Reply #5: it's the guardianship issue [View All]

[pop goes the weasel]

I've known schizoaffective people, and the main thing you notice about them is that they have difficulty interacting normally. The ones I have known have not been delusional, even when unmedicated. Professor Pyre likely experienced an episode of uncontrolled delusional thinking late last year, leading to the guardianship. The legal system should recognize that mental illness is not static, that like many other chronic illnesses, it is episodic, and that months, even years, of relatively good health and remission can come in between periods of acute symptoms. This all-or-nothing approach to mental illness, this tendency to strip adult rights, and even human status, from people with mental illness, works to keep people who need help from seeking it. People become terrified that they will be "taken away," never allowed to lead a normal life again, because of laws like this one in Missouri. Shame on the lawmakers if they don't change it.