Stephany of Soulful Sepulchur is one of the first blog friends I made when I started blogging. She took a personal interest in my situation because she has a daughter that was diagnosed as Early Bipolar 10 years ago and her daughter was placed on a myriad of psychiatric drugs for years. Her daughter Lindsay is now a young adult. At the point that Lindsay tried to come off of her psychiatric medicines, despite tapering off slowly and under the care of a medical doctor, the damage to her brain by the medicines and/or combination of medicines was already done and was irreversible. Lindsay is now institutionalized at Western State Hospital in Washington State with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and/or permanent psychosis (correct me if I’m wrong, Stephany). She also gained over 100 pounds, has thyroid issues and PCOS all caused by the medications she took over the years.
Lindsay was originally diagnosed as bipolar when she had a bad reaction to a medicine given to her for bed-wetting at summer camp. She was diagnosed as bipolar by a doctor that spent 10 minutes with her. And thus began her spiraling journey with psychiatric medicines.
Enclosed in the links below are some thoughts on her current situation. It breaks my heart how she is being treated as she has been deemed to be of no danger to anyone.
http://bipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com/
http://www.furiousseasons.com/archives/2010/01/some_thoughts_for_western_state_hospital_dshs.html
As parents of children with mental health needs we must be aware of what can happen in the world of psychiatric care. We must do what we can to ensure standards of care improve not only for Lindsay and other adults in her predicament, but also for our own children. After all, our children may need this kind of care some day as well.
Everyone in these facilities deserves to be treated with dignity, respect and given a reasonable opportunity to heal.
4 Comments
Thank You, Meg.
Thank you for sharing this. I am forever amazed at what our kids are put through by the very professionals who are supposed to help them.
My son has been hospitalized several times now. One facility was terrible and I feel for the children who are there currently.
I am behind in blog reading and forward this to my friend who is in the middle of this issue. See “Solemn” on my blog. http://cindajohnson.blogspot.com/2009/11/solemn.html OHHHH, misery.
I have been i and out of psychiatric hospitals for 15 years. I have been mistreated, mocked, and degraded as a patient. Some people have no business working in the mental health field if they do not know what it is like to struggle through mental illness. I almost started a lawsuit with one hospital for not giving me my medications and I almost died from klonopin withdrawal. Thank you for this site-Stacy
http://iamscatology.blogspot.com/2009/10/on-major-depression.html