[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 106 (Friday, July 31, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9534-S9536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SCHIZOPHRENIA
Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I don't know how many Senators saw an
article in the Washington Post today, in section B of the Washington
Post, called ``Tears Of Blood.'' I have the article in front of me. I
ask unanimous consent it be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Washington Post, July 31, 1998]
Tears of Blood
(By Megan Rosenfeld)
First there was the gruesome and heartbreaking news of
Russell Weston's attack on the U.S. Capitol. Then came word
that he is a paranoid schizophrenic, information that
resonated for one set of families with unsettling emotions:
recognition mixed with horror, and in some cases thankfulness
that it wasn't the faces of their sons or sisters flashing
across the television screen.
The families of schizophrenics, like those of other
seriously mentally ill people, suffer a particular kind of
torment. Years of bewildering and sometimes destructive
behavior usually precedes a diagnosis; years of false starts
or abandoned treatment often follow. Even when a mother or
father recognizes mental illness--as opposed to drug
addiction, rebelliousness or eccentricity--discovering the
legal barriers to involuntary commitment is yet another body
blow.
``Parents always feel it's your responsibility to help your
children, but we were powerless to help him,'' says
Jacqueline Shannon, whose son Greg began behaving strangely
in his last year of college. Now 35, Greg Shannon has been
stabilized for more than six years with the drug clozapine--
although it took four hospital commitments before that
medication was prescribed.
A publication by the Canadian-based Schizophrenia Society
lists some of the emotions family members are likely to feel:
sorrow (``We feel like we've lost our child''); anxiety
(``We're afraid to leave him alone or hurt his feelings'');
fear (``Will he harm himself or others?''). They also list
shame, bitterness, isolation, anger and ``excessive searching
for possible answers.''
``You want not to be blamed that your family member has
become deranged,'' says David Kaczynski, whose brother, Ted,
is notorious as the Unabomber. ``And you don't want people to
hate your brother or son, to form judgments that are not
based on compassion for the fact that this person is mentally
ill.'' There are so many complicated emotions, he said. ``You
recognize this family member you love is also an enemy.''
Kaczynski recalls taking some of his brother's letters to a
psychologist in the early 1990s--before he knew that Ted had
been mailing lethal bombs--and was told that his brother was
very ill and needed treatment. And also that there was very
little David could do about that.
For years Ted Kaczynski's primary method of communication
with his family was through long, irrational letters, in
which he blamed his parents for his loneliness and fears, and
even for the fact that he was three inches shorter than
David.
``I have got to know, I have GOT TO, GOT TO, GOT TO know
that every last tie joining me to this stinking family has
been cut FOREVER and that I will never NEVER have to
communicate with any of you again,'' he wrote David in 1991.
``I've got to do it NOW. I can't tell you how desperate I am.
. . . It is killing me.''
It was five years and hundreds of letters later that David,
recognizing similarities between things his brother had
written and the excerpts from the Unabomber manifesto
printed in The Washington Post and the New York Times,
went to the FBI, Ted Kaczynski
[[Page S9535]]
had never agreed to treatment or to the idea that his
mental state was out of his control.
David Kaczynski said he and his mother were greatly
comforted by numerous letters they received from other
families of the mentally ill--including one from the mother
of abortion clinic assassin John Salvi. In fact, Wanda
Kaczynski and Ann Marie Salvi had a long telephone
conversation, commiserating over the mystifying madness that
turned their sons into killers.
Remembering how grateful he was to the people who wrote and
told him they knew he loved his brother, David has written
Russell Weston's parents. It is not their fault, he told
them; they did what they could. ``I think they have shown
great courage,'' he said, referring to the numerous
interviews the Westons have given explaining the difficulties
they had with Russell.
Shannon's son never became violent. Indeed, Kaczynski,
Salvi and would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley are rare
explosions in a population of approximately 2 million
schizophrenics who, if properly treated with medication and
therapy, can lead peaceful if unorthodox lives.
Greg Shannon's problems, which became evident when he was
22, confounded his parents. (Schizophrenia generally surfaces
between the ages of 16 and 25, according to reseach. The
illness is characterized by hallucinations and delusions;
schizophrenics are unable to differentiate their warped
perceptions or obsessive thoughts from reality.) ``We are
considered educated people,'' said Shannon, a retired
elementary school teacher in San Angelo, Tex. ``But mental
illness did not occur to us. We thought it had something to
do with drugs or alcohol.''
Their son would get into irrational arguments with them,
stayed in his room for days on end (as did Kaczynski) and
seemed to perspire a lot. His college roommate called to say
Greg had talked about suicide. ``It was a frightening time,''
his brother Brian recalls.
Like other families, they tried for a while to
``normalize'' Greg's behavior: He was different, he was going
through a rough patch--let him stay in his room if he wants.
Because he was an adult, he could not be forced to see a
counselor. But they couldn't get through to him themselves.
Finally family members went to the county judge and began the
legal process of getting Greg involuntarily committed to a
private hospital, which involved affidavits from two doctors.
Then one evening the sheriff and a couple of deputies arrived
to take Greg Shannon away.
``It was awful,'' Jackie Shannon says. At the same time,
there was some relief. And the process was only beginning.
``The family members are hurt, bewildered and confused,''
says Moe Armstrong, a paranoid schizophrenic who, with the
help of medication and many therapeutic programs, works to
help other patients in Massachusetts. Now 54, he had his
first breakdown during his four-year hitch in the Marine
Corps. His parents, he says, did not understand anything
about mental illness. And he no longer blames them. ``A
lot of us defy rationality. The way our minds work are not
the way people's minds work out there. . . . One day this
person is all right and the next anything goes.''
His advice: ``It requires a lot of patience. You can make
suggestions, but only one or two, and you have to make them
over and over again. Most people want to say to A,B,C,D, tie
your shoes, get a job and everything will be all right. They
say things like `take your meds,' but not `What meds are you
taking? What effect are they having?' '' Life for the
relatives of the chronic mentally ill is often filled with
regrets, if not guilt, and the agonized wish they had known
more, and sooner. ``I wonder if we had started the commitment
process earlier, or if they'd prescribed clozaphine earlier
if he would have avoided permanent damage,'' says Brian
Shannon, ``Maybe not.''
One thing all family members share: Having a mentally ill
child or sibling changes your life forever. In some cases, as
with the Shannons, it has led to volunteer work on behalf of
people like Greg. Jackie Shannon is now president of the
board of directors of the National Alliance for the Mentally
Ill.
Brian Shannon knows that someday he will be responsible for
his brother, and consulted a genetic counselor before having
a child. David Kaczynski, who works with youthful runaways in
a shelter in Albany, N.Y.--as he did before his brother was
arrested--faces a lifetime of secondhand notoriety and
residual pain.
``I still believe in some way he does love me,'' he says.
Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, this is an article that follows on the
tragedy that happened here in Washington when a man, 41 years of age,
obviously suffering from a very serious disease called schizophrenia,
was off his medication and, because of his disease, did the kind of
things that have shocked our country and shocked our Capitol. The story
is about four or five people in the United States who have family
members with the same disease, schizophrenia, and have suffered the
consequences of their relative, son or daughter, being off the
medication--because there is a propensity on the part of those with
this ailment to not want to be on medication. Sometimes it offends them
a bit. Sometimes it causes extreme obesity. Sometimes it causes some
muscular jittering. But whatever the case, it is hard to keep them on
their medication.
I believe we might turn this terrible incident into a constructive
response to a very destructive event because, as this article points
out, there is little that the parents and relatives can do in their
communities to help when they begin to feel the desolation and absolute
loneliness when a member of their family, a daughter or son who has
this dread disease, decides not to stay on the medication or the
medication needs to be changed to be effective. The loneliness is
absolutely incredible. As a matter of fact, in this marvelous land of
ours, it is fair to say that only in a few places is there any help at
all for these people. I don't know how many Americans saw Russell
Weston, Sr. and his wife when they met with the press and talked about
their son, their son, the 41-year-old who burst through a door here in
our Capitol. We all know about the events, and feel great, great
sympathy and empathy for the family of the two fallen officers. We have
almost been, as a nation, in mourning since that event occurred. And
that is as it should be.
Mr. President, I am not going to say much more about this, other than
to say that I have worked with the mentally ill in this Nation. I have
worked hard to get more and more people to recognize that this is a
disease and that we ought to cover this disease with insurance just as
we cover heart failure. That causes some difficulty. Nonetheless, today
I don't rise on that score. I merely rise to say: Maybe, maybe this
great land of ours, and maybe this institution called the U.S. Senate,
and maybe groups across America that are worried about this, might just
see if there is a way we can prevent this from happening, if we could
prevent it from happening even a couple of hundred times. We frequently
see schizophrenics committing acts of murder and degradation, and we
all know why it is happening. As a matter of fact, we can almost say
with certainty, I say to my friend, Senator Byrd, that if most of those
people were on the right medicine they would not be perpetrating these
kinds of acts. I hope we would use this to stimulate our collective
thinking on what we might do about it.
I don't have the answers. But I have talked to a few Senators. I have
talked, in particular, to Dr. Frist, Senator Frist from Tennessee, who
concurs with me that there is little help available. For, you see, in
the case of Mr. Weston, if they wanted him to be taken care of, they
had very few options. They could call the police. I think across
America it is pretty obvious, police will come by and they will say,
``This is a medical problem. We can't help you.'' They could take him
to a hospital. A normal hospital would say, ``We can't help you.'' They
could put him in an institution for a few weeks to try to get him back
on board and on the medication, but they had already done that.
So this Washington Post article called ``Tears of Blood; For Families
of Schizophrenics, a Gunman's Shots Strike at Their Hearts'' is
something we should all take cognizance of.
I hope by these remarks--and some others in this community, I
understand, are interested in this--that we will find a way to start
meeting together in groups, trying to figure out what should an
American response be? Maybe it is a State response. Maybe it is not a
Federal response. But we might be the ones to stimulate some real
thinking about a responsibility. In this case, we could really be
preventers, we could be preventers of serious, serious acts of violence
because that can be prevented. It is just we do not help at the time
they need help. And we don't have a system set up to provide such help.
I thank the Senator for listening, and, in particular, for giving me
a few extra moments this morning. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
Order of Procedure
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I note on the floor the distinguished
Senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Nickles, who is the assistant majority
leader. I wonder if he has a plane to catch? I am sure he may have some
Senate business. If he does, I will be happy to defer. I have no
[[Page S9536]]
particular time problem myself. I will be glad to defer to the Senator.
Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, the Senator from West Virginia is so
courteous, as usual. I have about a 10- or 15-minute speech, but I will
be happy to listen to my colleague and then I will follow my colleague
from West Virginia and I thank him, again, for his courtesy.
Mr. BYRD. I thank the Senator.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may be recognized
immediately after Mr. Nickles is recognized, at which time I will
proceed with the remarks. I ask unanimous consent that at that time I
may consume such time as I may desire, but not to exceed 25 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, again to my colleague, I am more than
happy to defer. He is so kind and gracious, as he always is. He sets an
example in the Senate, which I think all of us should follow and makes
all of us proud to have the title of ``Senator.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Oklahoma wish more than
5 minutes?
Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in
morning business for not to exceed 15 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. NICKLES. Again, I thank my colleague from West Virginia for his
courtesy. I doubt I will take 15 minutes.
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