Welcome to Back from the Abyss. I'm Dr. Craig Hecock.

One of the tragic truths of psychiatry is that the sickest patients more often than not

either don't realize they're ill or convince the treatment will do nothing.

And no group of patients better exemplifies this than those with schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses.

A common presentation in my office is an older adolescent or young adult, often male, who's descending into psychosis and also

completely unaware of the illness or need for treatment. And meanwhile the parents

are telling me of frightening threats, explosive outbursts, bizarre

behaviors, profound social isolation, and paranoid beliefs.

This episode today is the first of two parts.

In Part 1, Karen, the mother of Sam, describes the progression of his illness and how she's grieved and coped and parented him.

In Part 2 in two weeks, we'll hear from Lori and Dave,

who also have a son with severe mental illness.

And these two stories are both the same and also different in some key ways.

One thing they both share is that their sons, after some very scary times,

both finally agreed to cooperate with treatment.

But how do you get your child into treatment when they're too ill to cooperate? I think this

then gets to the three else, love, lute, and the law. Sometimes the power of love can break

through and the ill child will agree to treatment to assuage the parents.

Other times financial support or gifts or bribes can work.

Thus, parents can use their loot to convince the child to get into treatment.

The final L, however, is the most traumatic for all involved.

And unfortunately, a common route into treatment for the seriously ill child is often the legal system,

...