A mental illness suddenly reveals itself in a young adult [View All]

[Catherina]

A mental illness suddenly reveals itself in a young adult
Parents of children with mental illness often struggle to get care.



That lunatic smile. The eyes that look "at you and through you at the same time." The rage.

When Darlene Bobich first saw the now-infamous mug shot of Jared Loughner, she immediately recognized his expression. Although Bobich has never met Loughner, the man accused of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, she has seen his wild-eyed look countless times — in the face of her own son.

"I know that smile," says Bobich, whose 23-year-old son, Peter, has been hospitalized seven times in five years for paranoid schizophrenia. "The dilated pupils — I call them shark eyes."

Like other parents of mentally ill children, Bobich loves her son and wants desperately to help him. But she also lives with the fear that she will one day get a call from the police, telling her about something terrible he has done. The first time Bobich took her son to the emergency room, at age 18, he told her that he had been forced to snap his beloved dog's neck (he hadn't) and was desperately trying to wipe imaginary blood off his clothes. He was poking at the air, explaining that "if he didn't push the buttons, we would all die."

...

Some families first look for help through the alliance's toll-free hotline, 800-950-NAMI, which fields 6,000 calls a month.

Bobich first heard about NAMI about 18 months into her son's illness. When she finally called, she says, the man who answered said: "First, take a deep breath. I know why you're calling."

Bobich says she burst into tears.

...

In some ways, things are getting better for people dealing with mental illness, he says. Federal law now requires that health insurance plans — many of which once provided little mental health coverage — make no distinction between medical/surgical care and mental health care, Fitzgerald says. He says he hopes that will encourage more psychiatrists, many of whom have worked on a cash-only basis, to resume taking health insurance.

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The uninsured — including Bobich's son — face additional obstacles. Bobich, an administrative assistant, says it took her two years to pay the $1,500 cost of one month's medication for her son.

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http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/mentalhealth/2011-01-17-parentspsych17_ST_N.htm




$1,500 for one month? Has this entire country gone crazy?

This is criminal. If the change to federal law, that health insurance plans can no longer distinguish between medical/surgical and mental health care, is Obama's doing, well I thank him.