Lucy Carmichael's Schizophrenia

[NCVARick]

I know this is a sensitive subject, so I'll try to be delicate. About a month ago I went to see "A Beautiful Life." I really enjoyed it and it gave me some insight I didn't have before about the mind of a schizoprenic person and how it is possible for a person to be suffering from schizophrenia for some period of time before anyone realizes it. It then occurred to me that Lucy Carmichael may very well have been suffering from schizophrenia and no one around her was aware of it and so it went undiagnosed.

I'm wondering what exactly triggers schizophrenia. Can some traumatic event in a person's life cause it to happen? Or may there be a physical cause? I know that in 1964, Lucy Carmichael suffered a big bump on the head that caused her to have amnesia. Could this have also somehow triggered the schizophrenia? And is there any relationship between amnesia and schizophrenia? I just don't know.

Maybe it was the sudden series of major changes that occurred in her life in middle and late 1965. She really seemed to start going off the deep end around that time. I know her best friend and housemate Vivian Bagley all of a sudden up and got married with NO warning! And she hadn't even been dating the guy she married. That must have given Lucy a real jolt. And right about the same time, her beloved daughter suddenly left the nest and went off to college. And she never once even called or visited her mother. I think these sudden, unexpected events are what made Lucy really lose it. There's no other way I know of to explain why Lucy would suddenly pack up and move all the way across the country to California, far, far away from all her friends and family. The only family she had with her was her son who she immediately packed of to military school. Now how crazy is that? Now this woman who was so used to being surrounding by people in the home all of a sudden was living alone far away from home.

I think the abrupt move to California was her way of handling Vivian's unexpected married and Chris's leaving for college. Lucy was in an emotional state and didn't know any other way to handle it. By moving off to California and starting a fresh, new life, she may have been trying to do something to maintain her sanity amidst all these huge, rapid changes in her life that she could not control. But I think she only compounded the problem by causing further major changes (the move to California and sending her son to military school). She might have been trying to run away from her problems. And staying in Danfield would only remind her of her problems and her losses. And of her biggest problem of all which was still Mr. Mooney. So she takes off for California to escape all those reminders, only to find out her biggest problem, Mr. Mooney, has run to the same place! And then out of some sick financial desparation, she actually goes to work for the guy! Maybe that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Whatever it was, somewhere around that time, Lucy's behavior changed. She started experiencing certain periodic episodes of changes in her personality in which she would suddenly become stupid in a Gracie Allen kind of way. She was never like that before. In the past, she had always been pretty sharp and smart. Eccentric yes, but not stupid. It was almost like she didn't really know who she was anymore. And when she went into this state, she often got very confused.

I remember once in 1966, she got a letter from her son. Or at least she thought it was from her son. Actually, I'm not sure Jerry really sent her that letter. I think Lucy was imagining the letter was from her son. Or from a son. A son named Jimmy. Poor Lucy didn't even realize she didn't have a son named Jimmy. And that darned old Mr. Mooney was too insensitive to point out that fact, or to at least try to get her some help. Clearly he should have realized her confusion. Then again, maybe he never even knew or cared to know the name of Lucy's son. Whatever the case, Lucy Carmichael had become a very sick woman by 1966. If more people then had the awareness that many do now about schizophrenia, maybe someone would have recognized that Lucy Carmichael needed help.

To tell you the truth, knowing what I know now about Lucy Carmichael, I feel a bit guilty laughing at some of the things she did in those California episodes. Much of it may have been the result of her mental illness. I know it's not nice to laugh had mentally ill people, but with Lucy Carmichael, sometimes I just can't help it.

[TV Guy]

Pretty funny, Rick. But you forgot to mention the biggest sign of Lucy's mental illness: when she changed her last name to Carter, started calling Mr. Mooney "Uncle Harry", and somehow found two new children. And everyone played along with her! Talk about a bunch of enablers. At least Mary Jane managed to hold onto her original identity during this period, although she looked suspicously like Lucy's old Danfield pal, Audrey Simmons.

[Janice]

LMAO! You guys are killing me!

[NCVARick]

Originally posted by TV Guy
Pretty funny, Rick. But you forgot to mention the biggest sign of Lucy's mental illness: when she changed her last name to Carter, started calling Mr. Mooney "Uncle Harry", and somehow found two new children. And everyone played along with her! Talk about a bunch of enablers. At least Mary Jane managed to hold onto her original identity during this period, although she looked suspicously like Lucy's old Danfield pal, Audrey Simmons.

You've got that right, enablers indeed! Kim and Craig ought to be ashamed of themselves. I can understand Mooney doing a hideous thing like that because that's the kind of guy he is. But those kids? There's no excuse. Where do you think they came from anyway? They obviously don't look anything like Lucy's real children, Chris and Jerry Jimmy Jerry. Maybe they were a couple of those homeless Hollywood teenagers you often hear about. Or then again, maybe they came from outer space. Or perhaps they weren't homeless at all and that was their house they were living in all along. But Lucy, during one of her schizophrenic periods, may have just wandered into it and stayed there and they didn't have the heart to tell her she wasn't their mother and she didn't belong in that house.

As for Mary Jane, you're correct. She does bear a pretty strong resemblance to Audrey Simmons. But I hear she's a dead ringer for Betty Ramsey!

[NCVARick]

Originally posted by JanLady617
LMAO! You guys are killing me!

Hey, don't laugh! Schizophrenia is serious business. If Mooney and the others had taken Lucy's condition more seriously, she might not have gotten into so much trouble.