Posted by Toph on September 2, 2006, at 18:05:27
In reply to Fallen Between the Cracks **Bipolar Trigger**, posted by Toph on August 28, 2006, at 18:02:28
No news on Christina's condition, but you may find one reader's perspective on this story interesting:
Parental Responsibility
Anne Bowen
Published September 2, 2006
Oak Park -- I feel sad about what happened to Christina Eilman, but I am a little confused about her parents. What are they thinking?To recap: Only a year and a half ago, their daughter was stricken with bipolar disorder, which caused her to be "Very irate. Aggressive. Loud. Out of control." She was hospitalized for only 37 days for this dangerous ailment, then released on the condition that she take prescribed medication, which she discontinued on her own because she didn't like the way the pills made her feel.
Instead of contacting their daughter's doctor or insisting that she take her medication, her parents then "hoped for the best" and foisted her off on a large campus.
They must not have visited her much because they didn't know she had dropped out of school and was behaving erratically again and spending time with people her friends didn't know. All her parents knew was that "she sounded normal in their phone conversations."
Next thing you know, Christina is in Chicago where she is now stranded. She phones her parents and what happens?
Do they drop everything and take the next flight to Chicago to bring her back? No, they do what they've been doing all along--keeping their distance, hoping for the best, and letting someone else take care of their child in accordance with their protracted phone instructions.
The Chicago police are responsible for a lot of things, but being a concerned mother or father substitute to an out-of-control refugee from California who has been foisted off on them is not one of those responsibilities.
Christina was indeed a victim, but her parents have no right even thinking about suing somebody else for $100 million.
Indeed, given the distressed, unstable and potentially violent state of their daughter's mind, they should count their lucky stars that she didn't unintentionally hurt either herself or someone else and that no one is now suing them.
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
poster:Toph
thread:680929
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060826/msgs/682410.html