difficult child in psychiatric hospital

[Baffled]

Hey guys, haven't been to our site in a while. Shouldn't have stayed away so long. So my difficult child is in the psychiatric hospital. Not sure what to do when he gets out. We were awaiting an appointment with new psychiatrist when all this stuff occurred. He has not been having a great summer. I tried to sign him up for summer camps to keep him occupied. He wanted no part of that, instead he wanted to mostly hang out with my sister. She has 3 kids of her own, one being a difficult child. She's on Methadone, recovering from oxycontin/heroin addiction--for 3 years now. She sleeps probably more than she stays awake. Very unambitious, socializes better with kids than she does adults. Well, at first we tried keeping him away as much as possible. Didn't work too well. He lost interest in just about all of his friends. He'd start arguments just so he could run away to her house. Then we tried to use her as a positive tool because he can talk to her and confide in her. We let him stay with her twice. We thought maybe he would miss his home and also see the way they live was not the way he wanted to live. Actually, he wanted to come home even less. He also seemed to be losing weight, looking pale. I had to get angry at both of them to get him to come home. Well anyway, we were supposed to go on vacation this week. Started out OK, we went to a friend's lakehouse for the weekend. Had a great time, got back Sunday, was leaving for the beach Tues. As soon as we got back, he wanted to go to my sister's. We let him spend some time there, but had to fight him to limit it. Monday night late he announced he was not coming to the beach. He said he'd stay at my mom's and at my sister's hse. I said no, we started arguing, he got a bit physical, my hubby had to restrain him, he threatened suicide, 911 was called, we spent all night in an ER, then to a psychiatric hospital 2 hours from our home. Now what, I'm not sure......

 

[Baffled]

Oh, forgot the most shocking part. He tested pos. to Ecstasy, which of course he admits to trying once.

 

[Andy]

I am so sorry - it is sure frustrating to have a relative who seems to be adding to the problem instead of helping. Take one day at a time - hopefully the psychiatric hospital assessment will find the true entire picture. Once you get more info from psychiatric hospital, it will be easier to make plans for the future.

 

[susiestar]

I am so sorry. It is hard when you have to deal with all of this. If he tested pos to Ecstasy, he probably has done other things. You do KNOW he has done it more htan once, don't you? It just is highly unlikely he only did it once. And Ecstasy has some very scary long-term effects on the body - it literally kills off the pleasure receptors in the brain so the user cannot be happy. Not in one use, but it means you have to fight HARD to reach him. I had a friend who used, BAD long term outcome, and a cousin who jsut became mean after several years of using. She is just horrible to everyone, mostly because she feels so horrible, we think. No one talks to her, sadly. But that is the way she wants it.

Do what you can to get him into a rehab, to fight for his future. Is he using at your sister's house? Or just going there to deal with the after effects?

Big Hugs, this will be a rough road.

 

[Baffled]

I'm not sure about my sis. My husband and I suspect that she may even be involved. I'm so-o-o-o hoping this isn't true. Don't know how I'd handle that. My easy child is working on finding out where he got it and if my sis was with him when he bought it. He claims to have met the dealer on a gravel road by my house. He says he got the idea he wanted to try it by reading about it online. He says he did it in my house while we were sleeping and he described to me the hallucinations he had. It was quite frightening. He claims he never wants to experience that again. Someone he was calling for the drugs told my easy child and said he would say he was at his aunt's hse or in her van, but he could be in my hse texting someone and I wouldn't know what he was up to. So to me this is not enough proof that she was involved. However, we're cutting all ties b/t them anyway because all he wants to do is go there.

 

[Christy]

Sorry for all you are going thru. When I read your first post my first thought was that he was going to your sister's house to use drugs. I know what a betrayal this would be for you and I hope you are able to get to the bottom of it. Finding a rehab is probably the best option and afterwards, I would not allow unsupervised visits with your sister.

Good luck getting through this and I wish you the best in finding help for your son.
Christy