Author Archives: David's Father

Visited David tonight in Psych Unit.

lithium-bipolar

lithium-bipolar (Photo credit: Life Mental Health)

I hate going there.  Absolutely do not like it.

Spent about 2 hours with David this evening in Psych.  We watched television.  We didn’t talk.

If I asked him a question, I got a one syllable response.

He said he is sleeping at night.

I was told that he stole a couple of telephones and a staff persons cell phone.

My thought was, at least he is consistent in showing his behaviors to others.  People are less likely to think we are making things up.

The staff there, when I started to talk into the intercom to pass security and get on the floor, said, “oh I recognize you…”

Because I always say “the super secret code is: ”

I don’t sleep very well, and the last couple of days have made things worse with a regular barrage of phone calls about David.

Before I told David I loved him, I told him that tomorrow he has to tell me what he did to get put in the psych unit.

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David has entered the psych unit.

tube style shoelace

tube style shoelace (Photo credit: sand dragon)

David has been really struggling lately with his mental illnesses.  I use plural for a reason.

Today, a lot happened.  He became combative.  It took four adults to restrain this 80 pound boy.  He becomes very strong when he is on this part of his “cycle”.  Meds don’t work, calming techniques don’t work.  The only solution is to put him in psych until he is stable again.

I applaud his care team for taking this step.  They didn’t do it without talking to his parents first.  In fact, it was our idea based on what they told me he was doing.  It is not a healthy thing for him to continue on this path, so we need to make some changes.

A major reason that we did determine to place him in psych was that he took his shoe laces and wrapped them around his neck.  tightly.  He has scars on his hands from where he has hurt himself in the past.

So if you would, please a prayer for our son.   We have to remember that the meds are there to stabilize him.  Not cure him.  There is no cure, only stability.

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a new week, a better outlook

Today we had staffing for David.  While I won’t go through the ins and outs of everything that was discussed, I will say this.  The team isn’t ready to give up on him regardless of what the school says.

We are going to explore the possibility that he is on a manic swing with his bipolar disorder.  It would be one of many possible explanations for the escalation of his behavior.

There were some scary things that we learned this week.  David was biting a battery.  You could see teeth marks in it.

So he is not allowed batteries.  He has limited access to electronic gadgets such as mp3 players.  He has no computer privileges.  His room gets stripped of everything every 4 hours.

Why?

Because even as much as he is watched, he still is very adept at taking that which does not belong to him.

Especially cell phones.

Oh, and he really doesn’t like his teacher.

We did spend a little time with David today.  Just talking.  We played our word association game, but he really wasn’t interested.  The whole time, his eyes were very busy.  Looking at everything. Always moving.  His frequently adjusted his position, and a near constant phrase to any question was “I don’t know.”