Mental illness and alcohol do not mix. I ended a seven year friendship with a very close male friend with schizophrenia a few months ago because his condition is deteriorating quickly. He cannot keep a Housing unit for longer than three months and inevitably he ends up living back at his mother's place. She has dissociative disorder and although she is a strong pillar of the community she can't say no to her son. He sits in a dark room all day, drinking watered down cask wine and thinks he is still in his salad days as a 'rock star' before his illness kicked in.
Over the months he has been ringing my mobile phone from her home and leaving threatening messages on voicemail because he resents my self-preservation. The local mental health crisis team is actually the constabulary and I have reported his calls (and saved them) to them on numerous occasions. They can't do anything about it unless there is concrete evidence of violence. The mental health system here is a disgrace.
I can accurately predict C's reaction to my incipient estrangement. She is a drunk dialer and is loud and uncouth when she leaves messages. I know I am strong enough to ignore her pleas for reconciliation. The reason I predict this is because recently she told me that if I wasn't in her life she would be
bereft.
I guess she has already predicted our relationship's demise, probably because she has been in this postition before.
That was a deal-breaker for me.
This forum is helping me immensely and I thank everyone for their input.
