Drug Rehab Options Blog

most of you know i do case management for people who suffer from SPMI (severe and persistant mental illness) as well as drug addiction. We get "the worst of the worst". you have had to fail "traditional" case management and help in order to reach our intensive level of care.
THat being said, i started working with a woman this past summer who was pregnant. upon meeting her i found out that not only was she schizophrenic but her boyfriend/the babys father was too. AS a mother and mental health worker i had concerns about thier ability to care for this baby.
I attempted to get them into parenting classes ect, and much to my dismay they,, mostly my client the mom.. was not interested. She was very gun ho on doing this them selves.. and she said parenting classes were too stressful. ??? i told her if you think the classes are stressful, you wont be able to handle the baby... I was vveerrry concern about her lack of reality in caring for this baby...
In Oct. I transferred her to my co-worker, who was not too happy to get the case in that she was a NEw first time mom with a 3 month old at home. Working with this couple and the potential for tragedy hit a bit too close to home for her. nevertheless... she visited the couple everyday once Baby Sebastian was born in Nov. 08. things were going pretty well. our agency tried to set the new family up with a home health nurse but since the baby did not have any medical problems, they were denied and put on a waiting list.
This morning i recieved a call from my co-worker screaming and crying.........
my clients boyfriend/childs father had strangled and killed thier son........
I tried to correct her.. you mean our client.. she said no the Dad!!

In the numerous times I had met the father he seemed more together than my client and had more common sence.. I was floored!!! she said she had some kind of relapse last week, ended up in adult psy for a few days and his psychiatrist changed ALL his medication and sent him home. In less that 24hours he had killed his infant son....

I am devestated!!! No matter how much you try to help, prevent, and even predict events, we are never prepared for such a tragedy. I have know the dad for a few years and to my knowledge he has NO history of violence and is a nice guy.. like I said.. my client appeared less stable than him.
It had to be the meds... What was he prescribed?? WHy would the psy change everything and send him home with a new born??
I know his psychiatris and she actully is one of the good ones. careing and spends time with her clients not just 5 minutes. I heard she is not doing well at hearing the news.

I dont want to bring anyone down. i just feel the need to talk about this. i have never had anything like this happen before.. that little boy who happen to be born to parents who are mentally ill... Im zoned out... IDK.. just wanted to share and ask for prayers for both families in this tragedy..
thanks...

We're partners in a construction company in a major metropolitan city. Our offices are located downtown and there's an alley that runs behind them.

There's a homeless woman named Linda who, with her 40 year old son, have slept in makeshift tents in the alley for many years. She and her son are alcoholics and like most homeless, have suffered a lot of abuse. This city has recently done a major clean up regarding the homeless and tent cities, but there aren't enough facilities to house them.

You know those sheds you can buy for your backyard, use for storage? Some of the partners decided to buy a shed for Linda and her son, it's 18ft x 10ft. They've put it on our lot, behind one of our buildings, and I sent a couple of sleeping bags this morning.

They deliberately didn't tell me about it until this morning because they figured the first words out of my mouth would be "enabling." I admit I went round and round with it inside my head, then finally gave in. This woman has been on the streets for at least 20 years and we're all pretty certain she and her son have mental illness. At least they'll be warm and safe because our lot is locked. They have to be there when we leave for the day or be locked out. It's their choice.

Part of me is so proud of all of them for their generous spirit but the other part is wondering what can of worms have they opened? I guess we'll just deal with it as it comes along, one day at a time.

I have been in a 5 year relationship with a man whom I believe to be an alcoholic, I will give you a little insight and hope that you can confirm this. When we met I had just left a 10 year relationship with my University Boyfriend and had lost my Mother after spending some years caring for her with Cancer. I fell instantly in love with him and was happy to indulge in his lifestyle of social drinking at that time. His family are quite dysfunctional, his Mother has always been Bi-Polar, His father a very heavy drinker and his sister has suffered with depression since a breakdown some years past and they all lived together. Over the first few years there were a number of drunken arguments between us but when he was sober he was so kind, conscientious and loving. I then bought a house and became pregnant. Since living in 'our' house and particularly through pregnancy and the subsequent birth of our daughter he went out more and more without me and commonly went on 2 and 3 days drinking binges. I recognise from what I have read that I was enabling this by either - locking the door don't come home or getting him a new job when he got sacked, either or. I also understand again from what i have read that I became very co-dependant (my family were entirely normal with no dependancies/ mental illness etc but my Mother though caring would never even use the word 'love' but I know she loved us dearly) recently after a binge he returned home to find I had put his things outside and came in and set fire to the kitchen whilst I was upstairs (there has been a number of such incidents) He was arrested and now faces the penalty this may bring, although I have said I did not wish to go to court. After a short while I asked him to come home again, desperate to have this normal family life and we did albeit short. It didn't take too long for him to disapear again as his Father has recently come into several thousand pounds all of which he will spend on drink and happily encourage my partner to join him. I 'snapped' overdosed on sleeping tablets and am now being treated for depression. He simply walked away, he left his things, his car, his job, us everything and made no effort to contact me or even enquire through friends about my well being. Since then I have been contacting him sporadically to try to arrange meetings to see our daughter (but in reality I want him to see me) also on the occasion I do drink I will get very upsaet and try to contact him then. I know to his family and friends he blames my arguing and trying to control his drinking on all the trouble that has been caused, I sometimes wonder if it was my fault, had I held the hurt and anger in when he went missing etc, he wouldn't have become angry and it would have settled down again? He has told me that he no longer loves me, we are over and he will need to 'straighten his head out' before he sees our baby. I can't accept this, He has been drinking solidly every single day now for the last 6 weeks- helped by his dad. Does he mean this? I can't believe he does because during the periods where he was sober or not drinking terribly heavily we were so close and happy. I hope you can answer this honestly becasue I need to hear it even if it is that there is no longer any 'us'. I know the relationship was awful and I would tell a friend to run away fast and not look back. I am 10 years younger than him, have a great family and friends and a good job and it does get a little easier some days but others are horrific it feels like he's dead and I can'[t accept it, I'm just pretending to those around me. So that's really the question, do you think he means it, when the money has gone will he come back to me? On dark days I would gladly have him back, problems as well. I know that sounds pathetic but I am being honest. Any advice would be gratefully appreciated, I'm so consumed by the upset I can't function.

(my mother is a fundamentalist Christian)

Phillipians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

You may not speak insultingly of my husband to me.
It is not true that he married me to mooch off me, he has given me every dime he has since I stopped working 3 years ago.

Do you recall the story of the widow's penny in regards to the greater sums of those who had more?

I am ashamed of you for saying you were ashamed of him at Thanksgiving, simply because he had a healthy appetite and enjoyed the meal very much and ate as much as he wanted. There was plenty to go round and still leftovers. I am apalled that you would say this.

My husband is ill. Have you so soon forgotten your behavior for months while you were ill?
I also have mental illness, which you were unkind about. You must have a lowly opinion of me, as well.

I also recall Thanksgiving when you mistreated and nearly abused my precious grandson.
AND I remember who left early because they cannot enjoy being with their family.

It is my belief that compassion is far more important than a clean floor...any and all of the time.

I think Jesus addressed this when he spoke to Martha's complaints about Mary at Lazarus's death.

Please do not offend me this way again, no matter how things turn out.
I would be pleased if you took this letter to your pastor.

I Corinthians 13 tells us what is important...and what is not.

Tena

Medication has changed my life. I want to say, emphatically: WATCH OUT FOR PEOPLE IN 12-STEP RECOVERY THAT SAY YOU SHOULDN'T TAKE MEDICATION! I was told one time that I would not "find God" on medication, so I went off, and nearly was driven to suicide. I love the Twelve Steps. I love recovery. I love God. I love the people in recovery. Even the ones that are misguided about medication. But I also suffer from a mental illness, and if I don't treat my mental illness, I am incapacitated as far as doing the work to maintain my recovery from alcoholism.

What many people don't understand is that Dual Diagnosis means that EACH diagnosis is a PRIMARY diagnosis. So, if you have alcoholism and bipolar disorder, like me, you must attack both problems equally. You must treat the bipolar disorder with medication, and perhaps therapy, and you must address the alcoholism with the Twelve Steps, or any other recovery program available. Alot of folks believe that if you treat the mental illness, the addiction/alcoholism will magically go away on its own. I think this is a very common misconception. Or, conversely, if the mentally ill individual stops drinking/using, his or her mental health will clear up on its own. This is also untrue, in my experience.

I wish they had a dual diagnosis meeting in my city. I struggle very much with issues related to my bipolar ups and downs, and feel very, very uncomfortable talking about that at meetings; yet, it's such a huge part of my life. I've had psychiatric hospitalizations IN SOBRIETY. I know others have as well. Anyways, that's enough preaching out of me!

My therapist has recommended me to detox off effexor due to it giving me bad blood pressure. Once off I will see how my mental illness is and if I need more. Now I've never done this before so I'm a little nervous about how I should get off, do I wean or quit cold turkey. What symptoms should I expect and how do I deal with them?

Well, I finally got my 17 yr old to go to rehab. They wouldn't take him inpatient, I tried almost 2 mths ago. He isn't "physically addicted" to any one drug, like heroin or meth. He does just about anything & everything else to get a high. This includes alcohol, pot, cocaine (history of, don't know if still does it), salvia, lsd, shrooms, skittles, & kids' prescriptions at school of things like Xanax & Percoset! He scared himself (& me) the other night when he came home high on Xanax & it took 2 days to get over it. He's not sure how much he took but he actually snorted at least one capsule!! It was the 1st time I saw him high. He had always waited til he knew for sure I was in bed to come home. Oftentimes hiding in the basement or at "friends" places, & at least once he was passed out on the lawn but was woken before I woke up. The kid takes advantage of my deep sleep. :-{ Anyhow, he lost his job a few weeks ago & then he confessed the prescription drug abuse to me so I said "this is the time to start rehab then! No excuses!" & he agreed. So I'll be taking him to outpatient rehab 3x/wk for 6 wks, it's a 2 hour rehab group & I have to miss one hour of work each time b/c it's 45 minutes away! Thank God my boss & co-workers are so supportive! And thank God gas is down $, let's hope it stays that way! I sooooo hope my son makes this work. He wants to quit, he just is sooo addicted to the high! I really think there's mental illness involved as well, b/c I've been trying to get him help since he was 10 but the mental health field is so difficult to find help when they can't even see through a kid's charm & deceptions! It's so frustrating. On his dad's dad's side of the family every single person has a mental illness! My son does have anxiety & ocd issues, he does take a medication for it that helps a bit. So my son may be self-medicating w/ the substance abuse. After this is all resolved then we can figure out the mental issues. I know I'm rambling but it's late & I wanted to post. Thanks everyone soooo much!

I wrote Joey a letter a few minutes ago. My mom said he is going to be in lockup for 30days, so I wrote to tell him I was going to pick up his clothes tomorrow. I also told him he had better see an Addiction Specalist & a Psychiatrist cuz noone keeeps doing this to themself over & over if there is not underlying Mental Illness. I had been told by a child psychologist I brought Joey to when he was 10yrs old that he had poor impulse control When he was in 1st grade the teacher told me he was hyperactive.
He is now 42 & this in & out of jail bs has been going on for 10years.
I pray it doesn't take him until he is 58 to get clean & sober, like it took my ex husband.

Well, my AS has been out of my house for 2 weeks and today we had a court date. We found out that he will be serving jail time for violating his probation. I knew that it was probably going to happen. But it was another thing to listen to it officially. They will give him release time for school and work, so he thinks it's going to be a piece of cake. He came home whistling "Folsum prison!" Of course I know he's scared underneath and showing bravado on top, but it angered me so much. I called him an idiot and left. He will be in jail over Thanksgiving for sure and possibly Christmas. We will find out on November 3rd when he goes to jail.

I am sad that it has come to this, but I know he needs to face the consequences of his actions. Maybe this will be a wake up call for him; maybe not. I really have no influence on him. I guess what added insult to injury was that he was trying to joke about it. He's 18 and he knows everything.

I had a good cry and then a nap, went for coffee with a friend. I know that I can't be around him. He twists, lies and contorts all truths. He is an addict and he will do anything he can to stay high or drunk, whichever is convenient. I just feel sad though. Not so much about the jail time, but about the total denial and the obvious mental illness that is apparent in his life.

I do feel hopeless tonight. My son is lost, and he doesn't even know it. Or at least won't admit it.

krhea

My addicted niece's hearing was today

For those new to my situation - Meth addicted niece convicted of first and second degree narcotics possesison - got probabtion, a little time at the workhouse, treatment and therapy, then went back to using and selling - just recently got caught again.

The judge said it was a borderline call and when it's borderline he gives the benefit of the doubt - so instead of the 11 years in prison that is hanging over her head, she got 7 months in the workhouse, plus more treatment, therapy, etc. The judge said that if she violates probation again, he will send her to prison.

The good news is - I have 7 months of not worrying about anything - not worrying about where she'll sleep, what she'll eat, if she'll die in the snow or if she'll come over and create drama. I get a chance to see what living a relatively normal life might be like.

I don't know if she'll pull it off, but if she violates probation, that's just more time of rest for me. May sound harsh - I love her a lot, but not like she has been. I'm glad she's off the streets - she has seemed psychotic to me and in the workhouse she'll get evaluated for mental illness.

I now realize that I was never in charge of any of this and it feels good to let go.

If any have prayers to spare, I'd appreciate one or two for her - that she finally gets a clue.

thanks all for the support while going through this.