Do you get high and drink?

Mental illness is a funny thing. I do not judge her for her actions, even thought it might be easy to do.

 

Gina, if you are so concerned, write and ask her.

 

And for an Okie to move to Texas, that IS child endangerment!:thumbs:

 

"Potential" for harm is a slippery slope. I really don't think we want to go down this road.

 

First I would say that there is no excuse for being judgmental. There is confession and repentance however. Now about this woman. I think that the world would be better off if those who feel it is their duty to stick their nose in other peoples business would simple take care of their own. I know people who drive their cars above the speed limit with their kids in the car. Are they good mothers? Or mothers who smoke in the area of their children causing them to inhale second hand smoke, or mothers who talk on the cell phone while driving with their kids in the car which is clearly dangerous. Are these good mothers?
Unless someone is claiming to be a Christian and violating the word of God we need to be very careful about judging someone else.

 

Howdy

First thing is this story is coming out of Austin, where the city motto is "Keep Austin Weird".

Should she lose her kids because of her illness, of course not. I do think there should be some oversight into the children welfare during the day, until she gets her treatment under control.

Does having a few watered down drinks, and smoking a little pot for medical reasons make someone a bad parent? If it does, then we have a whole society of unfit parents, many of which would be Christian.

She should find another health care provider, and get her meds under control, and be honest with them about her self medicating, as that could be affecting her reactions to her prescribed meds.

 

Hmmm, I don't think I'm comin' to eat at your house.

A few thoughts from growing up with a mentally ill mother who self-medicated:


Our child protective services are not set up for prevention. There would be too much room for intrusiveness on the part of the gov were it to be otherwise.


Only once there is evidence of physical abuse will CPS get involved. That means any parent, crazy or not, is welcome to emotionally, verbally and physically abuse their child/ren just as long as they are careful to not leave marks. Even in the event that one does leave a mark that can't be explained in any other way, CPS will likely only provide "parenting classes" to help the parent "appropriately" discipline their child. Of course sometimes the rules change if you are a stable Christian parent who merely spanked their child. In that case the child will be remove pending an "investigation" in some areas. My state, I can swat my child in public and those around will applaude, so I don't worry about it.


A normal parent who gets drunk around their children is going to be ignored by CPS as long as their child isn't found wandering down the street at 1 in the morning. Even then, not much will be done. We really can't expect then that an unstable mother will be treated any different just because she drank along with her prescription meds. Adding pot to the mix? Mmmm, here? I can't see that making any difference to anyone but her doctor as long as there is no proof of physical injury to the children.


What adding pot and alcohol to her meds means is that her meds aren't working. Either she isn't really taking them (as was my mother's case) or they just aren't the right meds to begin with. So she is "self-medicating". I know all about self-medication. My mother preferred the effect she got from her pain killers and her muscle relaxers to the side effects that she got from her anti-depressants/antipsychotics. It didn't matter to her that the pain killers weren't treating her root illness (depression/schziophrenia), all that mattered was the "feeling" she got from being drugged out of her mind.


Did the cops worry about me when she called them at 3 am complaining tat the across the street neightbors were selling drugs, while she was in a delusional state? Not in the least. They simply called down to where my father worked and told him that she was at it again. Why? Because mental illness is something for the family to deal with. If she had killed me as she threatened to do once, it would have been considered a tragedy and THEN someone would have insisted that she get "treatment". Until then, she was ours to deal with.


This is the reality that families of mentally ill people live with every day. Adults in this country are free to live as they wish and if they wish to be crazy, that is their decision. It has to be proven that they are a danger to themselves or others before you can even get them committed overnight! Then, you have to get the mentally ill person their own attorney (you pay if they cannot. guess what, mostly they can't!) and you have to get an attorney and then a judge has to decide if that person is truly in need of forced treatment in a mental health facility.

And you know why that is? Because so many families used to have members committed because they could afford it. The person with the money called the shots, whether the person being committed needed it or not. So, we are in a catch 22. The family usually knows best, but that same family might have ulterior motives in trying to get someone committed.

You have to weigh the benefits of more intrusion into someone's private life against the likelyhood that person will cause harm. Right now, the balance is in favor of the independent adult and not in the favor of the dependent child. However, nowdays a child that was in my position, could complain to a pastor or teacher and find at least some help. So some things have improved. Those options weren't available to me in the 70's when I was a kid.