up in arms

she looks shocked, doesn't she? completely stunned. i read her lips after the verdict was read, when she was talking to mary parnham - she kept saying, "i can't believe this."

everywhere you look or listen, there will be an outraged person or 30 who wanted her to fry. they are mostly male, caucasian, age 35-45 and have never had a family member or themselves suffer from a mental illness of any kind. most of them have at least one child. they are reacting on pure emotion, for who is going to be accountable for the deaths of those 5 kids?

it's no secret that i look towards andrea's loving ex-husband, mr. iwannabeontv yates. it's nice that he's been supportive of andrea this whole time. but not once has he said that he might have had even a teensy weensy bit to do with what happened. i guess it's water under the bridge now.

the jury did the right thing. probably not the easiest thing - but the right thing. now, people like me can move forward with educating anyone who will listen about postpartum mood disorders and how real - and treatable - they are. i believe one of andrea's attorneys, mr. parnham, said in his closing arguments that what should come out of this is knowledge and more understanding about psychosis and other postpartum mood disorders.

if people can put their need for justice and accountability aside for a minute, they would see that noah, john, paul, luke and mary did not die in vain. just in my and my associate's practices alone, at least 3 women (and possibly their children) have been saved from death by their own hands because we have educated ourselves and understand. i'm sure we're not the only ones who have seen suicidal or homocidal mothers in our offices. mothers who probably wouldn't have been referred to treatment had it not been for this case.

so, i send out my congratulations to the defense team, to andrea and to her family. now she can go where she belongs - to a hospital, not to prison.


for more information on psychosis and the insanity defense, click here.