House with crazy people - Tuoi Tre Online

People with mental illness suffer, their immediate relatives suffer even more. What to do when there is a crazy person in the house?

Mentally ill patients exercise in the rehabilitation room (photo taken at Central Mental Hospital 1, Hanoi) - Photo: NGUYEN KHANH

My child's teacher called: "Sister, my child just finished the medicine bottle." Immediately after that, she took my child to the district hospital for a gastric lavage. It was 2022, during the Covid season. The visits to the mental hospital to take care of my child became more frequent. There were times when I walked out of the hospital gate, blending into the bustling crowd, and my cheeks were wet with tears without me knowing.

I not only feel sorry for my child, I also feel sorry for the parents of other patients. The parents of a young man who is in the same room as my child own a small grocery store in District 8 to support their 26-year-old youngest son. This boy only eats, smokes, and makes trouble all day. Many times he beats and slaps his elderly parents because they do not give him money or do things that go against his wishes. Sometimes in the middle of the night, his parents have to rush out of the house and call for help from the neighbors because their son beats them. Many times, his son threatens to pour gasoline and burn down the house.

People like you or my son, sometimes awake, sometimes unconscious, go to work, go to school and are all rejected...

My friend's daughter, over 20 years old, just locked herself in her room and didn't go out to eat or drink. Another patient always looked for anything to eat, except when she slept. Someone didn't clean herself or talk for a whole month... In the same room with my daughter, a 33-year-old man who used to work at a bank, told the story: "Every now and then she had a fit and broke everything in the house. The family had to confine her to a room on the fourth floor." He was hospitalized for a whole month and no one from his family came to visit him: "The family put her in here and ignored her. When the doctor kicked her out, she took a motorbike taxi home by herself," he said.

I can hardly forget the face of the mother of a depressed son. He was a fourth-year university student in Japan who had to return home due to depression. Except for the times he went to the bathroom, he just sat on the bed with his knees drawn up. All day, the mother and son spoke to each other perhaps only a dozen sentences, the mother’s other language was sighs. Sometimes, they sat for hours like two statues.

People with mental illness suffer, but their immediate family members suffer even more. They have to endure their loved one’s illness, living with anxiety and insecurity day and night, year after year. They cannot predict what the patient might do next. My family and I have had sleepless nights because of our child. My second child was also traumatized by his older brother.

Who supports caregivers of mentally ill patients?

The doctors and nurses who treat the sick are also very tired. I have met many doctors who themselves cannot hide the times when their energy is drained. They are also the group of people who really need to be healed. But who will do it?

There are more than 3 million mental patients nationwide, and the number of people with mental and psychological problems is much larger. The number of relatives related to this group is several times greater than the number of people with the disease.

We still have the habit of looking at mentally ill people and their relatives with eyes and attitudes of avoidance or pity. That is discrimination.

I wish the Ministry of Health could build an official information channel to support relatives of mentally ill patients, perhaps a website full of knowledge, information, and behavior for relatives and people with mental illness.

A free 24-hour mental health hotline is probably not beyond the government’s capacity. It would save millions of people the trouble of finding information and learning how to deal with patients.

It also significantly reduces the burden on doctors and psychiatric hospitals.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nha-co-nguoi-dien-2025032506423136.htm