We Had to Have Our Son Committed Posted: 02-23-07 08:03am
We recently had our son committed to a
mental health facility because he was had
three episodes of serious psychosis. In
the final episode he said it was his
purpose to kill my husband along with 2
other men whom he believed was married to
his fiance. He has not yet been given a
diagnosis and everything I read tends to
lead to schizophrenia. But I am not a
psychiatrist so I don't know. What I'm
wondering is if it could be brought on by
drug use, or going off drugs completely
without proper detox. He was using pot for
at least nine years and in the last three
using oxycotin with it. Then recently he
added vicadin, percoset, and cocaine to
his cocktail. three weeks before he
experienced psychosis he went cold turkey
on all of it and started attending AA, Na
meetings. He has been at the institution
for 12 days now and just yesturday sounded
completely normal, of course this is on
medication. Before he went off drugs he
was experiencing alot of paranoia, people
not liking him, talking about him, out to
get him for no logical reason. Until
yesturday he had thought that the entire
family had conspired against him to put
him there. He presently is in complete
denial of what is going on, denies the
psychotic episodes totally, and we are
presently working on a court order to have
him take medication outside of the
facility. Is this common among drug users
that get clean at first or is there
something bigger going on here? Any
information would be appreciated.
Teri
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Stan
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Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1653 Location: ,
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Posted: 02-23-07 11:29am
Drug-induced psychosis, especially with
some of the things you mentioned there, is
fairly common, I've seen it a number of
times. Usually schizophrenics who are
drug-induced are the hardest to treat.
However, this may simply be a case of
quitting cold turkey, as you suggest.
Unfortunately, you won't be able to tell
for awhile.
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Birch
Supporter
Joined: 07 Nov 2005 Posts: 3943 Location: Bliss,
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Posted: 02-23-07 13:53pm
Docs usually like to have six months of
substance free time to determine what is
really going on with a pt.
It will be a long time before anyone can
really determine what is going on.
I would contact your local chapter of
.N.A.M.I-the nat'l association for the
mentally ill-and get a support system in
place. It is a rough haul.
