When my son did his first "time" in a behavioral institute because of suicidal actions and thoughts, the diagnosis that came back was far from surprising. Although the "doctor" himself had spent no more than 30 minutes a day in a group setting and two brief one-on-one sessions with my son, he asserted that he knew more than I did about his "condition". The diagnosis was MAJOR DEPRESSION, and the "doctor"'s solution was to force my son into taking antidepressants. In addition, of course, we were required to get him counseling, which we had already arranged prior to his release. When Josh came home, he was newly medicated and emotionally unchanged. It didn't take long for things to quickly spiral in strange directions.
Per doctor recommendations, we continued my son's regular counseling
appointments and physician sessions to "monitor" the medications.
Although the counseling appointments proved helpful and this particular
counselor would be key to finding solutions 2 years later, the physician
visits were insubstantial and completely naive to the entire medication
process. Over the course of the next two months, the lack of knowledge
would allow my son to sink into a very dangerous abyss. Regardless of
how many times I returned him to his doctor and begged that the
medications be adjusted, the answer was always the same, "Let's just
wait another week or so and see what happens." This would unfortunately
be a statement that would be repeated among many of the "professionals"
we would come in contact with.
Two weeks before the "incident"
that landed my son in the system, a number of fellow co-workers,
friends, and trusted leaders in my school (and the school that my son
attended) had begun to approach me rather hesitantly but with true
concern regarding my son's strange behaviors and altered personality.
At first, it was his attire that had changed - he had begun to wear
suits and ties to school every day. We had hoped that this was just a
phase in which he was trying to express himself in a more positive
manner than he had in the past. However, before long, other concerns
began to surface.
Suddenly, my son became paranoid and erratic,
claiming that there were individuals trying to start a race war at the
school and that he had started a new "group" to combat these
individuals. He began to claim that students were carrying weapons to
school on a regular basis and that he could no longer trust his friends
or his teachers. His language became rude and inappropriate, and for
the first time in his life, he was suddenly called to the principals
office because of his behaviors. Before long, I did not recognize the
child whom I had raised on my own for 14 years. He was losing sleep,
flitting around with strange bursts of "creative" energy, busying
himself with combating issues that may or may not have even existed. I
was losing my son, and the answers that came from the "doctors" were
empty and unsettling. In fact, his doctor believed that he had actually
"improved" a bit in that he was no longer suicidal.
