We recently went on a yearly trip to the Pacific North West ( this was our home) until they could not get her help…we heard about Hay’s County Mental Health here in the Hill country of Texas and moved to get help. On this last trip to PNW she was ok, even though we did a lot…her niece got married, we went to the coast of Oregon for 3 days…spent two weeks at her sisters seeing lots of family. When we returned home she was one week past her shot shot we got that done. Then Hurrican Harvey had to show up. We only had a few days of rain here and it is over for our area, but for the past few days it has been hard. Last night the voices came out of her mouth threatening to cut my throat. I made her take a walk with me, when we came home I had her get ready for bed, I layed with her and played one of those relaxing u-tube videos for sleep. Her dad was verbally abusive when she was a teenager and on the trip she had lunch with him “reluctantly” He is dieing of cancer and i thought going forward she should see him one more time. I know now that all this was too much, but as a large loving family “she has 4 other sisters” she should see them. I want her to have as normal a life as she can, but even fun events can trigger a break through. The worry over Harvey was uncontrolable.
Yes, any change, even positive, causes stress for my son. At Family to Family, they stressed for us to keep this in mind. Jeb will look forward to an event - like his brother coming home for a holiday - he will prepare, busily cleaning his place so his brother can stop by for a visit. By the time his brother arrived last Christmas, he was too psychotic to even look at him when his brother tried to visit him. Wouldn’t let him in, nothing.
When we leave for the weekend, he will be happy that we will be gone, but the idea of being here alone frightens him also. He is relieved when we return and equally stressed that we are back.
I noticed my son had shredded some of his window coverings from all the stress as Harvey was approaching.
Good to hear that Hay’s County Mental Health has good things going on. My county has nothing going on except a sheriff pleading with Austin to give him a place to put his prisoners with mental illness.
Thanks for responding Hope. Your son’s anxiety sounds a lot like my daughter. She made it through the first week of vacation, then I noticed some parnoia. I feel blessed that she will articulate how she is feeling…she used to try and hide it…then it would be too hard to bring her down. She has 6mg of invega and 0.5 of Colonazempam to be given as needed. I find she does best if I give her one invega with brekfast and half of a colonazempam. I hate the invega due to the unmotivation and weight gain. She still is a healthy weight but I keep only fruit, and veggies, nuts and make her walk every day. If she lived on her own I think she would relapse. As for your county not sure if it is Travis or not…I do know they just built a new mental health crisis center. But, let’s be real…if a person with Schizophrenia is resistant to most medications they need a full time care taker to function, forgotten uncomensated, but we keep them safe. My daughter has a letter on file with the San Marcos police signed by her Dr so if she runs away she is a danger to herself with out meds. The police mobile crisis team arranged this for me. It’s great here…but we also feel captive afraid to move and not have this some place else.