Mom had a nervous breakdown thirty years ago today. She had her first breakdown on October 14, 1993. Mom was Paranoid Schizophrenic and was going through the change of life. Both of those things combined were too much for her to take and caused her to have the breakdown.

I was very worried about the situation. I knew Mom needed help but wasn't sure how to get the help that she needed. We didn't even have a telephone back then. Fortunately Dad and my brother and I were able to take her to a psychiatric ward at a hospital. She stayed in that psychiatric ward for about ten days.

Mom had a second nervous breakdown in January of 1995. Mom's first breakdown was nobody's fault but her second breakdown was her doctor's fault. I didn't know two things when Mom had her second breakdown. At the time, I didn't know that Mom was Schizophrenic and I also didn't know that a schizophrenic can't stop taking his or her medication. But her doctor did know that Mom was schizophrenic and that Schizophrenics can never stop taking medication. Even though Mom's doctor was aware of this, he took her off her medication during the fall of 1994. After going without her medication for a few months, she had her second breakdown and had to return to the psychiatric ward. 

When Mom had her nervous breakdowns, I remember thinking about how horrible and scary they were. But compared to Mom's death, those breakdowns were like Sunday school picnics. When Mom had her breakdowns, she got better and was able to return home. But when she died in 2013, she couldn't get better and she couldn't return home. Even though Mom has been dead for ten years, she will always live in my heart.