Free to live in a delusionary world

When loved ones refuse treatment for mental illness, families have few options

Man in the house
(Image credit: (iStock))

EVERYONE IS WORRIED about the man in the house. His ex-wife, his mother, his father, his neighbors, the psychiatrists he has seen and no longer sees — they are all concerned because he has been alone in the house in suburban Maryland for two years.

No one knows what he is doing. No one knows what he is thinking, what he is eating, or how he is surviving. In two years, since his frightened wife took their three young boys and left him there alone, he has not spoken to anyone for more than a few minutes. He has not let anyone beyond the front door, which he has fortified with a new lock, a piece of plastic bolted over the window, and a piece of plywood bolted below that — all of which he has painted an almost fluorescent shade of yellow. He keeps the living room curtains shut.

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