Tag Archives: Antisocial personality disorder

SMI and the Tragedy of Adulthood

SMI – Serious Mental Illness The National Survey on Drug Use and Health  (NSDUH), which defines SMI (Serious Mental Illness) as: A mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder (excluding developmental and substance use disorders); Diagnosable currently or within the past year; Of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria specified within the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV); and, Resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. So, what does this have to do with David? David came to us when he was 18 months old.  We became his parents, legally, 6 months later.  In truth, since he was just months old, he has been a part of our lives.  Mom had a home daycare.  And we filled in as needed for his foster family‘s day care provider. David is 15 now, in the blink of an

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visited David today

Stopped at the psych unit to see David tonight.  He was being so good that I didn’t stay long. He and some of the other patients were playing games.  It is rare when David sits still long enough to do anything, so I stayed long enough to give him a hug and let him know that we would see him tomorrow. A part of me wishes that we could bring him right home, he would be good for a day or two.  But then, all of the old behaviors would start up again.  Then, we would be back where we started. For now, I will for sure take the positive.  David deserves it. Related articles david isn’t going to placement today (whynotfathers.com) Full Mood David (whynotfathers.com) stealing from school (whynotfathers.com) i wonder how long (whynotfathers.com) Tweet #fighting4answrs

What do you mean?

This has become David’s favorite saying when confronted with a behavior.  Confronted isn’t the best way to describe how we deal with his behaviors, but it works for the purposes of this post. “David, what are you doing upstairs?”  I ask. “What do you mean?” he responds. “David, why did you steal my keys?”  I ask. “What do you mean?” he says. For everything that he is confronted on, his response is nearly automatic.  “What do you mean?” Most of the time, just in case he isn’t understanding what we say, we explain it to him.   Another odd thing happened tonight.  He took his meds with water, just like always.  They immediately came right back out. Immediately.  Thankfully we were in the kitchen when it happened.  See, he thinks that if he is throwing up, he won’t have to go to safe bed tomorrow.  Little does he know that

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