Message #54319

[claudiamag]

This is what the first thing that came to my mind when I read the original post.  When we were children we had a neighbor who suffered with mental illness - at the time untreated.  At times she was just fine, but she would have "breakdowns" and become extremely paranoid.  During those time she believed that someone was trying to steal her daughters, so she would keep them in the house with her all day when they weren't in school - the the windows shut and the drapes closed, no noise, no tv and sometime she would make them go in the basement.  In her mind she was doing the best thing for them by hiding them.  What finally was the breaking point was when one day she got so bad that she decided that she tied the girls together in the basement and call the husband to tell him she was going to kill them and herself because it was the only way to make sure they were always with her and "safe".  Of course the husband called 911 and the cops were there in seconds.  The wife was committed to a hospital and given treatment.  We saw her a few years ago.  Her daughters are all grown and her husband had past away.  She seemed happy although she told did tell us that she very much fears falling back into the nightmare she lived with.   But she tries to keep her spirits up and said she thanks God every day for the medication that save her life.

So please, hard as it may be, try to be patient with this woman.  She might be suffering with this more than you know.  To her this might be a very real threat and she is only doing what she feels is the best thing for her children.