If Things Go Rather Silent…

…it’s because it’s another winter when my mother declines just that much more. She’s back in the hospital, and they’re talking about electroconvulsive therapy this time. Severe mental illness is a merry go round you can never quite step off of.

Please don’t worry about me. It’s sad and chaotic, yes, but not unexpected, and also something of a relief, as when I saw a call from my aunt on my cell phone, I had a horrid moment when I believed the message I’d hear was that my mother was dead, so to hear she’s safely tucked up in a hospital bed is quite an enormous relief, actually. And she asked for a flu shot, they say. Sign of forward-thinking, that. She’s planning for a future without the flu. This is good news. Or so I choose to look at it, anyway.

I’ll keep you posted, my darlings. Thanks for your understanding.

 

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If Things Go Rather Silent…
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20 thoughts on “If Things Go Rather Silent…

  1. 2

    Oh Dana I feel your pain. I’ve been dealing with the same issues with my Mum for my whole life and I know of the merry go round you speak of. It just doesn’t stop. Even now, when I’ve got my Mum into a home that specializes in mental health and has round-the-clock nurses, I find that I cannot quite relax. It’s a tough gig. My heart goes out to you and everybody else that has to deal with this.

    *hugs*

  2. 9

    My sympathy; having parents in their 80’s I know the feeling of watching people you love slowly fading away…(including at one point a round of ECT which was, I have to say, very effective in the circumstances…)

    Be well, don’t forget to take care of yourself too.

  3. 12

    It’s really hard when you reach the stage in life when you become a caregiver for your parents. Because of your Mom’s specific issues, it has happened to you at a much younger age than for many people.

    As others have pointed out, you need to make sure that you take good care of yourself as well.

    Do what you need to do – we will somehow survive until you return. In the meantime, we’ll be thinking of you.

  4. 13

    Awww…Dana….*hugs* I really feel for you — I know how hard ti can be to deal with a close family member who has mental illness. As others have said, please take care of yourself. We can wait.

  5. 18

    My father suffered from mental illness in the 60’s and 70’s, being hospitalized numerous times, prescribed multitudes of medications, and undergoing electroshock therapy on many occasions. Although the shock treatments seemed to help initially.,All it did was erase some of his memory, essentially making him “forget his troubles, c’mon get happy”, the effects would soon wear off and he would eventually remember everything that seemed to lead to his depression. He ultimately took his own life in the early eighties, and I still wonder to this day if his ‘treatments’ and medications exacerbated his conditiin instead of helping it. He masked the symptoms instead of getting to the root of the issues causing his sadness. Just be wary of the side effects of your mother’s therapy. It may end up a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Although I also often wonder if the only truly sane people are the ones who can’t ‘cope’ in our insane society. Good luck to you and your mom.

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