<p>Moreover, many people with mental illness or who simply had eccentricities/idiosyncrasies closed-minded relatives/local neighbors won’t tolerate ended up being institutionalized and effectively warehoused. The abuses of institutionalization by such closed-minded folks was one of the key reasons why it is much more harder to institutionalize someone nowadays.</p>
<p>Heck, one supervisor whose mother was institutionalized for a period in the '50s said with the way institutionalization worked in the '50s and '60s, many of the smartest classmates at his high school and mine would have probably been institutionalized or had the attempt tried on them if they happened to be unlucky to have closed-minded relatives or neighbors who expect everyone to conform strictly to their rigid definition of “normal”.</p>
<p>As a parent of a son on the spectrum, I can say that this doesn’t sound like autism. While many autistic people are overly sensitive to certain visual and auditory stimuli, their reactions to other people are nowhere near ripping up clothes, stabbing mattresses, and sobbing, fully clothed, in the shower.</p>
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<p>Although she probably would not have snapped at that particular person (Betsy), she likely would have snapped at some point. The transition of going to college, with all the stress that involves, is enough to cause some mentally ill people to go over the edge – and I think there is no question that she is mentally ill. If she hadn’t had a roommate, the severity of her condition might have gone unnoticed and she could have committed suicide or done something else. The fact that her mother went off on Betsy is an indication that her mother is mentally ill and/or in deep denial. Either way, she probably wasn’t going to get much help from that quarter.</p>
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<p>I think it’s both more prevalent in colleges AND we hear more about it because of media. When I was coming along, very few students who were mentally ill would have made it to college in the first place. There were fewer interventions to help them at earlier ages. Even so, I know two people of my generation (one male, one female) who appeared to be only “different” but went to college, then had mental breaks in their first/second years. Sadly, both were diagnosed with very severe mental illnesses. Neither returned to college and both are struggling to this day. One lives with aging parents and one is in an institution.</p>
<p>My concern would be that the roommate would get back on campus somehow and stalk that dorm and try to get into the room. I would want Betsy moved, into a single on campus, at the cost of a double. And I would be ALL OVER the legal department of the university to make sure they were aware of the situation. I guarantee legal will have a strong interest in this.</p>
<p>Exactly. Going to law enforcement to get a restraining order will force their hand. Even just filing a police report and getting the paperwork started is advised. ASAP</p>
<p>Well, then, cobrat, if you knew one person who said something, it MUST be the complete and utter truth. Yep, indeed, everyone who was “odd” in the 50s and 60s would have been institutionalized. Cobrat knows someone who says so.</p>
<p>Betsy’s parents should abolutely go to local police ASAP. Provide pictures and details. THEY (The Police) decide upon prosecution.</p>
<p>They should also seek a couple of counseling sessions outside of the University for Betsy. There could be some PTSD. My father had similar events in the workplace many, many years ago. It still pains me to think of his gentle soul being so very hurt by an individual with mental illnois.</p>
<p>"And I would be ALL OVER the legal department of the university to make sure they were aware of the situation. I guarantee legal will have a strong interest in this. "</p>
<p>Pizzagirl is exactly correct on this point.</p>
<p>Boys…post #120. This topic is always difficult for me. Back in the dark ages, I was in a triple and one of the girls in the triple above liked to play her guitar and tap on the floor. At some point, I introduced myself and became best friends with the non-guitar playing roommate. Let’s call the guitar player G. I didn’t know then what I know now. It seems that G was bipolar. At times she would be everywhere on campus and at other times she was nowhere to be found. I knew that she was on the radar of several university official and professors. I took comfort that they had an eye on her even if I didn’t know that what I was seeing was more than just odd. Fast forward to about 8 years after graduation. I returned from an overseas trip and read my mail in the middle of the night. The alumni newspaper said that G had died. I <em>knew deeply</em> that it had been suicide. I sat through that lonely night waiting for the night to pass so that I could speak with my BF in the morning. I feel guilty that I didn’t know enough to know what was going on. I try to be more aware with my kids’ friends and roommate situations.</p>
<p>Given the turn of events, I take this back. I suspect my son’s roommate may have some form of EFD, not quite capable of processing what most would consider normal stimuli. If another guy asks him a question, he may just stare at the guy until he gives up and walks away. A full garbage can won’t trigger the “take it to the dumpster” response, instead turning into an expanding mound of refuse.</p>
<p>I think it’s completely unfair to expect a college student to have to live with these kinds of conditions. Sorry, there’s a base level of normality, and that includes cordial civil interactions with other people, “allowance” that other people may enter the room within reason, and reasonable use of lights, telephone, etc. If your (generic) kid can’t handle that, then I think it’s on you to get your kid a single.</p>
<p>Let me clarify my point. I thought that she sounded as if she might be on the spectrum <strong>from the initial description.</strong> Her subsequent behavior, which you describe, made it clear that this was mental illness, not autism.</p>
<p>I was simply saying that I didn’t think her earlier behavior indicated that she would become violent or unhinged, and I doubt that anyone at the school who was not her therapist could have predicted it.</p>
<p>His account has also been borne out by many written news reports on how closed-minded relatives and neighbors have abused the use of institutionalization in the '50s and '60s because they wanted to be rid of someone who didn’t fit their rigid definition of normal, wanted to get at their inheritances, or sometimes even because of religious/political disagreements from the weaker party. </p>
<p>It was one of the key factors in why there are more safeguards for the rights of the individual who is suspected/is mentally ill and the standards required to be met to institutionalize someone involuntarily are much higher nowadays than they were back then.</p>
<p>True the criteria for “institutionalization” were less strict 60 years ago, but its really highly doubtful that facilities would house what you essentially describe as “political prisoners”. Please stop.</p>
<p>Not to take sides here but we had a family friend who was an attorney that sat on committal hearings back in the 60’s - until his conscious got the better of him after a few years. Many, not one or two or a dozen or even a hundred but hundreds of women in a Midwest town of 100,000 were committed during divorce proceedings by angry spouses. Granted it was a 2 week involuntary observation period but everything was stacked against them including the law and medical field at the time. Women really were trapped then by state laws. Finally our friend resigned because he couldn’t stomach it any longer. It was a common ploy to either not pay alimony, not get custody of the children or to drive the little women back to the husband.</p>
<p>Yes, there were arcane, abusive practices then, but by the 50’s and 60’s there was a push towards de-institutionalization, with the development of community mental health centers, improvements in medications for mental health disorders, etc. And as sickening as that corrupt practice of hospitalizing wives for evaluation , as you describe, was, it was not a long term “life in an asylum” as cobrat’s post implies. And the likelihood that neighbors could have people committed for some protracted time?? Sorry-- not likely.</p>
<p>If you had read my post carefully, I didn’t say my supervisor’s mother was held for a “life term”…but for a period during the '50s for something that no conscientious mental health professional would institutionalize someone for today. </p>
<p>In short, like iadorking, I was presenting a glimpse into how abuses of institutionalization during the '50s and '60s and before were such that changes were made so there were much more stringent safeguards and higher standards required for any consideration of involuntary institutionalization. </p>
<p>There’s also some merit to the argument that even a day spent involuntary institutionalized for what turns out to be invalid or dubious reasons as happened to many Americans in the '50s and '60s and before by current standards is too much.</p>
<p>However, that has brought the contestation of balancing the rights of the suspected/confirmed mentally ill individuals with the rights of everyone else around them into greater public scrutiny through increased mass media reports and discussions in the popular sphere.</p>
<p>Whatever. Good grief. You said they were warehoused and said this:
To BE RID of someone implies a long term stay. As I said… IMPLIES. Perhaps you didn’t read the post carefully. Unlikely some poor family member will lose their inheritance because they were briefly hospitalized. Perhaps, maybe…if they were warehoused for a protracted period and did not know. Again-- it implies a long term placement. No need to try to wordsmith. Your continued stories are likely just that.</p>
<p>I am beginning to think maybe we should bring back the policy for a select few… :rolleyes:</p>
<p>*** BTW Cobrat, the part of my post you quoted in #141 was addressing iadorking’s comments about wives in the midwest, not your post about your supervisors mother.</p>