I’m trying to make him swallow the medication, but he insists on chewing saying it works just as well [“it works better than.”] I feel like I just can’t talk sense into him no matter what and I need the medication to work for him correctly. He’s completely defiant, he’s not supposed to drink grapefruit juice on quetiapine and insists on doing it. “I will do whatever whenever I want.” I’m extremely upset about this. Last thing I want to do is take him back to the hospital and every time we talk about something he starts to get aggressive and scream at me.
Update: He just kicked and broke the closet door with his foot while trying to build a cabinet I bought and got aggressive. What do I do? He’s now throwing things around. Not sure whether to call the cops or not. I’m afraid he’s going to hurt himself or me in the process.
Some meds can be chewed or crushed & some shouldn’t be, but at least he’s taking them.
It sounds like he’s going to do the opposite of whatever you tell him at this point, so maybe just let him be about it or pick your battles.
I have a high tolerance for people acting out, so I would just step back to see if he winds down - or leave for an hour or so. But, if you don’t feel safe, I think it’s OK to call the police, but I would see if they have a crisis intervention team at your county/city’s mental health center first. The last thing you want is an untrained officer to show up.
I’m not good at it, but you do need to set some boundaries and rules for what’s acceptable and what’s not. Just because he has a mental illness doesn’t mean he has no self control - unless he’s very, very sick and does need to be back in the hospital.
Stay safe - make sure you always have your keys/wallet/phone on you & you have a way to get out if you need to. Hopefully, he’ll calm down.
He is acting similar to how my son does when he is sick. As slw said, keep your phone and keys with you, and if he shows any aggression toward you, please leave before it escalates. If you decide to call for assistance, do it while you are away and safe.
Thank you. He apologized for losing control of his temper and promised to listen to me next time when I tell him to take a moment to cool down. I don’t think he’s completely stable because he started to talk about all of the voices had been telling him to kill himself and how everyone in the world has just been trying to control him his entire life. He left to go buy a glass jar to put the medications in because he’s convinced that the medications are sensitive to air and need to be refrigerated.
Thank you. And yes, he was grabbing my wrists and trying to push me out the door while I was trying to hold the wooden part so that it wouldn’t fall on top of either of us. I told him that was unacceptable.
I suppose asking him if he thinks going back to the hospital might be a good idea will set him off. I do try to make it my son’s decision, he typically won’t decide to go tho. I have been in similar situations so many times, I have a hard time imagining this is going to improve without more intervention.
They sent him Hydroxyzine for anxiety, but he couldn’t pay for it. I’m going to talk to his mom and ask her to put money in his account so we can go back to the pharmacy and pay for it. I think he really needs it.