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Friday, October 2, 2009
A son's mental illness

Hi Dan,

 

Thanks for listening to me. I have a 20 yr old adopted son whom from age 4 has been diagnosed as ADD, OCD, bipolar, impulsive, angry, paranoid, mood disorder, etc., and recently diagnosed as border line personality, soon to be called emotional regulation. He gets into raging cycles that he can't get out of. He has probably been to ten therapists and had fifteen different medications over the years and he is still not under control. When he does take his medications, he takes them sporadically. He cancels doctors' appointments frequently.

 

As he has gotten older he is more difficult. We have called our local police several times due to his threats and physical confrontations. Most of the occurrences have been in our house, and fortunately no one has been injured. He doesn't change his attitude even after the police come to our house.He clearly does not think in a rationale manner about many issues.  If we have to call the police one more time, he will go to jail.  I feel so badly for him since I know he is not in control of himself.  The local police feel that what he does are criminal issues.

 

It seems the only way that a mentally ill person can receive structured mental help nowadays is when a person threatens suicide or threatens another person's life and goes into a hospital. Otherwise they go to jail. About 20% of the people in jail now have mental illnesses. I believe there are some counties that are working on helping mentally ill people in jail.  However, I don't know if they will still be saddled with an arrest conviction.  Unless there is a miracle, my son will end up in jail.  Is there any hope for my son and the other mentally ill people in jail?

 

Dear reader

I don't know what to tell you about your son other than an intensive course of the inpatient treatment followed by highly structured outpatient.  He can emotional regulation but he will need medication and a great deal of social support to do so.

I would also like you to know that we are doing a two-part series on my radio show about mental illness.  On September 12 we will be talking about its impact on families and on the following week, we will be talking about policy, politics and programs.

As you so aptly pointed out, what happens to so many with mental illness is tragic.  As a society, we should be ashamed.

Posted by Dan Gottlieb @ 3:44 PM  Permalink | File Under: Child rearing, family relations | | Living with adversity | 1 comment
Comments   
Posted 08:11 AM, 10/03/2009
jmc15
My heart goes out to this parent because currently, under our outdated Mental Health Procedures Act of 1976, the type of sustained treatment that this young man could benefit from is not provided unless, as she stated, he is a clear and present danger to self or others. Even if he were to be hospitalized under an involuntary inpatient commitment, the stay in a hospital these days is barely a week, not nearly enough time to find and continue taking the prescribed medications that could prove to be beneficial over time when taken consistently. Mental illness is not a crime and does not need to lead-up to time spent in jail. But that is what often happens under our current law and, when mental illness is left untreated, it can lead to a revolving door of short hospital stays, incarceration and homelessness, since many times families can no longer have an overly aggressive adult child who refuses treatment to continue living in their home, especially when there are other siblings in the home but also because the type of violent outbursts that this parent described can also endanger the parents. Providing timely, effective treatment, which often does include medications, is the most compassionate way to treat mental illness. I urge this parent to contact State Senator EricKson, who is the Chairman of the Public Health and Welfare Committee (717-787-1350) and ask him to bring Senate Bill 251 up for vote and out of committee. This legislation would allow court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment in the community and would assign a provider to ensure that her son received the treatment that he so desperately needs and to help him avoid the need to go to jail. She can also contact the Treatment Advocacy Center http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/ to ask what else she can do to advocate for passage of this sensible law in Pennsylvania. (Dr. Gottlieb - regarding the dates you mention in your reply - did you mean to write October instead of August?)
1 comments
About Dan Gottlieb
Welcome to my new blog and weekly on-line chat.
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Throughout the week I'll be posting entries about research I find interesting, your emails and my responses, random observations about life and current events and recommendations for books, lectures or webpages. Feel free to e-mail me questions, reactions or vignettes about your life though I cannot respond to everyone. And please know that if I use your correspondence, although I will try to disguise identifying characteristics, because this is a public forum, I cannot assure confidentiality.

Understand this is not psychotherapy and cannot be a substitute for it. Further, I cannot assess or diagnose. The purpose of this dialogue is to be educational and perhaps to help writers and viewers gain a different perspective on themselves. People needing help should contact a mental health professional.

Dan Gottlieb is a psychologist and marital therapist and has been in practice nearly 40 years. His career started in community mental health and substance abuse until his accident in 1979 made him a quadriplegic.

Since that time, he has been in private practice. Since 1985, he has been hosting a radio show called "Voices in the Family" on WHYY FM, Philadelphia's NPR affiliate. He was a regular columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1994 until 2008. He is also the author of four books.

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