Downing

Mark and Kim Lindquist are middle class. They aren't poor enough to qualify for help for Lance. They aren't rich enough to pay for his treatment themselves. They don't want to give Lance up to the state. They and Lance remain in limbo. "I don't want to add to the stigma of mental illness," Betsy Schwartz said carefully. The fact is, she stressed, most kids with mental illness don't have these severe problems. "If anything, they are more likely to hurt themselves. Suicide is the second highest cause of death among adolescents."

One the other hand, those kids with severe mental illness problems need society's attention not only for themselves, but for others.

Margaret Downing

Kim and Mark Lindquist are doing their best to get help for their son, Lance.

Related Content

• Comment of the Day: The Tired Old N-Word Defense
  February 6, 2012
• DUI Suspect Jason Murray: District Clerk Ticketed for Accident, Crashes Into Car Driving Away
  March 29, 2012
• State Rep Larry Taylor At Committee Hearing: "Don't Try to Jew Them Down"
  November 3, 2011
• Kevin Gonterman: Spent Two Snake-Ridden Days At Bottom Of 30-Foot Manhole
  July 25, 2011
• Comment of the Day: A Reader Grosses Us Out
  July 28, 2011

More About

• Mark Wernick
• Betsy Schwartz
• Kim Lindquist
• Mental Health
• Mental Health Treatments

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

"On one hand we are horrified that Littleton could happen," Schwartz said. "But we have families right now saying my kids are sick enough, they could do this."

A person with Reactive Attachment Disorder is filled with "tremendous rage," Wernick said. "If you grow up in an abusive environment you don't show that. But most of these children will generally trigger the rage under the right frustration."

In intensive treatment, children can learn to handle the rage, the past issues of feeling abandoned, Wernick said.

Young Lance sees shadows and knows there are demons lurking there, his mother said. He hears his name being whispered and thinks Satan is calling him, she said.

"He has said he will kill us and 'wants to kill the world' and 'will end my life,'" Mark said.

"There is no cure for this. There is a 30 to 40 percent chance of survival," Kim said. "Most of them die young or are incarcerated." If they can live to their mid-thirties, their survival chances improve tremendously.

Lance is a 13-year-old boy who knows something is wrong with him. He used to ask to come home. Now he doesn't. "I think part of him wants to be locked up. I think he's scared," Kim said.

Lance is not a horror. But he could become one. We as a society could pay for his treatment now, or his greater sadness later. You pick it. For information about donations to pay for residential treatment for Lance, e-mail Kim and Mark Lindquist at mlk1@pdq.net.