Firstly I need to clarify I'm not bashing the mentally ill. I've had bouts of extreme anxiety, depression and have overcome PND all within the last ten years so it's a subject I wouldn't judge. I also have a relative with schizoaffective disorder who has been hospitalised twice in the past two years.
I'm talking about people with severe, debilitating illnesses which rob them of their capacity to think and act rationally.
I live in an area of London where there seems to be an extremely high number of severely mentally ill folk who are out in the community but clearly in need of inpatient treatment. There is a hospital nearby with a mental health facility so I suspect that's why I see as much as I do.
I see alot when I'm out and about in the area, a couple of familiar faces instantly spring to mind but I've encountered far more than I can put a number to. I'm referring to people in the grips of psychosis, for example.
One local man in particular who I often see in the high street approaches people at random and squares up to them and screams in their face , he's very intimidating and doesn't only target men but women on their own too. He has had the police called on him for refusing to get off a bus he'd boarded and was thrashing on the drivers cab threatening to stab him. This was opposite my home and one of my neighbours had to intervene until the police arrived. He's now back on the streets doing more of the same again shortly after.
Today I was walking down the road with my pram and passed a distressed man at the bus stop who was shouting obscenities to himself, I'm heavily pregnant and I won't lie I was intimidated.
Another occasion fairly recently was when I was on the bus, again with my toddler, and a man sat next to me who I suspect was experiencing auditory hallucinations. He was talking to himself about disturbing things and rambling with paranoia. This continued the entire time I was on the bus and nobody knew what to say or do, again I was very nervous being in close proximity to him.
I regularly see people talking/rambling to themselves and behaving in a disturbing manner.
AIBU to think they are being failed? I know we are long past the days of asylums and thank god for that, but how are these people left to decline unmedicated to such an extent that they are left to their own devices distressed and dangerous in the community.