When I last posted, my stepson was following his pattern of leaving a homeless shelter on benefits payday to live in a hotel. He spent about 5 days in the latest hotel before he had to leave because he ran out of money. Smoking crack and meth the whole time. Said he didn't want to return to the shelter because people were stealing from him. So best as we can make out, he ended up in another hotel with a drug dealer who beat him up when he couldn't pay for the drugs he had been forwarded. He also claimed that this individual molested / attempted to molest him. He was so upset - my husband believed him, and that is good enough for me. He had a shelter friend die of a heroin overdose in the same week. How much lower can we go?
Yesterday he entered a 28 day rehab / sober living program. He spent several days in the hospital prior to this. He told the evaluating staff that he was suicidal so that they would allow him to stay, as he had nowhere else to go. During this hospital stint we actually got some help. The case manager he was assigned worked with the rehab center that my husband found to allow him to go straight there from the hospital. She also spent a lot of time talking with him, had the resident psychiatrist spend a lot of time talking with him, and had his medication re-evaluated. They concluded that although they believe he was correctly diagnosed as bipolar, they do not believe he has schizophrenia, which he had previously been diagnosed and treated for. They said that bipolar disorder can also cause delusions and breaks with reality, and in combination with heavy drug use, this is exacerbated. They said his patterns, for example, long periods of unmedicated lucidity, do not line up with those of someone suffering from schizophrenia.
I don't know that I have ever wanted something to be true more in my entire life. Still a mountain to climb, but taking one major mental illness off the table is like winning the lottery for us. This will not change his behavior / choices / addictive personality. It just makes things seem not quite as impossible.
The last three rehabs he went into, he flunked out of. People were bothering him, he didn't feel like talking, he didn't care to conform to rules etc. We are two weeks away from payday so hopefully he will at least be open to staying for the rest of the month. His mom said she would consider having him come to live with her if he successfully completed rehab. I am hoping that learning that he possibly does not suffer from schizophrenia will lift his spirits. I am hoping that getting beaten up and almost raped is an experience he will not want to put himself in a position to repeat. Time will tell.
Yesterday he entered a 28 day rehab / sober living program. He spent several days in the hospital prior to this. He told the evaluating staff that he was suicidal so that they would allow him to stay, as he had nowhere else to go. During this hospital stint we actually got some help. The case manager he was assigned worked with the rehab center that my husband found to allow him to go straight there from the hospital. She also spent a lot of time talking with him, had the resident psychiatrist spend a lot of time talking with him, and had his medication re-evaluated. They concluded that although they believe he was correctly diagnosed as bipolar, they do not believe he has schizophrenia, which he had previously been diagnosed and treated for. They said that bipolar disorder can also cause delusions and breaks with reality, and in combination with heavy drug use, this is exacerbated. They said his patterns, for example, long periods of unmedicated lucidity, do not line up with those of someone suffering from schizophrenia.
I don't know that I have ever wanted something to be true more in my entire life. Still a mountain to climb, but taking one major mental illness off the table is like winning the lottery for us. This will not change his behavior / choices / addictive personality. It just makes things seem not quite as impossible.
The last three rehabs he went into, he flunked out of. People were bothering him, he didn't feel like talking, he didn't care to conform to rules etc. We are two weeks away from payday so hopefully he will at least be open to staying for the rest of the month. His mom said she would consider having him come to live with her if he successfully completed rehab. I am hoping that learning that he possibly does not suffer from schizophrenia will lift his spirits. I am hoping that getting beaten up and almost raped is an experience he will not want to put himself in a position to repeat. Time will tell.