I've always heard that Reagan eliminated mental health care in the USA

[Hekate]

25. Exactly. I have 2 different friends who each had an adolescent that suffered a psychotic break...

This happened about a decade apart in the 1990s. In both cases, the parents’ hands were tied as soon as their child turned 18. You want insane? That is insane.

In my naïveté I thought lack of family money was a contributing factor, but the second kid had a father who was a trust fund baby, so to speak, and his hands were just as tied as the moneyless woman’s.

One story ultimately ended well, because the young woman had enough personal insight to seek out appropriate treatment on her own.

The other story ended with the young man hacking his stepmother to death in the yard of their home — while his dad was out interviewing yet another potential resource for help.

It shouldn’t be impossible. And the prison system shouldn’t be our default insane asylum.