Five Years Here, So Sad to Still Be Here

Old 07-08-2015, 04:33 AM
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Better to be here than not be here Hun , so glad you could share with us , it lightens the load incredibly. Xxx
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Old 07-08-2015, 07:46 AM
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Originally Posted by alterity View Post
The hospital is not taking our concerns about B seriously, saying that they will not recommend an imposed inpatient treatment program. He was psychotic last week and they want to just let him walk! The staff also won't help with providing documentation showing he has a disability. From what I understand, they don't consider substance abuse disorder a disability even though it is listed in the DSM as one.

B's father has been handling this and now I think it's time for me to step in with some legalese.
The DSM only classifies substance abuse as a disorder, not as a disability; only the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) classifies certain disorders as disabilities; and currently, they also do not classify substance abuse disorder as a disability. What they do say, in part, is............:

"...An individual who is currently engaging in the illegal use of drugs is not an individual with a disability..."

I'm sorry you're going through all this with your son; I'm not going to get into your problems with the hospital, but I do understand their point of view.

(o:
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Old 07-08-2015, 02:00 PM
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Noelle,tthank you so much for your post. I had not considered things that way.however, he has a documented disability of nvld which is on the asd spectrum. He has also been diagnosed in the past with mental illness, but I believe those were too quickly made as those symptoms have always coincided with drug use. I am 100% certain he still has and will always have nvld, as IQ hardly ever changes with age.
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Old 07-08-2015, 02:00 PM
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You are a good sister, he is very very lucky to have you. I hope you have some support from family??

Just wanting to send you lots of love and many hugs today. Keep us posted!!!!
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Old 07-08-2015, 02:03 PM
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This has been the worst week of my life next to the week I spent bedside with my mother 24/7 while she died of a massive stroke at age 47.
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Old 07-08-2015, 02:06 PM
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I am so sorry. You are carrying much more on your shoulders than you should have to. Did you ever get anyone else to re-read his scans or a second opinion? I am sure you have done all of that, just racking my brain on what may help.

Just know that we are here for you!!!!
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Old 07-08-2015, 02:18 PM
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Originally Posted by hopeful4 View Post
You are a good sister, he is very very lucky to have you. I hope you have some support from family??

Just wanting to send you lots of love and many hugs today. Keep us posted!!!!
Right now I am the backbone of the family. I used to get super involved like this in the past, filling in the gaps when our dad and his mom divorced, when he was out of control around age 15, and when he was struggling with drugs and life between 18 and 24 or so. But when he went to jail (was in for a few months b/c our dad refused to pay bail) a couple of years ago, I just couldn't handle it anymore. I had been here on this forum a lot a couple of years before he went in and knew what I could do to save my own sanity and that was detach. I had to do it completely, telling my family I just couldn't talk about him anymore. When I leave on Friday, I'll be letting everyone know that I don't want to hear about him unless it's news telling me he's dead.
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Old 07-08-2015, 02:34 PM
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Just did a little reading. Wow.

31% of adolescents with learning disabilities will be arrested within five years of leaving high school. (National Transition Longitudinal Study, 1991)

Up to 60% of adolescents who receive treatment for substance abuse disorders have learning disabilities (Hazelden Foundation, Minnesota, 1992)

Nvld/asd is a learning disability. B was arrested for the first time five years after completing high school.
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Old 07-08-2015, 02:41 PM
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Alterity, big giant hugs to you. Know that we are thinking about you and sending good vibes. Hang in there.
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Old 07-08-2015, 07:43 PM
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Hey Alterity, just sending some hugs and support. Sorry you are dealing with so much. Wish there were some easy answers.
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Old 07-09-2015, 07:19 PM
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I'm lucky to be alive and not in the hospital after what happened today. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse.
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Old 07-09-2015, 07:48 PM
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Hey I'm glad you are alive. Sorry things are worse then you thought, sadly that's how it usually goes ��.
Joey had court yesterday and the DA is going to try and nail him with 3 years, he wants Joey to become an informant/ snitch to get a plea deal...... That's not going to happen. Lawyer thinks Joey has a good case and can win if we take it to court only problem there is, will he live till it goes to trial. He needs to be in rehab like soon he has this false sense off not being an addict while he's on this Vivitrol shot, so while he's not using heroin, I think hes using everything else.
Fill me in when your up to it.......
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Old 07-10-2015, 06:46 AM
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alterity, are you ok? What happened yesterday?
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Old 07-11-2015, 02:10 PM
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Haldol administration masks the psychosis and he appears relatively normal while its effects are waning.

The effects of haldol wear off approximately 4-5 days after administration. His last dosage was on or around July 4, 2014. Four days later, July 8, 2015, the brachykinesia had disappeared. The next day, however, the psychosis was reappearing:

The morning of July 9, 2015, at 10:30am, Alt arrived to bring B from where he was staying to his appointments that day. B was drinking very strong coffee. Alt sat with him, unaware of his current state of mind. She was taking notes so that she could understand where she was bring him and when, but when she frowned in confusion, he aggressively asked, “What that frown for?” and was apparently getting agitated by her and her note-taking. Recognizing this paranoia, she exited the room and went to her car to call his attorney who asked that she have him bring B to his office. When Alt went back into the house and mentioned that his attorney, Mc, wanted him to stop by his office before his Drug Court appearance that was scheduled for 12:30, he became extremely agitated, saying “I have no time for this. I’m in no rush. I have a car” repeatedly as he poured himself his third or more coffee. His speech was very repetitive and abnormal. C Bell was present and she and I de-escalated the situation.

Approximately 45 minutes after this scenario, he came to Alt’s car, slammed the door, and said, in a manic, somewhat agitated and repetitive speech, “Let’s go. Let’s do this. I have no time for this. I have no time for this ****” over and over. As the car turned the corner, they happened to have to follow a police vehicle, the sight of which made B explosively rageful. He started yelling repeatedly, “YOU GONNA ARREST ME! YOU GONNA DRUG ME UP! YOU GONNA PUT A NEEDLE IN MY ARM AND **** ME UP! OH YEAH! **** ME UP! **** ME UP!” as he punched the dashboard. He then directed his attention to Alt, saying in agitation, “YOU’RE DRIVING. YOU’RE DRIVING. NO TIME FOR THIS. NO TIME FOR THIS ****!”

He had $40 on him and said he needed “to get something to calm him down” so Alt turned into a CVS parking lot and let him out. Fearing for her safety and the safety of the public as she was driving, she called Attorney Mc and sought advice. She drove out of the parking lot but looped around because she wanted to see where he might have gone. He was emerging from the CVS corner, saw that she had left the parking lot, and proceeded to approach the vehicle with thug-like ape arms. She locked the doors and tried to hand him her phone through the passenger window saying, “Mark wants to talk to you.” He threw the phone into the passenger from seat and said he doesn’t want to talk to him and started walking away. Alt continued to follow him because it was the way out of the parking lot and someone was behind her. B turned back towards Alt’s car and aggressively said, “YOU’RE NOT GOING TO DRIVE ME?!?” to which she replied, “No, B, I’m scared.” They then went in opposite directions.

According to C, B had purchased a Monster energy drink and nicotine gum at CVS as that was what he had on his person when she then drove him to his 12:30 court appearance. He returned $20 of the $40 that he had borrowed from her.

That same night, B attended an AA meeting at Bergen Regional Medical Center where he consumed copious amounts of caffeine and nicotine. At 9:00 when C picked him up, he was reeking of cigarette smell. When C mentioned the smell and suggested he maybe shouldn’t have been smoking, he told her to “stop watching [him]” and “telling [him] what to do.”

At home, he proceeded to chop a roasting chicken in the kitchen and when C suggested that he use spices, he “went off” according to C, saying “don’t tell me how to make chicken. I know how to make chicken.” Sometime after, he put the tea kettle on but then forgot he had done so as the whistle blew and blew. C asked him if he had forgotten it and he said that he did not turn the kettle on.

He then proceeded to hold a picture of himself that was taken about 5 years or so ago in his hands and looked at it close to his face and then away and back and forth again saying “This isn’t me. This can’t be me. Why is my hair like that?”

He sat down and put his head in his hands with his elbows on his knees, looking up at C through his fingers and looking away, back and forth again.

At some point later, he went to the computer room. As it was getting late, C went to the room and quietly approached, touching his arm. He jumped up and screamed, “WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING ME?!” She calmly said it was getting late and suggested he go to bed. He just looked at her with a wild look in his eyes.

He then went downstairs back to the kitchen and started throwing things all over. One of the items was ear plug head phones and he threw them on the floor saying they were crappy head phones. C told B as calmly as possible, because he was in the area of the kitchen where there are knives, that he was scaring her. This angered him and he grabbed her hand roughly to his arm and said, “Do you know what it’s like…to have a needle in your arm??” as he moved her hand up and down his arm where IVs are usually placed.

C then tried to retreat to her bedroom but followed her closely as if trying to provoke her and he blocked her from closing her door with his body. He started rummaging through her things at one point putting a floppy hat of hers on his head and said he was “going out.” He eventually left the room, saying he was going to “get his keys and headphones” [which are in R] so C closed and locked her door. She then heard him walk out of the house. This was approximately 3:30am.

At 5:20am July 8, 2015, the O Police Department left a message with Alt informing her that they had gotten a report of a man sitting on a park bench screaming. The police officer had approached him, obtained his name, and was given Alt’s phone number by the W Police Department. According to the O Police when Alt phoned them at 6:45am, he was not in custody so apparently B had composed himself enough for the officer to not have deemed him a danger and had let him walk away.

At 7:00am, Alt drove to C’s and parked her car in front of the house. For the next hour, she received the above information from C. At 8:25am, Alt was in the back yard on the phone, when C quickly told her through the back door that “he’s coming in.” Knowing that she is a trigger, Alt left the yard and went out of sight.

At 8:34, C texted Alt, “He’s cursing and getting agitated, talking to himself.” Very likely, the sight of Alt’s car triggered him. At 8:36am: “Very loud, scaring kids.” C then continued communication by text with S, telling her that she was scared and didn’t think he should be there. Knowing that a 911 call could wind up in a very dangerous situation, S texted her that it is her (C’s) call to make. She also texted that if she could just de-escalate him until the probation officer arrived, then a disaster might be avoided.

According to C, he was calming down and was now saying that he had gotten hit by a car and maybe needed a hospital. C tried to talk him into going, would call for an ambulance, but he was too resistant.

He then ate chicken and for the following few hours, C maintained the situation. The probation officer called C and changed the home visit appointment to a probation meeting at the Drug Court at noon.

C brought B to the noon meeting at which he was presenting his symptoms to the probation officers. They were able to talk him into voluntarily going to the hospital but it had to be Bergen Regional likely for procedural reasons as apparently the Drug Court was so concerned about him that they had actually intended to press charges against him for aggressive-provoking behavior towards people at the AA meeting the night before. Since the Drug Court personnel were able to witness his behavior firsthand, instead of hearing a report that he was just aggressive without these compounded mental health issues, the probation officers decided that he needed psychiatric help instead of the incarceration section of Bergen Regional Medical Center.

B has silver amalgam fillings and root canal that likely are causing mercury toxicity. Mercury is clearly linked to schizophrenia. This plus the trauma and possible drug abuse has caused him to go into a psychotic state with schizophrenic presentation.

What appears to be acute reactive schizophrenic psychosis must have been triggered by the May 28 arrest experience and continued to be triggered by his treatment at Bergen Regional Medical Center. He abused copious amounts of caffeine and nicotine during that approximate ten day intermission mid June. From the time of the July 7 discharge to readmission July 10, he has not used any substances except excessive amounts of caffeine and nicotine.
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Old 07-11-2015, 02:15 PM
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We are desperately trying to get him out of that hellhole and into Carrier Clinic. Praying. Then, I think my dad needs to be done with bailing him out and let the system take over from there.
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Old 07-11-2015, 03:42 PM
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OMG what a mess. I feel so bad for all of you, poor B this must be horrible for him. He must feel so confused. I hope you are taking care of yourself, are you holding up ok?
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Old 07-11-2015, 03:53 PM
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Originally Posted by MyJoey View Post
OMG what a mess. I feel so bad for all of you, poor B this must be horrible for him. He must feel so confused. I hope you are taking care of yourself, are you holding up ok?
I haven't slept more than 3 hours a night since I arrived Monday. I'm exhausted. Going to definitely sleep well tonight b/c I desperately need it. Even though he is in a terrible hospital, he's at least safe for now.
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Old 07-11-2015, 06:41 PM
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You so deserve it!!! Take a warm bath and go to bed.
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Old 07-12-2015, 07:43 AM
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I slept last night like I hadn't slept for months. Family attorney going to the hospital today to work on getting him out of that One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest and into a place that has the capacity to diagnose and treat dual diagnoses.
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Old 07-12-2015, 08:22 AM
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I'm going to advise my dad to approach this, when my B is ready to hear it, as a "you are covered by my insurance for the next five months but this is not a bail out", and when you are discharged into the community or to wherever you are allowed or remanded, under Drug Court rules, to go next, you are going to have to be on your own.
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