Dementia Demise

Discomboobulated by Kelly Kautman Dyer

My friend who is losing her mind (see post from 12/10/04) was committed again about a week ago. This time it was done by the police. She was asked to vacate her apartment by March 1st after it was determined by apartment management that she spray painted, "crazy granny" on one of the dumpsters where she lives. She somehow translated their rather polite request to mean she had to get out immediately. She took every irrational step she could possibly take to effect this change and in the process bought a van (with what money, I cannot imagine), found and put a down payment on a new apartment, and called friends to help her move "immediately." She did not call me, so I can only surmise that I am figuring into her delusions again, and therefore, have been relegated to group of people who are somehow "out to get her" in her mind.

So, two of her friends show up to help her move and she is being extremely irrational and uncooperative. She and the friends load the new van with her two cats and a miniscule portion of her belongings. She rapidly leaves her apartment containing 60 years worth of her belongings(without locking it, because "I'm not taking that stuff") and she drives her new van with her friends following behind in another car to the new apartment. By now, several hours have passed and the situation is deteriorating, because she is intractable and the friends are starting to lose it because they are tired, cold and had not been prepared for the frenzy that they found themselves in. My friend did not know the code to the gate of the new apartment, she did not have a key to the new apartment and the last straw was that she set off the alarm on her new van. Being extremely irrational and out of control at this time, she could not figure out how to cut off the alarm. After an hour at the new apartment, the friends had to leave because they could not reason with her, but they informed her brother of her current situation, and he tells them he discussed with her that she had a month to move and should wait and plan it properly. He told them that they should pull back from the situation for their own sanity (harsh, but I believe he was right).

So my friend who is losing her mind ends up locking herself in her new van in the parking lot of her new apartment building with her two cats. She could not be talked out of the van and the alarm did not have an automatic shut off, so that just made the situation more stressful. The police were called and eventually they got the door to her van open and she attacked them (luckily for them, she weighs about 85 lbs. and she is frail). No one was hurt, but she was committed to the public psych ward. When her brother finally caught up with what was happening, he let them know she is insured, so she was sent to a better hospital.

A week later, she is still refusing any medication and today there is a hearing for a forced medication order. Without it, who knows what will happen, but with it there would be hope of some level of improvement. Now we all just wait...