NAMI Can Help

NAMI Can Help

by a Santa Cruz Parent

Next week will be my oldest son’s 21 birthday. I now know that I don’t really know that much about anything in life. I gave birth at home and thought I had done all the right things bringing him into a safe, quiet loving environment. I ate the right foods, did yoga and exercised. I had excellent prenatal care with both a OBGYN and midwife. I believed that I would raise him right, not be like my own mother who was very physically violent and abusive. If I did the right things, I thought he would be a graduate of Stanford University and live a happy healthy life full of reward and peace.

Never, never in my wildest imagination would I foreseen that my same beautiful son would have a little understood and difficult to diagnose developmental disorder. His behavior was difficult to understand and not knowing, friends, teachers and even family including his father blamed me for bringing him up wrong. Little did I know that the disorder that plagued his brain also gave him the likelihood of the onset of severe mental illness?

Four years ago he began the onset of disorganized schizophrenia. The son that I love so much has kicked in all my walls in my house, thrown objects at us, hit us, kicked us, beat us up, deprived us and himself from days, weeks, months of sleep, refused medication, refused help of any kind, become catatonic, refused to bathe for weeks and weeks, jumped from moving cars. He has spent his entire late teens and young adulthood locked up in one mental hospital or another. He is now locked up and very, very unhappy, depressed, over medicated and not understanding why he is where he is right now thinking he is being punished like a little boy. I have never felt such desperateness, never!

When a friend of mine gave me the NAMI newsletter I read it two times and sent in the membership. I am so glad I found NAMI and I can imagine the families that first started it by experiencing the same helplessness that I felt. I think that it is in this spirit that I would like to see NAMI-SCC continue. We really are so lucky that we have this organization for ourselves and our families.

I know that in all human organizations there will be differences of perception, but I know that we can all respect each other’s opinions and continue with this very important work. I know that we all have our hearts in the same place.

Opinions expressed in this web site do not necessarily reflect the views of NAMI Santa Cruz County, NAMI California or any affiliated organizations. We attempt to present a balanced perspective on issues by presenting multiple viewpoints.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted (©) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.