God Knows Where I Am

I'm not into documentary's . But this caught my attention .Cause I see my ex wife in this Bishop lady. so many lost souls walking out there with no hope of a happy ending. I think its the best documentary on the subject of schizophrenia. God Knows Where I Am . I recommend you watch this .

I knew this was going to be difficult to watch, but last night I finally pulled it up on my DVR. Wow. The filmmakers brought this woman to life and didn't sensationalize her death. Great use of simple but elegant recreations of the house where Linda Bishop spent her last months. The music fit perfectly; the voiceover was compelling. The interviews with friends and family started out light and loving, and you're wondering where did things go wrong for her? The tension builds as her story unfolds, and the unbelievable happens.

I appreciated the panel discussion with the filmmakers and a physician led by Hari Sreenivasan after the movie was shown on my PBS station (KCTS). It helped me better understand how this could happen, and how it relates to the issues of mental health and homelessness in the Seattle area.

Everyone should see this movie.

As a former psychiatric patient who ultimately chose talk therapy over medication, it's important for me to understand that psychiatric drugs are often necessary and therapeutic. I'm not sure, however, that the average viewer fully understands how traumatic psychiatric treatment can be, or the deleterious side effects of the antipsychotic drug therapies that were part of Linda's treatment.

It is heartbreaking how the stress of work, being a single mother, and the fraying of family relationships due to paranoia from Linda's illness all contributed to a loss of functionality and a downward spiral, as the documentary portrays. I do feel compassion for Linda's sister and friends and the owner's of the house where Linda starved to death, unknown to them.

The average viewer may not see God in the tragic story, but I'm not sure He wasn't with Linda. You see, she was losing touch with reality and couldn't deal with the treatment her illness would require. An abandoned house must have seemed the only option. But, something prevented her from harming others. Even her imaginary husband, Steve, was perhaps a reminder of love and family, perhaps because she had seen him being part of a loving couple at the Chinese restaurant while she was waitressing.

It is a very moving, emotional and, frankly, depressing portrayal of how the mentally ill often fall through the cracks and fail to receive the care and assistance that they need. However, I didn't feel that the film really gave enough detail or information about the woman herself. We learned about her childhood and did get some sense of what it was like for her based on her own journal entries, but I still felt like most of the film contained very little about the victim and was mostly just dramatic cinematography which stretched out the length but didn't add any real substance. The whole thing could really have been condensed into a 30 minute length program. So, while I was captivated by the tragedy of this woman's story, it felt too drawn out and left me with so many questions about her illness and the events that led her to that house, that overall I was pretty disappointed.

To the people that ask "Where was her family"?, you have no idea what it is like to have a mentally ill person you love refuse to get help & take meds. No idea. You can't help them, no matter how much you want to. This movie is a perfect example of that. Heartbreaking.