Monday 5 February 2018

MURDERERS: Andrea Yates - Mental Health Series -

Before anyone says anything, I'm not condoning anything this woman did. 
Being mentally ill is no excuse for the tragic incident that happened and quite frankly it's a genuine tragedy. 

WHAT DOES ANYBODY ACTUALLY KNOW ABOUT ANDREA YATES?

First of all, let's give you an insight into her history..
She had a deep battle with bulimia and she'd suffered quite severely with depression also, by the age of 17 she was talking to her friends about suicide, so that shows just where her mind was at. 
In school she was the class valedictorian, captain of the swim team AND an officer in the national honor society, so she seemingly had ALOT of things going for her at that time despite her mental health issues.

In the summer of 1989 she met Russell 'Rusty' Yates, they later went on to marry in April 1993.
They announced to friends and family ''they would seek to have as many babies as nature allowed.''
They appeared to be the perfect couple until after the birth of her fourth child Luke. 
She became severely depressed and on June 16th 1999, 'Rusty' found her shaking and chewing her fingers.
The next day she attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on pills, she later got admitted to hospital and prescribed antidepressants. In my opinion I'd say at this point in her life this is where the beginning of her psychosis started..

Soon after she got released she begged 'Rusty' to let her die as she held a knife up to her neck. 
Once again she got hospitalized and was put on a cocktail of medications including Haldol, also she was taking 450 milligrams of Effexor.
If you don't know what Haldol is, it's an antipsychotic drug that decreases excitement in the brain. It's used to treat psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, to control motor (movement) and verbal (for example, Tourette's syndrome) tics and is used to treat severe behaviour problems in children. 
Her condition improved almost immediately whilst taking Haldol and on her release she was prescribed this drug, she appeared to be temporarily stabilized. 
Although Rusty thought she was ''severely over medicated.''

In July 1999, she suffered a nervous breakdown, two failed suicide attempts and two psychiatric hospitalizations later and she finally gets diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. 
Her psychiatrist urged her and 'Rusty' not to have anymore children because it would guarantee future psychotic depression.

Now before we continue, let's just learn a little bit about her husband..
He was a very religious man, he believed a woman's only/sole purpose was childbearing.
He soon introduced his wife to these misguided views of Christianity.
He believed in the 'dark side' of religion.
Some of the ideas espoused by the likes of Russell Yates and his ''spiritual advisor'' are just plain false. 
But the bottom line of the belief system goes like this..
World bad. Only some Christians with special knowledge good. 
Men rule. Women submit. Have babies. Stay removed from the world's decay. 

Andrea herself was already mentally unstable which would have helped him manipulate his wife into believing this.
So, whilst Andrea was struggling she continued to have children and in March 2000 she stopped taking Haldol. Against her psychiatrists advice, she was warned it would help her uncontrollable actions and she'd improve but she decided against that. On the 30th November 2000, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Mary.

The death of her father. 
The death of a loved one, the grief, the heartache, the pain.
That affects anyone but someone that's got a history of mental illness and just straight up not being able to cope.
March 12th 2001, a father she adored, she didn't know how to cope and control her emotions or even grieve properly. 
Grief stricken she started to harm herself and not feed her youngest baby.

This was the stressor for the terrible and truly distressing events that later occurred.
This was just the beginning..
Whilst she was previously in group therapy, she'd called herself  'Andrea Depression', Rusty kept thinking that she was the sickest person in the room.

Once again she got hospitalized until the insurance ran out even though everyone could see and knew she was still very very sick.
According to 'Rusty' Yates.. 
''The nurses lowered their heads in shame and embarrassment, and turned to walk away without saying a word, knowing that Andrea was too sick to be released. They couldn't do anything else, Rusty understood, because the ten day insurance stay had run out, so he took his wife home.''

One month after she was released Rusty left her alone with the five kids, he left her alone with them for one hour and in that hour, she drowned her children one by one.
Rusty has previously said he believes all Andrea needed was to not be babied and get a reality check. 

She desperately needed help and personally because of the help she failed to receive she was really just a  ticking time bomb. 
I think nurses/doctors have a responsibility, they have a duty of care and in this case, insurance is more important than a mentally unstable woman with five children.

She currently lives in a minimum security facility and says she grieves for her children every single day and Rusty got remarried.

L x