My sister and I chat online (she lives in France) and she told me this morning that her DIL, who is so precious and sweet and we all love her but...she suffers from mental illness. Bi Polar and some skitzo mixed in. Her father, who used to be a doctor, is completely nuts. Homeless. Her brothers are also out there.

She and my nephew have two beautiful boys. However, DIL has stopped taking her meds and has joined this crazy faith that believes everything is spiritual. So they have her convinced to pray, etc. and let them help her through this spiritual batte. And, they believe my nephew should also join the church to help her fight this.

She has gotten so bad, thinking that muscle spasms are either MS, Lupus or her father practicing satan worship and causing them. She's been going to doctors who have all told her nothing is wrong and finally a doctor sent her to a counselor who sent her to a shrink, who put her in a mental hospital for five days.

She's now out and continuing on her faith based healing and refusing to take meds. So my poor nephew works all day and comes home to this craziness.

My sister's main concern is she will be one of these people who claims God told her to kill her children or something. And my sis is in France, can't make the trip, so just worries, prays and lights candles in every church she sees. I asked if they could commit her but nobody seems to think she's a danger to herself or others. This is so freaking scary.

Hi, Dianne,
I am sorry for your sister's dilemma. It is so hard for you to, since she is so far away, and leaves you feeling helpless, I know.
I think it is sad when extreme religions dismiss the benefits of medication, especially in someone of the DIL's profile. She could very well pose a threat to herself and her family.
ARI

Dianne -

My heart goes out to her -- my son was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at 18 --

This is a very serious illness -- and without the CORRECT meds -- can be dangerous to the person and people around them.

Bi Polar is very similar to schizophrenia -- but the fact that her father and brothers have this --and the way you described them being homeless etc this sounds more schizophrenic than bi polar. If she's talking about God or the devil telling her to do/say things -- GET HER COMMITTED and on meds -- again the religious part of this coming thru tends to make me lean more towards the schizophrenia.

I'm not sure if its only your sister that lives in France -- but if the DIL lives here in the states they can Baker Act her into an institution. They need to find one that they would feel comfortable leaving her in and set it in motion. A medical doctor is not going to cut if for this sort of illness -- she needs a psychiatrist that CARES and knows his schizophrenia and bi polar !!

They can't give up on her. It's only going to get worse. They need to find a doctor -- a KNOWLEDGEABLE doctor in the area of these two illness's -- and believe me I know how hard this is !! -- that will take this serious and will help find a solution for her. Even if it means against her will !! Five days will NOT give the illness enough days to rear its ugly head or for the meds to truly start working - these anti-pyschotics are very potent meds and can't just be given with a script and say call me in a week -- they need to be monitored closely for at least 2 weeks.

I'm not saying this for the drama -- I just can't stress the need for help here enough -- and where I cant say about the BiPolar -- I can promise you that if its schizophrenia -- she WILL become dangerous to herself and others !!!!

(by the way - do you know what meds was she on)

Thanks. No, I don't know what she was taking. Not sure my sister does either. I'll forward your message to my sis. She hates to be a butt in MIL and her son just told her about this and I think it happened two weeks ago. He's pretty closed mouth about his problems so she has to be delicate with him. Thanks again.

Please feel free to email me - lionspaaw@aol.com- just put "dianne" in the subject so I won't delete you as spam ;-)

It's so sad that these types of illness's quite often dont show up until families are formed -- careers are made -- and many lives are devistated by them.

I hope you don't mind but I passed your email addy onto my sister. Told her to put Dianne's sister in the subject line. I really and deeply appreciate your help with this.

I really can't do much more than give her support, but I'm happy to do that.

We went through all this basically alone. I wish I had more information - especially about the drugs - it might have made a difference.

Did you read Danielle Steel's book about her son? It really shows how horrible it is on all involved.

Dianne, I'm so happy to see lion jumped in this forum. I have faith she will come to their rescue in any way possible.

Mental illness can be frightening when not managed properly. It appears to be coming more prevalent in this day and age. Don't you wonder why?

I have a friend who works with mentally ill people who commit crimes. Talk about scary. Many of them are OFF their medications for some reason or other when the crime is committed. She is concerned because when many are set free from jail, they go back to the streets with medicine that typically runs out in 30 days. Then what do they do? It's sad because many can live healthy lives when taking the proper medication.

Isn't part of the illness not taking their meds? I know they don't like missing the highs they experience but I've known very few people who are mentally ill that will take their meds.

Leigha would probably tell us that the chemicals we're ingesting today are causing this to become more of a problem and I agree. It's gotta be something we're doing wrong.