{"id":18192,"date":"2012-12-16T12:39:53","date_gmt":"2012-12-16T17:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=18192"},"modified":"2013-05-06T16:55:12","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T21:55:12","slug":"the-domestic-terror-i-live-with-a-son-who-is-mentally-ill-i-love-my-son-but-he-terrifies-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/12\/16\/the-domestic-terror-i-live-with-a-son-who-is-mentally-ill-i-love-my-son-but-he-terrifies-me\/","title":{"rendered":"The domestic terror: “I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anarchist Soccer Mom<\/em><\/a> has a story to tell. It’s neither pleasant nor uplifting, but it needs to be told:<\/p>\n

I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His 7 and 9 year old siblings knew the safety plan \u2014 they ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to kill or hurt me.<\/p>\n

That conflict ended with three burly police officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental hospital didn\u2019t have any beds that day, and Michael calmed down nicely in the ER, so they sent us home with a prescription for Zyprexa and a follow-up visit with a local pediatric psychiatrist.<\/p>\n

We still don\u2019t know what\u2019s wrong with Michael. Autism spectrum, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant or Intermittent Explosive Disorder have all been tossed around at various meetings with probation officers and social workers and counselors and teachers and school administrators. He\u2019s been on a slew of antipsychotic and mood altering pharmaceuticals, a Russian novel of behavioral plans. Nothing seems to work. <\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

When I asked my son\u2019s social worker about my options, he said that the only thing I could do was to get Michael charged with a crime. \u201cIf he\u2019s back in the system, they\u2019ll create a paper trail,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the only way you\u2019re ever going to get anything done. No one will pay attention to you unless you\u2019ve got charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

No one wants to send a 13-year old genius who loves Harry Potter and his snuggle animal collection to jail. But our society, with its stigma on mental illness and its broken healthcare system, does not provide us with other options. Then another tortured soul shoots up a fast food restaurant. A mall. A kindergarten classroom. And we wring our hands and say, \u201cSomething must be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

I agree that something must be done. It\u2019s time for a meaningful, nation-wide conversation about mental health. That\u2019s the only way our nation can ever truly heal.<\/p>\n

God help me. God help Michael. God help us all. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

H\/T to Drew M.<\/a> for the link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anarchist Soccer Mom has a story to tell. It’s neither pleasant nor uplifting, but it needs to be told: I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me. A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,13],"tags":[482,374,343,906,139],"class_list":["post-18192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-science","category-usa","tag-autism","tag-children","tag-crimeandpunishment","tag-mentalhealth","tag-psychology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-4Jq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18192"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20140,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18192\/revisions\/20140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}