On August 16, 2020, my 24 year old son went into psychosis again. He'd been stable for 2+ years so this a real blow. We had high hopes he could get a job, an apartment of his own, maybe take some college classes. Now we're back to square one.
The way he presents in schizoaffective disorder is with paranoia, outburst of laughter, highs and lows, irritability, both visual and auditory hallucinations and then when the phychosis peaks he attacks both his environment and the people around him in anger.
For 2 weeks he had been psychotic but happy and safe around us. Then the voices became too much for him and he started cutting himself. We felt we needed to hospitalize him to keep him safe. Before anything could be done, he hit his brother twice in the neck.
The 3 mental hospitals in town were full. We started calling around trying to find out what to do. We knew, by this time, he was a danger to himself and others. He has a theme when the voices are angry. He always talks about sex. He screams that he's not a pedophile or that he's being raped. He'll scream to get off of him and stop raping him. This time a neighbor called the police. 3 officers confirmed that he was safe and not being hurt by me (I was the only one with him at the time).
He continued to reek havok in his environment. He tore a door off the hinges, turned plants upside down, broke 6 plates and multiple vases. He hit holes in his bedroom wall and destroyed his laptop computer. He told his dad to stop looking at his butt. Before his dad could react, he'd hit his dad in the eye.
It was a dangerous ride but my husband drove our son to the nearest ER. It was 3 days before a bed opened in a mental hospital. He stayed in the ER during this time. Once at the mental hospital, they increased his medicine and added one more. They discharged after 10 days.
Its now one week after discharge and he's still psychotic, hearing voices, yelling at the voices, laughing randomly. He stays in his room and doesn't eat much.
This is caregiving severe mental illness. There is little to no help.
