Mass cutting incident in rehab

comatheart

Active Member
Thursday night I got a phone call from one of my son's counselors in rehab. He called to explain to me that my son ran across a safety pin that was at the bottom cuff of one of his jeans. (somehow the rehab facility missed it during the inspection of his things upon arrival) difficult child had carved crosses in various places in his body. I'm already detaching from difficult child's behaviors and wasn't all that surprised. Of course, I was upset, but I was more worried that family weekend started on Friday and they wouldn't let him participate after this incident. Thankfully they did. The counselor said they were concerned and this incident bought him some more time. (whatever that means) He said our insurance company isn't giving them a hard time yet, but this just adds fuel to the fire.

So off we went on Friday for Family weekend. It was great to see him!! We could definitely see some change in him. He seemed happier, though he did not care one iota about the carvings or the repercussions of doing this to his body.

While there, we were instructed to stop by the nurses station at some point to sign some medication forms. We did and I asked the nurse if they could please put some neosporin and a bandage on the carving in difficult child's shoulder because it was quite deep and looked pretty bad. She agreed and pointed to the a wall which had 8-10 of slips of paper hanging from hit. That's how many blood tests we have to run. OMG! difficult child apparently SHARED his safety pin. The nurse said she'd been there many years and had never seen a "mass cutting incident" such as this. Many of the boys now have carvings on themselves, all thanks to difficult child. I feel absolutely horrible about the whole thing!! I'm secretly thankful difficult child carved himself first. I'm pretty certain he doesn't have any disease or illness that could be passed on. I can't say that much for the other boys. Some of whom are IV drug users and could be carrying around Hep C, AIDS etc.

Saturday difficult child seemed completely different than he did on Friday. He didn't seem happy and was extremely fidgety. During the AA meeting he picked up 2 sobriety tokens (not sure what they're called) and I watched as he anxiously took apart the chain holding them together and inspected every inch of it. You could just see him trying to figure out what he could do with it or make with it. He was like a 5 yr old, wrapping the chain around his wrist, then his ankle, then his notebook, one shoe then the other, then again. It finally ended up in his mouth. I was just waiting for him to choke on it. He did this for HOURS during family sessions. It was insane!! I don't know if the counselor running the meeting noticed it, but I will definitely bring it up with them tomorrow. I asked difficult child if they had made any medication changes that I didn't know about and he said no. I'm thinking he's manic? I don't know what else to think. I can't imagine he was high, although if he weren't in rehab I would have thought he was.

Tomorrow we'll get the results of the Psychological testing the've done. I'm anxious to hear what the Psychologist thinks is going on with him. Especially after this latest incident!
 

lovemysons

Well-Known Member
Hi comatheart,

Does sound to me like some self-mutilation might be at play here. That might be the reason rehab is saying that difficult child has bought more time for himself as it is self harming. It's either that or attention seeking behavior, in my opinion.

I sure hope the boys haven't spread anything to one another through this group participation. Sometimes, okay ALOT of times, these kids just don't think about the consequences!

Will be interested to hear what the psychologists testing reveals.
LMS
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Wow. You were certainly right to find him a long-term placement. Your difficult child obviously has issues he needs to deal with and it sounds like he is a good place to do that.

It is always something with our difficult child's.

{{{Hugs}}}

~Kathy
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
I think I'm going crazy, I read your post the other day and thought I responded but obviously I didn't. I saw much the same thing when my difficult child was in rehab, some of the girls, mine included, got together and made pacts. For my difficult child it was to get matching tatoos of a lightning boly on their necks. It was almost like they bonded and did things just to show they couldn't be broken. Some of the things I learned that went on there alarmed me. I always reported what I learned. Once I found a picture one of the residents drew with colored markers of a spoon and lighter burning heroin and a IV needle. She gave it to my difficult child and when I found it I gave it to difficult child's counselor.

I would be anxious to get the results of the testing also. It sounds like something is going on in his head and I hope they can get at it in his counseling sessions.
 

comatheart

Active Member
Well, the Psychologist has been had by my son. Master manipulator that he is. Although, I'm pretty upset that the Psychologist hadn't even been briefed on the happenings there at rehab since he evaluated my son early last week. He knew nothing of the carving incident or the dark satanic like drawings he's done. I don't see how he can possibly give us accurate test results when he didn't even have a thorough evaluation.

He says my son didn't even score depressed on the score sheet (which in an of itself is complete ridiculousness and proof that my son is dancing his way right through him) We've been battling major depression for years now. It's been documented by 3 counselors, 2 psychiatrists and a pediatrician. Not to mention all of our friends and family.

Then he says he doesn't think he has bipolar either. I'm on the fence about that one, but we have an EXCELLENT private psychiatrist who removed the bipolar diagnosis from him when we first starting seeing her a couple years back, only to re-add it back in May. She's been seeing our son for much, much longer than this guy and I tend to believe she has a better grasp of him.

He believes my son has a narcissistic personality disorder. I can definitely see it. Or is it the bipolar? .....smh
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
I have no experience in this area but I am sending very sincere hugs and caring prayers for you and your family. DDD
 

dstc_99

Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear about this! What a shame that the therapist is not being kept in the loop. I hope things look up soon!
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Sending hugs!

I am so glad that you have him in the system. Hope he can get the help he needs!

This is the 17yo, right?
 

comatheart

Active Member
Thanks everyone. Yes, this is my 17yr old.

I'm just as confused as ever. Psychologist tells us he's likely not bipolar on Monday. Tuesday, after the Psychiatrist sees him, they double his lamictal?! (Going up gradually over a few days)

You would think if they are questioning the bipolar diagnosis, they would be tapering the Lamictal? I have a call into the dr to clarify...

In the meantime, my husband keeps telling me I need to relax, back off and let them do their jobs. I am trying, but at the same time, I wanna know what's going on with our son! Did anyone else experience that helpless feeling when your child is inpatient?
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
comaheart, my difficult child has had more diagnoses than I can remember. Every time she sees a new psychiatrist or counselor, they tell her something different.

My current therapist told me that the diagnosis didn't really matter. She said that the symptoms are what are really important and that a good psychiatrist will tailor the medications to the symptoms . . . not the diagnosis.

We have been through ADD, ODD, clinical depression, bi-polar, borderline, and bi-polar with borderline features. So many symptoms of those disorders overlap each other we will never be sure which one(s) is correct.

I agree, though, that the doctor needs to be brought up to speed on the cutting incident and past history.

~Kathy
 

in a daze

Well-Known Member
My current therapist told me that the diagnosis didn't really matter. She said that the symptoms are what are really important and that a good psychiatrist will tailor the medications to the symptoms . . . not the diagnosis.

(Quote) We have been through ADD, ODD, clinical depression, bi-polar, borderline, and bi-polar with borderline features. So many symptoms of those disorders overlap each other we will never be sure which one(s) is correct.


Read more: http://www.conductdisorders.com/forum/f11/mass-cutting-incident-rehab-55465/#ixzz2iJid2wQ1
That's really what my difficult child'S latest (I'm losing count) psychiatrist told us, Kathy. He has also gotten different diagnoses as time and his symptoms have evolved.
Coma, it sounds like your son had neuropsychological testing. My son just had that and it showed also that he did NOT have bipolar disorder but rather major depression, anxiety disorder and a personality disorder. The personality disorder also showed up when he had the testing three years ago. I don't think he would be able to snow the psychologist much. The psychologist did say that he thought my son was malingering, or exaggerating, some of his responses as he was identifying with them. He is very self absorbed, and also was a psychology major, and I think that may have skewed some of his responses.
 
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