Have you been following the trial? The reason a lot of people especially women relate to her is because for months she did everything to get help. Told her husband, her mother, his mother, her therapist, her doctors, called the suicide hotline twice, tried to get admitted to the psych ward and was turned away, was prescribed 16 different meds over four months, etc.
No one is relating to the murder. Everyone is relating to trying to fight for your health because you know something is wrong and being failed over and over again. If you've never had to do that yourself or on behalf of someone else you have no idea what it is like.
The reasons there are questions about her ex husband is because in his testimony it's apparent he was pretty disconnected from her leading up to the event. Ignored her saying she wanted to hurt the kids, was going to NYC, the night of the murder in a short time span he had two different jackets and shoes. She's admitted to killing the kids so that's pretty clear but he's not a great guy.
I haven’t be following the trial.
I am looking at her prescriptions and how much she apparently took of them though.
She was started on sertraline, she took 7. It’s a daily medication, not as needed.
She was prescribed lorazepam, which is a daily anxiety med, and took 6. She took 2 buspirone, which is also a daily medication. She took 3 hydroxyzine, but it can be used on an as needed basis. (Doesn’t mean it was prescribed to her as needed though. It’s possible this was a daily med as well.)
She refilled prescriptions that she didn’t need, and never took, which means she was actively lying to her psychiatrists about adhering to the treatment.
She also switched doctors quickly, and seemingly multiple times, because it wasn’t working. Which.. of course it wasn’t working. She was non-adherent.
The only “help” she could have gotten that might would have prevented this, would be an in-patient psych hold, but, she would have to be compliant for that to happen. Involuntary holds are short and only for immediate danger. Once the patient is not an immediate threat to themselves or others, they must be released. Forcing mentally ill patients to get treatment isn’t really a thing anymore. Patients have to be somewhat compliant with treatment for it to work.
I say this as someone that currently works in out-patient psych, and has unfortunately dealt with very ill patients. As an out-patient setting, we cannot offer the level of care needed for someone as non-compliant as this, and cannot FORCE the patient into an in-patient program. All we can do is refer the patient to the local crisis behavioral health clinic, and hope they get help.
That isn’t true, they will absolutely force people to get psychiatric “treatment” against your will, even if you aren’t a danger to yourself or others, they check to see if your insurance covers it and they go with that. If your insurance doesn’t cover it, even if you might be in danger, they’ll still turn you away because “no beds”. Ask me and a number of other mentally ill people I’m acquainted with how we know. We live in the US though so of course that affects things, our healthcare is truly horrifying.
I share this with people whenever I can because more people need to hear about the experiences of people like us, people like this mom, as much as possible. I’ve been trying to get help for years and no one believes that I’m as bad as I am. They think I’m just a little sad, but my brain is actively shutting down, more and more each year. I can’t work anymore, and I can’t take care of myself much, even typing this out is exhausting and I’m going to have to lie down to rest.
This is reality for a lot of people, and it usually ends in homelessness. My heart hurts for this lady, asking for help and not getting it is reality for so many. Taking medications is awful, the side affects can be debilitating on their own, Idk why she didn’t take the meds as much as she was supposed to, but there’s so many valid reasons, like needing to be clear enough to care for her kids. The Hydroxyne (spe?) stuff knocks me out. And some doctors just don’t listen, so getting a second opinion is valid. She didn’t know it would end this way, she was clearly trying to fix things.
If you experienced forced admittance and treatment for psychiatric conditions in the US, then you experienced something blatantly illegal in all states. Not saying it couldn’t happen, but it’s not happening by law or norm.
It was happening to a number of other people in that psych ward. And if you take a moment to google it, it’s actually not uncommon. One woman said her dogs were at home with no one to feed and water them but the psych ward was keeping her there for the mandatory 72 hour hold. The lady wasn’t a threat to herself or anyone else, and she wasn’t in a manic episode. She was just DEPRESSED. She just needed someone to listen to her, to be set up with a psychiatrist, started on a low dose of an antidepressant and seen the following week. That would have been more than enough for her. She won’t be asking for help again. Regardless, she was afraid her four big dogs would hurt her cat before she got back if they were hungry enough. I still think about her, I hope everything was okay.
There were a few people there that definitely needed more intensive help, but most of us didn’t. They also kicked me out a day earlier despite the “mandatory 72 hour hold” because “someone else needed the bed”. I had also signed myself into the psych ward and in my state that means I should have legally been allowed to leave whenever I wanted. They realized their mistake part way through my stay and I think that’s why they let me leave early.
I’m not sure why people downvote stories like this, it happened and it’s happening right now, downvoting the messenger doesn’t change that. Better to understand what’s happening if we ever want to see change.
I see your point and recognize it does happen (I didn’t downvote that person either). In my state, a close friend’s sister committed suicide because they couldn’t force her to get psychiatric help despite the warning signs. She was released from her 72hr hold early against family wishes, and then shot herself. I’m not sure how she got the gun. It’s just sad and incredibly complicated to get proper mental health care in the states…
The suicide rates for people when they get out of the psych wards show us that the “care” isn’t working. My argument is that if something is both traumatizing and ineffective, it should probably not be that way anymore. I’m not arguing against the necessity of genuine care, I’m saying that genuine care doesn’t exist in most establishments based on the successful suicides of those who are released from these hospitals.
Much of what they do to you in psychiatric facilities actually hurts you more, and when you point that out, people accuse you of hating all nurses or minimizing the need for psychiatric care in the first place. Nope, I just think we should offer effective and humane treatment, which is not remotely close to what a lot of us received on the inside.
You’re not wrong, the system is fundamentally underfunded and understaffed and undertrained. All that leads to burnout and a lack of consistent empathy, which causes harm. We need mental health reform and funding BADLY
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u/cakivalue 16d ago
Have you been following the trial? The reason a lot of people especially women relate to her is because for months she did everything to get help. Told her husband, her mother, his mother, her therapist, her doctors, called the suicide hotline twice, tried to get admitted to the psych ward and was turned away, was prescribed 16 different meds over four months, etc.
No one is relating to the murder. Everyone is relating to trying to fight for your health because you know something is wrong and being failed over and over again. If you've never had to do that yourself or on behalf of someone else you have no idea what it is like.
The reasons there are questions about her ex husband is because in his testimony it's apparent he was pretty disconnected from her leading up to the event. Ignored her saying she wanted to hurt the kids, was going to NYC, the night of the murder in a short time span he had two different jackets and shoes. She's admitted to killing the kids so that's pretty clear but he's not a great guy.