It's possible of course but this disorder would be in addition to her schizophrenia which is mainly hereditary. I still believe in Dr. Ferguson's judgement of Sheila that she would not commit suicide as "she had too much to live for",I'm wondering why she would choose to write to Ann Eaton from St. Andrew's if she felt everyone was against her,the remark from June to Ann Eaton about seeing the best in people and not judging them tallies with my assessment of relations as far as Sheila went at the time of the tragedies,and we have Nevill as the rock who had managed to calm his daughter down in the past and whom Sheila looked up to as described in Claire Powell's book.
Good Morning Steve. As you continue to show so much faith in Dr F's judgement, let's take a look at what he saw the last time her saw Sheila and what he based that judgement on.
He saw a young woman who was full of hope for a bright future. She had probably dressed carefully and put her make up on professionally because she wanted him to see how much better she was. She wanted out of hospital NOW despite that he wanted her to stay for another week. She believed her world was changing. She had HOPE, hugely important to her recovery. It's never been revealed if she shared with him the reasons for that hope, but knowing what she was hoping for, she probably presented herself as glowing. She was, as we now know, hoping that there would be a reconciliation with Colin, her boys' father. She must have believed, that as they were getting on so much better since the divorce, he was as willing as she to give it another go. On top of that, she had been in regular contact with her birth mother and must have been longing for a meeting, may have already planned a meeting. just how wonderful that must have been for her I feel is beyond your comprehension to understand, Steve but try to imagine how it might be to feel that your mother had NEVER loved you, never accepted who YOU are, was constantly disappointed in you. I'm not speaking here about how June may have evolved over the years. By then, the damage was already done, and I'm not saying that June DIDN'T love Sheila, I'm saying that it was conditional love based on her expectations of what a daughter SHOULD be. Now, Sheila had hopes that the woman who gave birth to her was longing to have her back in her life, would love her unconditionally, accept her and be proud of her. Who knows what else she dreamed of/FANTASIZED about, but rest assured it was a future in which her birth mother, her childrens' REAL grandmother, played a large part. Steve, I feel her hope, her excitement. Can you? This was the young woman Dr F. saw during that last meeting. His knowledge of her ended there.
NOW, see if you can feel how Sheila MUST have felt when this magical bubble burst, when her plans for her future disintegrated. Her exhusband DIDN'T want a reconciliation, worse still, he told her he was in love with another woman...........and worst of all, by far, her birth mother didn't want her either. She wasn't going to be welcomed with open arms as part of a new family because they knew nothing of their mother's secret child and she didn't intend that they should. In one fell swoop, the mother who she believed would love her unconditionally relegates her to a secret mistake and rejects her for a SECOND time. I don't think you can comprehend this Steve and I truly hope that in your wildest nightmares you NEVER experience what it feels like.
It would have been hard enough for her to cope with had it happened over several YEARS, but it all took place over 18 weeks during which she was left unsupported by her meds because the dosage was reduced by a dangerous level, but that couldn't be admitted to, unsupported by the medical profession who should have been monitoring her and MAY have been able to do something about the dosage of her meds. There was NO ONE she could offload to. NO ONE she could cry to and tell them how much she was hurting. Emotionally and psychologically she must have been going down hill at a rate of knots. Those around her would have seen it without knowing the reason for it.......... BUT DR F. DIDN'T. As far as he was concerned, she remained, in his mind, the bright, hopeful girl he'd last seen. I don't feel it unreasonable to think that when she visited WHF for the last time she saw how her life was going to be compared to how she wanted it to be. To summarize, if Dr F. had seen THAT girl, his judgement of her would have been entirely different.