Many terrible things happened to me maybe 40 years ago as a result of schizophrenia. It starts with severe injuries to a young child and death to his mother. Attempted suicide was next. People do not understand what a horror it is to live with these things. Moreover, people in authority do not want to take the responsibility for releasing me for fear of relapse despite the fact that nothing has happened for the past 40+ years.
I remember a prosecutor from a long time ago who cited so many stories about mentally ill individuals who were released and then terrorized the town. So many stories, but none of them had anything to do with me. Nevertheless, the judge saw it as valuable information and kept me in the clutches of the court.
Fast forward to the present: So why does the judge not let me go? From her own mouth, the judge sees schizophrenia as incurable and, as a result, a threat to society despite my 40-year track record. Apparently, she sees sending Hallmark cards to my children – now in their 30s and 40s – as a manifestation of that illness and took my parental rights to communicate with them away from me. From my point of view, if she had any guts, she would order that money be put into research. Presently, schizophrenia is known to be a neurological illness, a spectrum illness just like autism. They do not put autistic people in prison. Why those with schizophrenia?
Happy Father’s Day.
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David Geiger is a licensed and retired professional electrical engineer who spent 7 years in psychiatric hospitals and over 40 years since 1979 in the courts as a result of his schizophrenia.