't know...

when the state decided to save money and sell off most of the old hospital (prime real estate...the state netted a cool $150 million in the deal...), there were cases of people who wanted to be treated in the community, but the psychiatrists at the hospital had put additional labels--'antisocial personality disorder' was one, I remember--on them and deemed them a 'threat to society' and such...so they were expected to stay in the loony bin, indefinitely. ugh.

i don't know why all the social and legal aspects of psychiatry fascinate me so much, but...its scary. there was one case, a dude petitioned to get out of one of the branches of the state hospital system (not the NGRI branch), and then he -died- ... after being tackled by multiple, poorly trained employees at the hospital. oops. sorry 'bout that. i mean...that could have been me, could be me, if it wasn't for some social factors in my favor. -shudder-

and...im done. :-)