Andrea Yates

[Vanquisher]

The thing with that is, I think he truly tried to get her help, and one of their parents was in their home helping with the children a lot. That particular day when he was at work something happened where the parent wasn't available.

I don't know. I am hard pressed to blame him at all.

I have a really hard time with this case, because I know what it is to be depressed and I have seen people's minds tear them up. At the same time, those children were innocent, and they are never coming back. Ever.

I think we need to do more to help women who are faced with these problems. Sadly, this is still a somewhat taboo topic. What mother wants to say horrible things about her child and seek the help for having such sick feelings or even admit them to her husband.

Really, part of me thinks you could never forgive someone for what she did, and part of me just finds the whole thing so...I don't know.

[rainbabies]

He and her docs knew she had trouble, yet the husband went on to "allow" her to get preggers with the fifth child. Yes, this woman is/was truly sick. Yes she should be in a mental hospital for the rest of her life and YES her ex should have some accountability.The whole thing is just so sad.

[DCJenn]

First, the condition of the mental health system if this country is appalling. Period. We're such fucking puritans (pull yourself up by the bootstraps and if you cn't well, then what's wrong with you?) that we as a society have just as much to blame as either one of the Yates' as far as I'm concerned.

1) THEY should never have even considered another child (there's a portion of adoptive parent's who develop a similar depressive condition, as well) after her initial severe bout.

2) He should have made sure that she was not left alone, although to his defense, his mother said that they all thought that she'd turned the corner.

3) She is in the right place- a mental institution, although trust me when I tell you that the mental institutions in this country aren't much better than they were 30 years ago. At least the meds are better and the physicians have better treatments.

PPD and other mental health issues have to be de-criminalized and we as a society have to make a commitment to treat people with mental illness regardless of how they look, how much money they have, what they've done, where they live, what drugs they take or any other parameter. After all, no one wakes up and says, "gee, I'd like to be severely depressed today." or "golly, I sure hope my kid is schizophrenic".

touched a nerve and am therefore jumping back off the soapbox.

Jenn

I also wish Rusty Yates could have been held accountable to some degree. She was severely depressed. Too many children, homeschooling, a 'fire & brimstone' 'you'll be dammed if you do A,B or C' religious mentality all contributed to this tragedy.

So sad. So scary.

And Rusty is remarried now. Wanna bet he makes more babies?