I’d like to share my experience with mental illness in response to the article “Police shooting of boy with autism in Salt Lake City leads to calls for more crisis intervention teams.” In 2017, I experienced a psychotic break. It took nine months from onset to be diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder. Without belaboring the details, I experienced visual and auditory hallucinations and panic attacks nonstop for three months of that period, and I would not let anyone take my car keys from me.
At several junctures, people chose not to call the police when they could have. My mother did call the National Alliance on Mental Illness, hospitals, and Veterans Affairs (I’m a veteran). I would not go to a hospital willingly, so everyone was helpless. I am so lucky, and so grateful, to have family and friends who were willing and able to help me until the hallucinations stopped and I would receive medical attention. The experience left scars on everyone involved and it has taken years to rebuild my life, and I’m writing this because I’m one of the lucky ones.
Mental illness is a physical illness that presents through behavior. The way I presented was not unusual. There needs to be a protocol for taking care of someone who is in the middle of a mental health emergency and is refusing help. A boy with autism is in the hospital and our homeless shelters are full of people suffering from undiagnosed illnesses that are not their fault, and it isn’t about poverty. What it boils down to is that in the 21st century, treatment of mental illness remains byzantine because it presents with behavioral symptoms that scare people. Walking paths and farmers markets don’t cure congenital heart disease, and mental health awareness won’t cure mental illness. It must be treated clinically.
Lara Gale, Uintah