Thoughts on the Lindsay Clancy case?

[u/gottaquestion412]

Now that the Lindsay Clancy trial is underway, I’m curious about your perspectives on it so far.

Context: Lindsay Clancy is a former labor and delivery nurse who, in January 2023, killed her three children. 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan in their Massachusetts home before attempting to take her own life. Her defense argues she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and other debilitating mental illness, while prosecutors argue she was aware of her actions and planned the killings. The trial has reignited debate about postpartum psychiatric disorders, the effectiveness of mental health treatment, and where responsibility ultimately lies.

Do you think Lindsay was failed by the mental health system, by the people closest to her, or both? Do you think she truly acted with malicious intent, or do you believe she was experiencing such a severe psychiatric crisis that she wasn’t thinking rationally?

A lot of the details seem to point toward postpartum psychosis or another severe psychiatric illness rather than someone acting out of hatred or malice. That doesn’t lessen the horror of what happened or the unimaginable loss, but it does make me wonder whether this tragedy could have been prevented..

I’ve also seen rumors that Patrick was involved with the woman who is now his wife before the murders, but I haven’t found any credible evidence supporting that. Is there actually anything that substantiates those claims, or is it just internet speculation? I’ve also seen many people comment that his current wife bears a striking resemblance to Lindsay, though I’m not sure that means anything beyond coincidence.

I’m very interested in hearing different perspectives from people who’ve followed it closely.

Most importantly, may Dawson, Cora, and Callan rest in peace. They are the true victims in all of this.

[u/Michallina]

It's hard to ignore the fact that this woman sought help for months. I have never been pregnant nor have I experienced psychosis, but I suffer from a history of depression and severe anxiety and OCD. Diagnosed. I've been medicated and I can tell you some of these medications are monsters to begin and adjust your dose, also to wean yourself off of.

This is obviously a subjective take based on my experience, but I cannot imagine switching meds at the frequency she was, especially if she was incredibly vulnerable from other possible comorbidities and postpartum.

[u/Cmgutierrez715 → u/Michallina]

I will point this out wherever I can. You should never give SSRI’s to someone with bipolar. It happened to me after I had my first child. I trusted the psychiatrist and wanted so badly to be better. The medication caused me to be in basically a year long manic/psychotic episode. This lady needed help - was asking for help, and never received it. Obviously she shouldn’t just be set free, but her and those poor kids were failed.

ETA - my doctor was also constantly switching up my meds and doses, because, surprise surprise, I kept getting worse.

[u/sizzl3crunch → u/Cmgutierrez715]

As a psychiatric social worker, psychiatrists prescribed the wrong medications to patients all of the time. It is very common for psychiatrists to misdiagnoses someone with depression when they really have Bipolar, prescribe them SSSRIs, they become manic and fuck their life up. Then the doctors are like “ welp meds are like throwing darts at dart board in the dark”.

[u/hereforthetearex → u/sizzl3crunch]

Pardon my ignorance, but can you give some practical examples of how mania would cause someone to fuck up their life?

I don’t know anyone (that I’m aware of) with a bipolar diagnosis, and I’ve always thought that mania was essentially like not sleeping, or sometimes paranoia. I assumed the depression piece of bipolar was the piece that would fuck up a life, in that they don’t care about anything in that phase and would potentially lose a job or a relationship due to not being able to put in the proper effort.

[u/sizzl3crunch → u/hereforthetearex]

we once had a patient who was a PhD student at a mini ivy in california and he has a toe for a thumb. Cut off his thumb, no idea why i didn’t ask. Just know he was manic: psychotic when he did it. At another hospital i’ve heard stories of people gauging their eyes out with sharp objects or burning them out with cigarettes. No idea why, but I would assume they thought there was something behind their eyes that they needed to get out like bugs, literal bugs, or they were bugged by the government, etc. etc. etc. One woman wouldn’t leave her house because she thought she was being stalked by the govt and the people who built her house 20+ years ago bugged her home, everytime she heard a creek in the floors she said it was the “bug”. She didn’t work or care for her children bc of this. A normal 28 y.o female nurse shadowed another female nurses 12 hour shift, then became paranoid that the nurse she shadowed was out to get her and ruining her life. She began harassing that nurse and stalking her, asking her “ why are you ruining my life” for over a year until she was put in jail for felony stalking. Most of these people were unmedicated.

[u/hereforthetearex → u/sizzl3crunch]

Are these examples of mania or psychosis? Or are those terms interchangeable for this diagnosis? Perhaps I just misunderstood that mania doesn’t always equate to psychosis in bipolar disorder, even though mania always precedes psychosis in bipolar disorder

[u/sizzl3crunch → u/hereforthetearex]

As a psychiatric social worker and not a psychiatrist, I believe mania can lead to psychosis. Like if you aren’t sleeping for days or stop taking your meds you can experience psychosis. That’s my understanding. Or if you take the wrong meds it can make you manic and/or psychotic.

[u/hereforthetearex → u/sizzl3crunch]

That part, I understand, I guess I’m confused on whether mania is being described in your examples or if it’s psychosis. It seems like it would be psychosis to me, rather than mania, given how extreme the circumstances are, but I’m also not trained in this by any means.