Passive.

My mum is still in hospital. Three weeks now. My sister is down visiting her, and has been for a few of days. The situation is not good. My mother barely eats or drinks, she refuses medicine, including painkillers, insisting she is not in pain, but when she thinks you're not watching, she grimaces, grits her teeth. In a sense, this is an improvement, as when Laura first came down, and for most of her visit, mum just slept. With my mother anger is an energy, and she was awake the entire time that my sister was in today, crabby and bristling, and accusing Laura of nagging her for making such suggestions as "Maybe you should eat something" or "If you're in pain why not take your proscribed pain relief?" Today Laura asked her, straight up, because Laura is very straight up, whether she intended on starving herself to death. She initially denied it, then demurred, then told her "I'll have a think about it and tell you tomorrow."

Which is an extraordinary answer. 

I think she's massively depressed, near total inhibition. I don't blame her - the last couple of years have been catastrophic. Her quality of life has nosedived, and her expectations have crowded in around her, till her world barely fills a room. At the moment they reach no further than the foot of a hospital bed. She wants to be left alone. Garbo speaks! And that's all she wants. They've given her anti-depressants, but she doesn't take them, and if she does they won't kick and become useful for weeks, so she'll say they don't work, in the same way she thinks codeine is "rubbish". All of this stuff: eating, drinking, taking medicine, talking to medical staff or her family, is just bother to her. It's a faff. Like Bartleby the Scrivener, "she would prefer not to". Though she's rarely as polite as the scrivener. Even her passive resistance isn't that passive. 

And if she refuses to do anything for herself, if she doesn't listen to our pleading, if she doesn't want any change, if she just wants to be left, there nothing anyone can do about it. At least until she loses consciousness. I can't believe I'm having to describe this situation - pouncing eagerly on her like a jackal to stick things in her arms as soon as she passes out in a bid to save her life. 

The hospital don't seem overly concerned, and they don't seem to think she's in any immediate danger. Though it's hard to get any proper information out of them. Talk of tests is bandied around, but they never seem to come to any conclusions. She may have a heart problem, but when they did cardio tests on her when she was first admitted, it was discovered her heart was strong, despite the various symptoms she displayed. Now, they're looking at her heart again. So...

Mental health tests have been mentioned. What happened there?  She had an assessment before she went into hospital, but whatever results it might have found have been voided by her pneumonia and pleurisy. They at least seem to have cleared up. 

She needs a mental health assessment. And then what? She's obviously depressed, that'll just prove it. It doesn't mean she'll take her medicine, or eat, or drink. It'll just be the reason she doesn't want to get any better.