23 People Witnessed Horrible Mental Breakdowns

21.

I had a French teacher lose it when a kid said the class made her want to kill herself. Next thing we know, the teacher is sobbing and proceeds to tell us all about her failing marriage, her husband’s opioid addiction, and how she can’t even afford therapy because the school slashed the health plan again. I quietly gave her the card for my old therapist who worked on sliding scale fees after class.

22.

I was the only kid home & heard my parents arguing very, very loudly. I was fed up with it so I thought, “F*ck it! Why not confront them?” I burst out of my room & look down over the stairway/entrance to find my mom completely naked, screaming at the screen front door. I froze for a while & realized that she was having some sort of flashback to the day her father left their family when she was a kid. She was screaming “Daddy! Daddy! Please! Please don’t go!! Come back!!!” in a truly nightmarish wail. That was the first time I witnessed one of her psychotic breaks. Unfortunately since then, I’ve had more practice than any child should trying to care for her during these episodes.

23.

My father. He hated communism, hated Russians. He hated me for being disabled, he hated my mother for refusing an abortion. After the fall of communism, he very soon lost his job. He started to drink more, started to beat his family more. One day my mother decided to leave him. He had a terrible meltdown. He went shouting around the neighbourhood that foreign agents destroyed what worked so well, stole everything from us and wanted to part us from Russians and that American spies got him fired from his job, because “he knew stuff” (he was a carpenter, but I guess American spies were interested in dark secrets of wood impregnation). He threatened to feed my mother my ugly head and kill her. This went on for two weeks before he got arrested and then went into psychiatric care. I tried to help, but I think he’s still homeless to this day.

Written by Alex Cogen

Alex is a New Yorker currently living in Austin. She loves cats, grass, and latex but unfortunately is allergic to all 3. She makes mom and dad jokes more than she cares to admit (jk she'll admit it loud and proud). She isn't as funny as she thinks she is. She is the founder of thelazygurl.com.