DH and I had to face the heartwrenching task last night of comitting our 9 yr old son to an inpatient child/adolescent mental health unit at a hospital here. In general, he's ADHD and has anxiety disorder but is a super sweet and loving child who just worrys a bit too much and has a short attention span - a delightful kid overall (even if I do say so myself)
Last night he confessed to me that, starting on Saturday evening, he has been hearing a 'demon' in his head telling him to do horrible things to people (like kill them, cut their legs off, etc) and nightmares to go with it. He was SO frightened - it breaks my heart that he lived with this for a few days before finally telling me about it. The good part is that at least he said that he knew the voice was not a real person and could not really follow through on the threats he was hearing, nor make him really do anything, so he hasn't lost touch with reality, but the bad news is that many times these 'voices' can get worse and worse until the person affected can't control their responses as well anymore (worst case..)
Needless to say, this was a terribly frightening experience for us to - we are so worried about him and what this means for him. The worst thing is we are not allowed to stay with him at the hospital, so we can only visit and phone calls in the evening.
The Dr is optimistic that he will be fine and will get to come home after a short stay. I am so praying that we can find a cause for this episode and a fix or good coping/medication to help him if it is a more long term thing.
For those of you who do, please say a prayer for Jacob - to give him strength to do what he needs to do to beat this thing and get home soon!
He's so sweet - I suppose that most of the kids on that unit are there for having actually acted out in some hostile way or some other serious mental disorder - the staff just keeps talking about what a great kid he is and how sweet and how they want to get him home ASAP. The lady who did intake last night told me that the mental health person at the local ER where we went first was literally crying over the phone to her about our son and what a great kid he was and how sad she was for him with what was going on.
Anyway - thanks for the kind thought in advance! Anyone have any similar experience with a young child like this? I'm looking for any words of encouragement or 'been there, done that'
Oh, and I do have to say that it seemed like a good sign that when we were admitted to the hospital, the RN doing the paperwork asked how he got a scratch on his leg. He told her it was from helping me build a run for our chickens. She said they had a flock of 40 chickens in their urban backyard and so we had to talk chickens briefly at 3am in the middle of all the other craziness.
Susan
Last night he confessed to me that, starting on Saturday evening, he has been hearing a 'demon' in his head telling him to do horrible things to people (like kill them, cut their legs off, etc) and nightmares to go with it. He was SO frightened - it breaks my heart that he lived with this for a few days before finally telling me about it. The good part is that at least he said that he knew the voice was not a real person and could not really follow through on the threats he was hearing, nor make him really do anything, so he hasn't lost touch with reality, but the bad news is that many times these 'voices' can get worse and worse until the person affected can't control their responses as well anymore (worst case..)
Needless to say, this was a terribly frightening experience for us to - we are so worried about him and what this means for him. The worst thing is we are not allowed to stay with him at the hospital, so we can only visit and phone calls in the evening.
The Dr is optimistic that he will be fine and will get to come home after a short stay. I am so praying that we can find a cause for this episode and a fix or good coping/medication to help him if it is a more long term thing.
For those of you who do, please say a prayer for Jacob - to give him strength to do what he needs to do to beat this thing and get home soon!
He's so sweet - I suppose that most of the kids on that unit are there for having actually acted out in some hostile way or some other serious mental disorder - the staff just keeps talking about what a great kid he is and how sweet and how they want to get him home ASAP. The lady who did intake last night told me that the mental health person at the local ER where we went first was literally crying over the phone to her about our son and what a great kid he was and how sad she was for him with what was going on.
Anyway - thanks for the kind thought in advance! Anyone have any similar experience with a young child like this? I'm looking for any words of encouragement or 'been there, done that'
Oh, and I do have to say that it seemed like a good sign that when we were admitted to the hospital, the RN doing the paperwork asked how he got a scratch on his leg. He told her it was from helping me build a run for our chickens. She said they had a flock of 40 chickens in their urban backyard and so we had to talk chickens briefly at 3am in the middle of all the other craziness.
Susan
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