I looked through other paranoia posts but did not see anything about safety plans. My son is 18, senior in high school, and also has autism, anxiety and ADHD. He splits his time week on/off between my house and his dad’s. My son’s paranoia is focused at me. To him me breathing seems to be wrong (not meant to be an exaggeration but true). He is very irritable and verbally and physically aggressive towards me. The paranoia/schizophrenia diagnosis is brand new. Dr. has changed his meds and basically told me to try not to speak to him unless he speaks to me to not feed the paranoia. But as an example I need to take him to dentist today and he is angry all day and then more angry I won’t let him go drive my car (he does not have his own). I am not using the right key words to figure out how I am supposed to handle all this and keep myself safe. Am I supposed to just let him call me the B word and hide my phone and throw things at me and take my car when he wants to not feed the paranoia? I just am unclear how to act at this point. My parent coach I’ve been working with has been focused on how to respond with him on spectrum. This new element has me utterly thrown for a loop. He does not want to live full time at his dads (they live 30 minutes from his high school and we live 5 minutes from it).
This is hard. I’ve being there. My son is now better and med compliant. But it was very hard. I picked my fights. He did not want to see the dentist, so i did not take him. I ignore most of what he said and no much talking. Physical aggresiveness and property damage was clear I will call the police. I wish the best and be strong.
Holy buckets of trauma!! No. Do not let him call you the B word and bully you. Your son is not himself - nor is mine - but it definitely sounds like you need to try a new therapist and maybe a social worker. If he gets to a good spot, attempt to get him to sign over power of attorney - best advice I got when my son was in the beginning stages. He’s been mostly amenable to care and never abusive, but the compulsive factor means he managed to spend $3k in 3 weeks. So, he doesn’t get money now. He hasn’t worked in 9 months, so his state pay out was the last big money. We’re still waiting on SSI.
Good luck to you and prayers!!
My 33-year-old daughter is aggresive toward me. Not physically, however, I too must carefully watch my words least I set her off. I’m always “walking on eggshells” in her presence. She too swears at me (usually in abusive text messages). My daughter does not live with me, instead, she’s married and living with her husband. I’ve been considering my options, including ceasing all contact. As I get older, I become more and more concerned about her intentions toward me. Her aggresive acts toward me include hiring an attorney to harrass me over first one thing then another to “nickle and dime” me into destitutiion; destroying my relationships with my other two children; and, frankly, trying to create a situation where she thinks I might be likely to commit suicide. To protect myself and my husband, I am going to law school and planning to get a law license. Its very hard to love someone who wishes you harm and who is trying to arrange that harm.
My 19 year old stepdaughter was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia this past year and she too has spent all her money on random stuff. She spent over $400 in one trip to Target on items she thought she “needed”, like a 5 pack of toothbrushes, 5 bottles of shampoos and lotions, other bathroom supplies, etc (we have all this at home already). Always runs up to starbucks, dunkin donuts, chickfila, etc all day. We took away her car and now has control over her funds so that she doesn’t go broke. She too has no job, been fired from 3 already and can’t hold one. The only income she gets is occastional babysitting or dogsitting (friend’s that know her disease that have trust in her)
Hello, I have been dealing with my son’s mental health all of his life. His early years I struggled with his behavior which was later diagnosed as autism. When he was 15 his behavior took a strange turn. I thought it was because he started using pot. He was diagnosed with paranoid .Our horror stories go on from there. And I mean heart breaking, trauma inducing, things that happen only in a mother’s nightmares. I watch him suffer so much. And in turn I feel like my whole life is over shadowed with his. The mental health system keeps waving carrots of programs. Which my son fails to meet. I dance as fast I can to help him and he doesn’t work with me. In fact he works against me. We have court on the 30th on this month. It looks like jail. He doesn’t belong in jail. He is mentally ill. More heart ache. I keep looking for some sort of light.
@april1958 i am sorry to hear all of this. How has she destroyed your relationship with your other children?