Outpatient Commitment Works

• Author: Author Anonymous
• Position: Outpatient Commitment Works
• Pages: 1085-1087

Republished with permission. Author anonymous.

This is the seventeenth article from the Supreme Court of Ohio Advisory Committee on Mentally Ill in the Courts about effectively dealing with offenders with mental illness. Most families struggling with the effects of mental illness struggle alone. The author of this article prefers to remain anonymous, but wants to share her story to give others hope that there are effective ways to deal with mental illness. She and her husband found the help they needed through the operation of the civil commitment process of one of Ohio's probate courts.

Most families struggling with the effects of mental illness struggle alone. The author of this article prefers to remain anonymous, but wants to share her story to give others hope that there are effective ways to deal with mental illness. She and her husband found the help they needed through the operation of the civil commitment process of one of Ohio's probate courts.

My husband John has a mental illness. Because of his illness he did things that threatened our marriage. With help from the court system John's illness is now being treated and our marriage has been saved.

When I first met John he was just what I was looking for-a smart, good-looking, funny guy. After dating a few months we decided to get married. Shortly before our wedding John and I had our first big argument. He became very angry and destroyed several things in my apartment.

Our wedding ceremony took place in a cute little chapel in Nevada. We were very happy as we left the chapel to begin our honeymoon at beautiful Lake Tahoe. But on a sightseeing cruise I accidentally taped over a portion of our wedding video and John exploded again, this time destroying the video tape and other mementos from our wedding ceremony. Our flight home was unbearable.

When we returned home, things went from bad to worse. John did strange things such as unplugging the household appliances for no reason. He talked about the government and people who he thought were trying to kill him. He could not hold down a job. Sometimes I made him leave our apartment, but I always took him back. He had no one else to help him, and I really did love him.

One night he came home after I had gone to bed and I woke to find him standing in the doorway with a knife. When I asked him what he was doing, he looked at the knife in his hand and slowly walked back to the kitchen to put it away. That night he seemed to be in a...