Comments on: The system worked for me: more thoughts on Cho Seung-Hui and the response to serious mental illness

By: Glynnis

Glynnis — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:50:11 +0000

Cho should have never been in VT in the first place. He was too backward for that environment. He should have gone to a college for the mentally retarded. There just had to be a college for the mentally retarded in that town where he live, since every state in the country has one. Where was there one in Blacksberg, VA? He should have been enrolled at the Community College for Retards of Virginia. There probably was one there-he just wanted to be a darned fool, and be what he wasn’t-don’t know how he slipped through the cracks.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:09:49 +0000

My 10yo little girl is currently psychiatrically hospitalized for the fourth time in five months. Usually, she is a danger only to herself and me and my husband. This last time, she lunged at the baby. Her violent psychotic episodes last a day or two, we hospitalize her, they keep her and us safe, and then she’s fine and they send her home to start the cycle again. I have begged for help from everyone in the mental health and school system, and I am amazing at finding resources for my child. But most of the resources just don’t know what to do or don’t care. The vast majority of the time, my daughter is a happy, pleasant, gentle, creative, sweet, strange and wonderful child. She does NOT need to be locked up forever. She does need help. There just doesn’t seem to be anyone willing or able to help her. I am very scared of what she will do as she gets older and bigger, and I’m trying so hard to find the right therapy/meds/special school combo to prevent these episodes. But there is no set answer. Right now I feel like I don’t know if there is any answer. Other than to lock her in her room every night, be sure I”m always within arm’s reach of the baby, and to make sure she has an aide always within arm’s reach of her when she’s not at home. I am very worried for the future of my child. The resources just don’t seem to be there.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:34:08 +0000

Hi Hugo,

My overachiever and wonderful daughter 20 came home from Berkeley this Summer and had a major depression “melt-down”.

After much trial and error with doctors, we finally found a good one. She sat out one semester (and worked, instead) but plans to return to Berkeley this month/semester.

Your writings on your own bouts with mential illness have given me such positive hope and inspiration for my daughter’s potential positive future.

So much you read about mental illness is so negative.
You get the impression that once a person has a first episode, their life’s outcome will be horrible.

You remind me so much of her present doctor (who has really won her over); he is an optimist and upbeat.

Whenever I am feeling down about what my daughter has gone through these past six months, I read your writings and they make me feel good.

Thank you more than I can say!

By: Liesbeth Kiki

Liesbeth Kiki — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:53:54 +0000

when you say it’s ove. Liesbeth Kiki.

By: Ruth Hoffmann

Ruth Hoffmann — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 20:41:38 +0000

One of my major concerns in all of this is that in most areas of the country, and certainly for most people on regular health insurance (to say nothing of un- or underinsured folks), the mental health system is already strained to capacity. In Minneapolis in the 90s there was more than one case of a mentally ill person being turned away from involuntary (family-instigated) commitment, because there was no room at the facility, and then those people did go out and kill others. These were people whose families begged to have them committed and treated, but there was no room available. Part of the problem was that this was at the county hospital, which had so much traffic from people brought in and committed by police that they could not make space for people brought in by family. So if we’re already at (or past) the breaking point, and suddenly we’re to be institutionalizing more people, on the theory that they *might* be dangerous at some point, where are we going to put them? Where will the money and space come from, and at whose expense? Or will any remaining standards just become nonexistent, and mental hospitals become more akin to prisons, jam-packed with people who are there unnecessarily, under some mandatory sentencing scheme?

The other major issue that worries me is that it’s not been very long since being gay was a mental illness. Given the current political climate, it’s not unforeseeable that certain political opinions or expressions of protest could become classified as mental illness. Especially in a college setting, where the system is (in my experience) already somewhat fast and loose, this is a recipe for serious repression.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 19:00:15 +0000

At the time Cho could have been involuntarily committed he was seen to be a risk only to himself. Those doctors didn’t see his writings, etc. A better system for putting together the pieces of the puzzle would help.

Also, this was an unusual case of a very uncommunicative person–from childhood. I would guess that most people who are this mentally ill would say more alarming things. His roommate did report the one very alarming thing he said which indicated he might harm himself. That’s to be commended because many many such incidents don’t get reported.

Our son (while in college)was involuntarily put in a mental facility because police determined he was a threat to himself when he said he intended to collect money for a relative by panhandling. His friends had called 911 because he was talking a bit unusually over a few day period and they thought he needed to see a doctor.
The only other time he went to a mental facility he really only needed to see a doctor but was new in town and didn’t have his own. The emergency rooms are the only recourse. They gave him a sleeping pill, took him to the mental facility. When there he was asked to sign that he was there voluntarily (not true) for 5 days or be involuntarily committed for 30 days. (they exaggerated to threaten him–it would have been for 3 days.) We had to get a lawyer and fight them. He was not a threat to himself or others, just needed his medication adjusted so he could sleep.

The main point is that the whole system is very inconsistent and needs reform. If patients could get good care outside the facilities the spaces there could be reserved for those who really need them. If there were insurance parity, mental health issues (brain disease) would be covered like other physical diseases.

We need to use this case to sort out what would help many students and many situations rather than base our changes just on this one very very unusual case.

By: djchuang

djchuang — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 21:05:34 +0000

K, from my perspective as an Asian American, and in my work as a researcher on Asian American churches, all the reports I’ve seen in the media about the Cho family resembles most others. And, as such, the cultural resistance and stigma to get mental care help is very difficult, and if attempted, often too late.

Granted, it’s speculation to know how much effort was made to get help in time, and how many creative avenues were tried for the person of our discussion. But, I do know that Asian stigma against counseling this is a major factor for most who need help but don’t get it, just as it was for me personally in my own family.

See this SF Chronicle article for more explanation about Asians being less likely to see therapy:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/20/MNGHMPCDG41.DTL

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:49:48 +0000

I have a friend who’s going through serious issues with bipolar and alcohol. I hope he makes it out of his problems alive like you did. Thanks.

By: Hugo Schwyzer

Hugo Schwyzer — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:39:51 +0000

Thanks, Lynn. Indeed, California law, properly applied, always allows for the involuntary detention of those who are a threat to others. And most of those who are 5150ed are there, as Lynn says, because of threats to themselves.

I am not defending what Cho did; I am defending the rights of the mentally ill, who as a class pose chief danger primarily to themselves.

By: Lynn Gazis-Sax

Lynn Gazis-Sax — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:10:07 +0000

K, we already have laws that allow people to be institutionalized that are actually a threat to others. If they didn’t get applied in Cho’s case, it’s certainly not because the ACLU is preventing people from getting locked up in the case where they really are a threat to others. When someone like Beth grumbles about letting these “crazies” run free, and wishy-washy liberals who don’t want to deny people with mental illness the right to a college education, she casts a much wider net than just those relatively few mentally ill people who are actually a threat to others. She’s also casting aspersions on the rights of people like my husband, who has never been the least threat to others. I know, through my husband’s support groups and through the family support group I attend, of a fair number of people who have needed a 5150, and a few who’ve needed a longer involuntary hold; the vast majority have been committed because they were a threat to themselves, not others. So, no, as long as we have such generalized rants about what a threat “crazies” are, I don’t think Hugo’s expression of political solidarity is at all inappropriate; I think it’s well said.