Help your mom has a mental illness and is in denial. How can I make her see that she isn't thinking things clearly and how can I get her to consider taking medication for her illness?

Answer 1

Difficult question, but let's try. You mention mental illness and medicine, but you don't mention if your mother has been seen and diagnosied by a professional, nor whether the medication you refer to was actually prescribed. If your mother is not clinically diagnosed, it's important to note that even experts in tihs field are sometimes hesitant to diagnose close relatives, as their own opinions tend to cloud an objective diagnosis. If your mother has not been seen and diagnosed, I'd say your first step is to seek family councilling yourself. This will give you access to a mental health professional, who can offer you some coping tools, a means of getting a clearer picture of what's happenning with your mother, and also an inroad into mental health assistance programs. In this case, your councillor would be an excellent choice to answer this very question. If your mother has been diagnosed, and has ceased to take the medication she was precribed, you need to consider carefully if you're ethically correct in contacting her councillor, who would be the logical starting point in that this professional has already effected a diagnosis and treatment. If you are a familiy member and not a healthcare professional in the United States, you have no legal barrier preventing you from conveying this information to her care provider, and they may listen freely, although you may have an ethical problem - this is for you to decide. Note that, if you proceed and inform your mother's caregiver, they may only be allowed by law to give you the most general information about your mother, or possibly no information at all (although they may contact her directly). Go gently with them when discussing this, because they, unlike you, are prohibited from revealing specific information by law. Remind them you are only offering and not asking specific information and, as such, make your questions general and hypothetical in order to get the most information legally.