Category Archives: suicide

Crisis Mode – Setback in treatment

Just got one of those phone calls I dread. “We had… with David…” Tonight.  He was, in my view, manic. It started earlier when we had family therapy.  We clarified his discharge info.  He was under the impression that discharge was imminent.  When in reality, it isn’t.  And it is largely because there isn’t a facility to transition him to so we can work on bringing him home. Tonight, David was running rampant in the residence hall.  Numerous timeouts.  Yelling that he wanted to be restrained, dodging staff.  Ignoring boundaries. He even managed to smack another resident in the face with a door. He was restrained a couple of times when he started self-harming.  Scratching and gouging at his arms. Then he threatened to kill himself. So now he has a staff member sitting in his room watching him sleep.  He has been given meds to bring him from the

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Shame and Depression – A lack of humanity.

The recent suicide of Robin Williams is a tragedy for his family. For the rest of the world it is a great loss.  I’ll admit to being a huge fan of the man.  I understand addiction.  I also understand some things about depression.   Did Mr. Williams have Bipolar Disorder?  I don’t know, that is between him, his family and his doctor. The discussion that we should be having on an International scale is how we as humans view and treat people with Mental Illness.  Depression is a mental illness.  There is no shame in being depressed, or seeking treatment for it. Yet.  The headlines in one major paper referenced the fact that he was found in his bedroom, which was not the same bedroom his wife slept in.  Reports are that his children are being badgered by the media, specifically people on social media who are being less than polite. 

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An update on David’s recent crisis

David is stable.  He is still under the suicide watch and will continue to be for the next couple of days.  Tomorrow he sees the psych team, and Tuesday we meet with the therapist. Because of the number of staff that need to work with David at any one point, they didn’t have enough in the residence hall that he was in, so they moved him to a new lodge for the night and through today. Thank you everyone for your prayers. Carl Related articles A threat of suicide and a prayer (whynotfathers.com) David in crisis mode (whynotfathers.com) David in Crisis Part 2 (whynotfathers.com) Tweet #fighting4answrs