Do you know someone crazy? Like really crazy?

[mphillip]

I work in the mental health and it is a very lengthy process to get somebody truly "Commited" by the state to inpatient treatment. Your father has to prove himself to be a danger to himself or others,from that point they get put on what is called a "hospital hold" this requires 2 doctors to sighn off on a legal document saying that your father is a danger to himself or others,from there they send him to inpatient care to get evaluated this can last anywhere between 3-7 days the doctors will try differnt medications and counseling,after his hospital hold is up a couple things can happen
1. Doctors find the correct meds and send said persons home with medications and out patient treatment
2.Doctors determine that said patient needs to stay longer and places another hold on person
3.they send patient to halfway house (not the nicest of term i know) were they are allowed in the community but must stay at the house and monitered to make sure they are takeing there meds
4.Doctors determine that patient needs to institionalized,from there they must get patient a lawyer and set a court date to meet with a judge. If you have questions dont be afraid to ask i have been working inpatient mental health for coming up on 10 years now and have some very strong opions on treatment and other things.

 

[PBinWA]

ClearConscience, I am no expert on this subject, but perhaps I can share a couple of things that I have been slowly learning the hard way. First and most important is that you may not be able to fix things, you may be able to help, or there might be nothing you can do to help your father no matter how hard you try. It's always a crapshoot. All reason and logic can fail. The Doctors and system can fail. The best you can do is to take care of yourself first. If you are effected and are in an unhealthy place you will be of no help to anyone. If your father becomes a danger to himself or others you will have hard decisions to make. It is a tough row to hoe and it would be easy if there were magic wands to wave. I would seek help from a therapist, friends and family. Therapists may be able to give you some insight and advise on how to best deal with your situation and can work with you to better help your father. Therapy is what I am just starting as I too need help dealing with a loved one. I am not a preachy therapy guy and never thought I would be there, but I found that I am lacking the tools to deal with someone, who I love, that is ill. It's a long road. If you try and persevere to the best of your abilities you will have some comfort. Stay healthy, best wishes and keep hoping for the best.

Another +1 on this advice. Protect yourself and do what you can but at some point you may just have to let him be crazy.

If he's bent on going all over the world then maybe I could hook him up with my Mom. She's not clinically crazy but she is driving me there.

 

[phathom]

Just a different point of view, playing devil's advocate here. But with all the undercover government work he did. He probably saw and learned about a lot of stuff most people will never know about for a reason.

I think it's possible he could have found stuff out and is now scared as heck from a potential threat. Or that he could have found out about something he wasn't supposed to and then the government induced some kind of really traumatic experience to scare the bajezus out of him and that has scarred him and made him paranoid thinking it can happen again, and now in this case it is manifesting itself as aliens.

Just saying, we don't know what he experienced or how it's being interpreted. To every bit of paranoia, lies, psychosis, etc, there is always some grain of truth in which it all started and then due to their inability to cope with it or deal with it rationally it, all spiraled out of control from that.

 

[clearconscience]

I think that may have a little to do with it, but probably not that cloak and dagger.
From what I've learned from family, reading books, and people who I've met that worked for the same agency, your forced into a world of secrets. They make you take lie detector tests every few months to make sure your keeping your mouth shut. From what I know he didn't do anything to heavy, but having to live a life of secrecy, being alone, and being in a privileged job I think he gained a sense of higher self being. By that I mean he used to knowing (perceived) more than others, as he retired he was able to talk, and as they declassified his job he could say more and more. I think most of what he knows about the agency he learned like everyone else, conspiracy theories, books, and the internet.
He started out learning about homepathic medicines, natural living, reading into drug company's making big bucks for bad meds, sythetic meds (insulin), then kept growing out from there.
Naturl healing, he was buying stupid machines online that would "cure" his diabetes or cleanse your body. He started using dousing rods.
He joined a non-denominational church where he met other people looking for answers you can't find. And started going down hill. The lady he lives with was someone who believes her great great grandfather was a healer, like a medicine man, and she believed she could read your ancient records, like your past lives. and that's how they hooked up.

I could go on and on, but it started small. Then from these events just went out of control to where he's at now.
I don't think he would do anything to intentionally hurt himself or others. But him "running from aliens" or whoever in the middle of the night, no sleep, makes for a bad combination.

 

[longcolt]

I work in the mental health and it is a very lengthy process to get somebody truly "Committed" by the state to inpatient treatment. Your father has to prove himself to be a danger to himself or others,from that point they get put on what is called a "hospital hold" this requires 2 doctors to sign off on a legal document saying that your father is a danger to himself or others,from there they send him to inpatient care to get evaluated this can last anywhere between 3-7 days the doctors will try different medications and counseling,after his hospital hold is up a couple things can happen
1. Doctors find the correct meds and send said persons home with medications and out patient treatment
2.Doctors determine that said patient needs to stay longer and places another hold on person
3.they send patient to halfway house (not the nicest of term i know) were they are allowed in the community but must stay at the house and monitored to make sure they are taking their meds
4.Doctors determine that patient needs to institutionalized,from there they must get patient a lawyer and set a court date to meet with a judge. If you have questions don't be afraid to ask i have been working inpatient mental health for coming up on 10 years now and have some very strong opinions on treatment and other things.

Kudos to you for working in the field of mental health to help people. You must have infinite patience to do that job.

My experience with the drill to get assistance for mentally ill folks has not been good. Once a person is over 18 the family cannot get any assistance for a family member unless they agree to see a mental health professional or be committed. But they never think that they are sick when they are delusional so as you say until they progress to the level of hurting themselves or others they cannot be helped.

Then the cycle begins: Once committed, put on med, into the halfway home and then back on the street. Once on their own they are cured in their own minds and the cycle repeats.

Its my personal opinion that the system is broken. Individual rights for mentally ill folks have trumped Common Sense and its a danger to us all.
Many of the shooters that march into schools and blast away with firearms are told to do so by the voices in their heads! Scary that they are allowed to walk among us.

I long for the days where we could keep these folks tied to the mental health system so they would be required to take their meds and monitered to do so. Left to their own devices they will not take care of themselves and the streets are full of them, living under our bridges and sleeping in doorways. I find it very sad and would like to see some of the money that we spend on saving the whales and the abused animals sent to help these humans.

 

[mphillip]

sad to say 50% of our patients are repeat patients who once let back into the community stop takeing meds and repeat the cycle,another problems is our state is so strapped for cash and commiting somebody is very expensive,the place i work at used to take just about anybody,but since the economy went to **** we wont take anybody unless they have insurance or the state or county agrees to pay for the treatment,now a days it seems like we spend half our time dealing with people whose daddy didnt hug them enough when they were a child instaed of helping people who truly need treatment.

 

[clearconscience]

So I'm assuming I'm basically on my own until someone bad happens.
I am just going to try and keep doing what I'm doing until I move out of state, then I won't be able to give him a place to stay, but I will stay in contact with him and just stay with the communication. I really don't think he will snap out of it, and sooner or later he will cause his own health to down fall and he will end up letting his diabetes get the best of him.

Thank you all for you information, support, and even your jokes. They help.

 

[turq]

Maybe you could interview some Docs til you find a good one that will have a sane plan to analyze the chemical imbalance and get into his trust circle.
Sorry to hear this, we need better health care that is open to patients more than profits.

 

[Ballistic]

Do not trust the GF. I will bet anything that she is not crazy. She is getting a free ride and maybe waiting to scam off more money and possessions. People with schizophrenia do not get together and share psychotic delusions. Watch out for this one. See if you can get Power of Attorney for your father's finances and make sure the GF doesn't!

 

[pdxjohann]

Be well, ClearC. You're the best one to do what you can for dad. Keep well so that you will be able too help for as long as possible. My prayers and others here too are with you.