My 29 year old son has been admitted again, the 3rd time in 3 months. As with every other admission he is calling and saying “I"m going to take my meds this time” " I feel so good" etc, etc. We had arranged for him to go to a residential treatment facility, but he says “it’s not for him” These places are not cheap but my husband and I would rather be poor than live like we have been. I hate to let him leave the hospital on his own… but just how many times can we do this?? I truly fear for my husband and my health with all the stress. My friends worry about our safety. I feel he needs this long term treatment center to teach him how to deal with this disease, and how important meds are, and try to make him learn independent living. I feel so depressed about the entire situation.Any words of wisdom?
@Shallcro Sorry, but same here. My son had been relapsing into psychosis for a few weeks (hearing voices, calling us “Mother” and “Father” when we tried to talk to him). Finally, he left the house in his car and within 15 minutes, judging by the police incident report, was spotted standing on a sidewalk, probably gesturing and talking to himself, and someone called the police to report a person who was obviously mentally ill. The next we hear is a voice of a female police officer calling us to tell us they were in route to a hospital ER.
He was then transferred to a psych ward of another hospital the next day, where he stayed for 7 days. The weird thing is that the hospital did him a lot of good. It wasn’t because of new meds – they didn’t change much. I think it snapped him out of his psychosis because of putting him in a new reality – i.e. he could see there were other people like him, support groups, new sights and sounds.
He’s still recovering, but is better. One problem is that he will no longer leave the house – probably because he’s afraid he’s going to get apprehended again! It doesn’t help that he’s grown a 10-inch bushy black beard, which makes him stand out.
Right there with you ! My son has schizophrenia and 22, residential for 60 days didn’t seem to help and I think with like 12 other residents and double room it really stressed him out. You may have a totally different experience. It’s worth a try for sure. My son is on his 7th admission in 12 months and I have thought a lot about what is best. I watched him with his one to one sitter and even though they switched out every 12 hours he was really comfortable with them and looked like he felt safe. It gave me the idea (after this stabilization lol) of having him move into the master bedroom upstairs and a therapeutic aid for like three months in the guest bedroom. And me in the basement. Just a thought. Good luck with everything no easy way through it.