Isolation is the Enemy - As Featured on Steve Blow's Blog - 4/9/2007

The biggest enemy for our loved ones with mental illness is isolation. I have a 22 year old son with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, who lives with a room mate. Even though he does not live alone, everyone in our family makes a point to talk to him three to four times a week, to take his “pulse”, so to speak.
Others around him just do not know what to look for and do not recognize the warning signs of when his behavior may be sliding down hill. He works, he goes to groups meetings, he takes his medication. But it still takes the “one on one” family care to help him stay on track and stay level.
When I read about people such as your woman by the fountain and then again about Cho Seung-Hui, I despair for them, knowing they have been lost for a long, long time. Isolation works against the sanest of people. What has happened in these two people’s lives that they have no “safety net” of family or friends?
We’ll never know. However, with journalist such as yourself, maybe others will not fall through the cracks and families will wake up and realize that no matter how tired or frustrated they are with their loved ones, that they have to keep trying to stay connected to them, for them.