FEBRUARY 6, 2019: My son’s still in the hospital. He has a new court hearing on February 13. He’s not yet stabilized with meds. I believe the doctors were supposed to add a mood stabilizer last night or today. Our visits start out okay, but go south as soon as he tells me it's in my power to get him out, right then and there. Things get ugly. He thinks the social worker and I are in cahoots to keep him locked up forever.
The social worker has gone above and beyond her job description to help my son and our family. Kudos to someone in the system who really cares. His psychiatrist is on vacation and out of the country. If the doctor comes back, evaluates him, and sees no improvement — not just stabilization from meds, but self-care, participating in group therapy, etc., — my son won’t be a candidate for a residential living facility. He’ll walk right out the door and come home, if he doesn't get robbed or beaten up first. We’ll have to convince a judge that he needs the state hospital.
One year, before college graduation, is around the time my son became a Christian — a really obsessive Christian. We didn't see this as a problem, at the time, — we’re not church-goers — because my husband and I were both raised in the Christian faith. We never pushed religion on our children. But really, what parent wouldn't be proud of a son who had been a dream-child to raise and was now being a "good Christian”. There were no drugs. No alcohol. We didn't know our son was beginning this nightmare journey into mental illness.
My family would rather remain anonymous. We’re not ashamed of my son. We speak about his illness to people, but we also have jobs where our names are our livelihood. My middle son has a full time job with a big company in our area and also runs his own business. My husband has a government (county) job. This is why I’d rather keep our names anonymous.