Mental Illness

Latest Posts in Mental Illness

An ode to Hayden Brumbeloe

I never met Hayden Brumbeloe, but I like the cadence of his name.   He grew up in a working-class town not far from Abilene, Texas under a hot dry sun in a land most often noted for the way it was depicted in the classic film The Last Picture Show.    


Shopping Cart

 

Homeless people might appear to be funny. Grooming is not high on their list of things to do. They wear bizarre combinations of tattered clothes.  Sometimes they shout into garbage cans at nothing at all.  Pushing grocery carts full of cans and rotten scraps of food -- they hoard to make themselves feel safe and like they have a home.  And while they look funny, smell funny and act funny, most of them are mentally ill, and that...


DANIEL

“What the ev, couscous jay is jet lettuce squirk sausages the ev tip cat shave the sundae”

My son Daniel is on the phone.  I’m waiting to hear something intelligible, wondering if he hasn’t taken his meds, had a few beers, or did some crack. He is living in a group home for mentally ill adults, and I’m grateful for having found a decent one that takes Medicaid and Medicare. 

Daniel was bright, talented and popular. His...