Our world was turned upside down the first time our son J was hospitalized. He had been in college and we would receive bizarre calls and started to hear from his friends that they were worried about him. His behavior was becoming increasingly erratic and we suspected his substance abuse was increasing as well. We had some pretty significant concerns when he was in High School, but nothing like this. Over the Christmas holidays he was home and seemed agitated and was often isolating in his room. He would stay up late and sleep past noon every day. We asked him to see his old psychiatrist and he refused multiple offers to do so. One night, we had a feeling something wasn’t right. We checked his room at 1:00 A.M. and, sure enough, he wasn’t there. We were frantic and called the police who said they couldn’t do anything until he was missing more than 24 hours. We went driving around the town where we live and, after several hours, found him wandering the streets. He was a mess. He wanted to be left alone, claimed he was being compelled by “that man in my head” to kill himself or us! We called the police again and this time they came out to where we were sitting with him in a park and determined that they would bring him to the hospital on a 5150, involuntary hold for 72 hours.
The next day, he was seen by a psychiatrist. We found out that his substance use had significantly increased since the marijuana we knew he smoked in High School. He was showing psychotic symptoms but they didn’t know whether it was drug-induced or an emerging thought disorder. They recommended that we explore residential options for J. We had no idea what to do. We were scared for him and for ourselves and our younger daughter. There had been many more altercations at home than we had been willing to admit to ourselves and we accepted the notion that we had better seek help. And fast!
We had been to The Bodin Group the prior year for testing for our daughter. We knew they also dealt with these situations so we called J’s psychiatrist who also suggested we seek Bodin’s expertise. We got an appointment that very afternoon and they were able to quickly understand the issues and questions that still remained and map out a set of next steps, a timeline and potential directions. As much as we hated to consider this, especially the financial burden this would place on us, we knew we had no other choice.
They spoke with the other doctors and people involved in J’s life, met with J in the hospital, and coached us through a strategy to get him accepting of going into treatment. We never could have done this without Bodin’s support.
Our consultant at Bodin couldn’t have been more responsive, professional and compassionate. She knew exactly where to turn and got him into a sub-acute facility immediately that was able to better stabilize him and better assess the nature of his issues and mental health state. J, it turns out, had become heavily involved in psychotropic drugs and was essentially non-functional at school or anywhere in his life, for that matter. Our consultant stayed in constant contact with us through this stage as well as with the facility. We determined that J needed a longer-term environment following the initial placement and Bodin found a Young Adult facility that met perfectly J’s needs and our budget. He was there close to a year and developed a much better coping strategies, got solid in his Recovery and got a course of medications that proved helpful for him. He got back into school there as well. It wasn’t without bumps, of course, but that’s where the steady guidance and intervention, at time, from our consultant proved invaluable.
Today, J is finished with college, has a decent job, but knows where he wants to go in life. He is still sober, has a girlfriend we like a lot, and works out five days a week. We couldn’t have gotten here without the expert guidance of The Bodin Group! Thank you for saving our son’s life and our family!