FROM MY FILES : Sex In The Saddle, A Story From My Past

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This year, I will celebrate my fortieth anniversary as a journalist/author.  Here is a blog that recounts a story from my early days as a reporter in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I hope it makes you smile!

FROM MY FILES: SEX AND THE SADDLE  published April 30, 2010

“Why don’t you reporters simply publish the truth?” a frustrated public official once asked me.

Whenever I hear a question like that, I think about an incident that happened when I was a young reporter at The Tulsa Tribune in Oklahoma and a woman called, asking for my help. She explained that her husband was in prison and that she was being sexually harassed by an assistant warden. He had threatened to have her husband beaten unless she had sex with him.

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TV Interview About Prophet of Death Sparks Memories

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Barn where Lundgren executed the Avery family

A crew from the Discovery network interviewed me last week about my book, Prophet of Death: The Mormom Blood Atonement Killings, which was published in 1991 and is one of my least known books.  It’s about a cult murder in Kirtland, Ohio, that involved a self-proclaimed prophet who broke away from the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints and murdered a family of five in an attempt to bring about the end of days and return of Jesus Christ.

Because of what happened to my son, when I think of mental disorders, I focus on bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. But if mental illness was involved in the case of Jeffrey Don Lundgren, it came in the form of anti-social personality disorder, narcissism and grandiosity. Because I am not a psychiatrist, I still don’t know if Lundgren had a mental disorder or was simply a con man. What I do know is that he destroyed and greatly harmed many lives, including his own children’s.

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FROM MY FILES: Movies About Mental Illness You Should See

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Last December 3rd, I wrote a blog recommending the movie,  The Silver Lining Playbook.  So I am thrilled that it’s been nominated for seven major Academy Awards. Several of you sent me emails this week about Robert DeNiro who teared up on the Katie Couric show when discussing his role in the film.  Some Hollywood cynics snipped that DeNiro was trying to win sympathy because he has been nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in the movie.  I felt those attacks were unsupported and cruel, especially after I read that DeNiro’s father, Robert, was believed to have bipolar disorder and suffered from bouts of paralyzing depression. 
I’m happy Hollywood is doing a much better job of portraying mental illnesses. The National Alliance on Mental Illness  recently crowed about HOMELAND and its protagonist, Carrie Mathison, played by actress Claire Danes, who has bipolar disorder.  SAMHSA gave HOMELAND a Voice Award.  
In March 2010, I wrote a blog about another fabulous movie — Lars and the Real Girl.  In my opinion, its message is even better than the one delivered in The Silver Lining Playbook.  

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Debating Forced Treatment and Mental Illness

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The New York Times has done an admirable job since the Sandy Hook shootings in keeping a spotlight on our mental health system. Here’s an exchange about mandated treatment — sparked by a Harvard psychiatrist — that is worth reading.

To the Editor:

Recent tragic events have linked mental illness and violence. Some people — I, for one — consider this link dangerously stigmatizing. People with mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. Moreover, psychiatrists have limited capacity to reliably predict violence. Nonetheless, these events increase pressure to identify people who might conceivably commit violent acts, and to mandate treatment with antipsychotic medications.

For a tiny minority of patients who have committed serious crimes, mandated treatment can be effective, particularly as an alternative to incarceration. But for most patients experiencing psychotic states, mandated treatment may create more problems than it solves.

For many medical conditions, better outcomes occur when patients share in treatment design and disease management. Imposed treatments tend to engender resistance and resentment. This is also true for psychiatric conditions.

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BRAVO: Speaking Out About Mental Illness!

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A regular reader of this blog, Laura Pogliano, appeared on national television last week with her son, Zac, talking about stigma and mental illness.  This short news clip is well worth watching!

In an email about the clipping, Laura told me:  “The cutting room floor has the best stuff: Zac’s statements on working on his health, his enjoyment of life & and my personal fave: ‘I’m a moral person. Bad people do bad things. Greed is a huge problem. Greedy people do more bad things than mentally ill people do…’ (I love that!) ”

 Bravo to both of you!

From My Files: What Happened To Linda? She Tells Us In Her Own Words

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On Friday, I re-introduced readers to Joan and Linda Bishop, whose two-part story I originally published in February 2010. In today’s blog, we get to read Linda’s own words as she describes how her untreated mental illness slowly takes her life.

Part Two: Linda’s Story 

Joan Bishop tried to help her sister, Linda, after she developed a severe mental illness while she was in her 40s. But Linda didn’t want her help. She refused treatment and medication and Joan’s attempt to obtain a guardianship over her sister was rejected by a judge.

After a drunk driving incident, Linda got further into trouble by throwing a cup of urine at a correctional officer while  in jail. She was charged with a felony. Eventually, she was involuntarily committed to the New Hampshire State Hospital, but she refused treatment and would not take medication. After a year, she was released without any follow-up.

Because Linda had refused to sign a HIPAA wavier, Joan had no idea that her sister had been discharged until several months later. What follows now comes from a journal that Linda began writing four days after her discharge.

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