Admitting a Child to Inpatient Psychiatric Treatment: A Parent's Perspective

Well here is our story, My son Hunter is adopted, both parents did methamphetamines, Mom did them up to the day he was born just so she could have him on the same day as his older sister that she didn't have custody of. I was present the day he was born, ecstatic, to be a grandmother again and then the phone call came from CPS that she had tested positive and would me and my husband take him. With no warning at all we had to go to the hospital and start staying with a newborn because she was discharged 3 days later from the hospital and was to stay away from him so she wouldn't bond with him. Myself and my husband took turns staying with him at the hospital because he would only sleep for an hour at a time and you would spend most of the time trying to get him to take 1 oz of formula. At age 3 the tantrums started to become uncontrollable and we ask the doctor to test him for ADHD since his daddy (my son) had it to no avail. We were told that a child that young could not show signs of ADHD. So we changed Pediatricians to one that would listen to us. We had him evaluated and sure enough by age 4 he was diagnosed. but the pediatrician would not prescribe any medication for it. We had to wait till he was 5 years old and take him to a psychiatrist. Once we saw the psychiatrist she also diagnosed him with ODD and DMDD and by the time he is 7 now I seem to be the target of his anger. Any time anyone makes him mad or upset he takes it out on me. His other biological grandmother who we call the (Disney Grandma) because she buys him everything and he doesn't act bad around, tells me that "I am the adult and I should not be letting him hit me or abuse me". She just doesn't get it because she doesn't live it everyday of her life. I just wish i could give her a clue. We got a second opinion and he suggested having him committed in a behavioral hospital for a while so they can detox him of his medication, watch his behaviors, watch his eating habits, anger triggers and adjust his medication but we are afraid of the horror stories we have heard where they have kept people's children once they have gone in and not let them go because they had insurance. Told the parents they have no Rights. Take in mind we live in Texas. Any advice would be helpful;

I have an 8 year old brother who is really out of control and I’m just scared to stay in the house with him. He constantly gets mad about everything and when he gets mad it’s not a pretty site. When he gets mad he decides he wanna try to jump out the window to “ kill himself “ or he decides he wants to unlock the door and go run out in the street while cars are driving. It’s really scary knowing that he try’s to take his own life because he’s mad over something so small. When we go out in public he throws a bad temper tantrum! And then while we’re driving he would try to choke or hit my father which causes him to loose concentration on driving. It’s getting to the point where we can’t even take him out in public! Yes he takes medicine but honestly the medicine does nothing! He acts the same way with or without his medicine. When he goes to school he hits the teachers and kids which causes his classmates to be scared of him. He broke TWO of his teachers phones. He ran out the school building and almost got hit by a car. Luckily a someone found him and brought him back safe to the school. He’s been to 4 different schools because of his behavior. Also when he gets upset he likes to take his anger out on me and my other two little sisters. He hit us with big items, scratches us, kicks us and constantly hits us with his hard toys. He makes threats that he will kill us and I’m starting to believe him. I’m tired of dealing with this! And this not even half of things he does it’s so much more but this isn’t normal. What should I do?? PLEASE HELP🥺!

My son is 6 and we ate trying everything for his behaviors, psych doc, has his own therapist, a worker that works w the whole family. Hes constantly angry, frustrated, wont stop until he gets what he wants. We try everything from saying things like "too bad, I'm sorry, maybe next time..." simple messages and then theres the phrase out part. Its def hard on me cause I have 3 incurable illnesses and one I know I'm gonna die from, just no one knows when. Please help.

Sounds like all your kids who are threatening you and assaulting you are possessed by the enemy and need a good cleansing by a priest or shaman, not a psychiatric ward!

Well what happened when you sent bob in the hospital. we have been going through hell.

Your not the problem his pain is he just needs something to blame it on he thinks you think he’s ill but he’s just in pain and doesn’t want help because he thinks there gonna judge him the best you can do is ask him what he wants not what you want.

I have a brother (12) who is out of control. Been going on for years but lately it’s REALLY bad. Breaking every door in the house, hitting siblings breaking mirror to my moms car, hitting my mom, etc. Once he gets anger he cares about NOTHING and NO ONE. I watch my mom cry for hours and hours she’s losing herself and the main problem is my brother. Shes DRAINED i don’t want him to take my mom away from the rest of us (5 kids) stress kills. My mom has tried some local places but no luck with them. i desperately need some help.

I also need help. 3 years ago I took in my nieces 3 girls, they are now 16,8 and 6, when my niece passed away from drug overdose. The two younger girls are fine but the 16 yr old has been through so much. She was beaten, starved, and molested by every boyfriend her mother had, including her own father. Now that I have her adoption been finalized it has become a nightmare.
I lost my job last year (and truck and home) due to her "passing out" 20 plus times a day and having to place her in a wheelchair for her safety. After having her baker acted after 3 months of this, I was told it was behavioral and she never had an episode or used the wheelchair again. She then began cutting, baker acted again. Told my son she drank antifreeze, baker acted again! One night she pushed her little sister down the stairs and because she wouldn't stop crying she hit her with a hammer breaking her arm but telling me the dog knocked her down the stairs. At the hospital the little sister told the truth about what happen. Authorities were contacted and she was arrested for battery and placed on probation. She has been kicked out of 3 schools in 2 years. Last school was she brought a knife to school and claimed someone stabbed her in the stomach in the hallway, she stabbed herself in the bathroom. Now her current situation is seizures. She has had 7 in the past 3 weeks. Always at school or on the bus, never at home. Nothing medically can be found wrong with her. Baker acted twice in last 3 weeks. I am at the point that I cannot have her home with the 2 younger sisters for their safety.
She has a doctor, psychiatrist monthly, therapist 2 times a week, targeted case manager, and counselors at school who are more then willing to help her and every one say the same thing, she needs placement in a facility asap. However there isn't an opening until end of October. Any suggestions of what to do with her? I am over it and scared she will hurt the littles.

Hello, We are in a serious situation. Our daughter is now 15 and we have been dealing with false realities, threats, multiple personalities, etc. for over 5 years now. We have 4 other children in the home. She has even gone as far as sucking the blood out of cold sores in her mouth to make it look like she was vomiting blood up. I mean handfuls of blood, enough that the doctors thought it would be impossible for that much blood to be coming from those sore. They even saw them and dismissed the sores altogether. I spent over a month between 2 hospitals before we figured out that she was faking it. She is in a facility right now, but we can not bring her home! Before she left she gave graphic detail about choking her sister so tight that she could feel the breathe leave her body. That she wanted to take my cockatoos head and smash it against the cage and fell its skull pop. That voices are telling her to hurt and kill us. My husband has cancer and is on the verge of a heart attack, literally. He is on 2 blood pressure meds and a heart attack med. And I had a nervous breakdown when I found out that I had to be involved in family sessions with her every weekend at the 2-month facility. Our first session she shared with me that she wants us to respect that she wants to worship spiritism, cast spells, and spirit healing with the third eye. We are Christians. Not only are her threats of harm to our family hazardous but this took it over the top. I can't take care of my other kids like this. We are on a fixed income because of my husband's disability and cannot afford these fancy residential facilities. And at this point, I need her to get treatment on her own for a little while so I can focus on getting the rest of my family back to normal and getting all of their emotions worked out. I don't know what to do or where we can send her. I am willing to send her out of state if needed at this point. I have been searching for weeks online and I am lost. If anyone has any suggestions or can help in any way, please let me know. I am absolutely NO good to my family in the state of mind I am in now.

My husband and I are at our wits end, I have an 11 almost 12 year old step daughter who is much like all the other children I read here. A little background, it took us 5 years to get custody as the courts here in VA don't seem to want to take custody away from the mother no matter how much abuse and neglect she inflicts on her child. My step daughter has been starved, beaten, medically neglected and even almost drowned by the hands of her mom. We have had custody for almost 3 years now but are now dealing with the aftermath of her mom's abuse (of which my step daughter still wants to live with). My step daughter is explosive, angry ALL the time, yells, screams, destroys personal property, she kicks, bites, hits, punches, throws things or kicks objects. I currently have 4 bruises on my legs from where she has kicked punched or thrown things at me. She has a history or cutting and hearing voices telling her to kill me, crack my skull open and watch me lay and bleed in my own pool of blood till I die. We have had her in 2 behavioral health hospitals 4 different times in the last year and a half when this all began. Her mom has supervised visits for 1 hour on Saturdays, that evening and even into the next 2 days she is uncontrollable. She has been on more medications than I can remember, she was originally diagnosed with mood deregulation disorder, ODD, ADD, she is on the Autistic Spectrum, she was diagnosed with extra chromosomes that the doctors have never seen before and can't tell us what to expect other than she is mentally behind by 5-6 years. She was kicked out of school for 3 weeks as she threaten to stab herself with a pencil as she didn't want to take the school benchmark test. She now goes to school half day because the school can't handle her, a tutor comes to our home for 2 and a half hours a week. We spent 25 hours in our local ER here this last weekend to only be discharged because they couldn't find a bed anywhere within a 2 hour drive from us in any direction.. I am tired of being her punching bag. I have become depressed and have now had to go on medication. I already suffer from PTSD as my father was abusive in every way possible. I don't know how much more I can take.

I need help I have a 7 year old that has ADHD and behavioral problems he's threatening he's hitting he's trying to throw herself out of the bus window and everyday gets worse and worse like you said Psychiatry doesn't help the therapy not the psychiatry I need help with him before it gets any worse can you please contact me at 239 785-4726

I am 14 years old and my brother is getting worse everyday. It started out as little tantrums and yelling but now it’s throwing furniture, hitting and kicking the wall, and sometimes hitting others. He is only 11 years old and he has been diagnosed with ADHD. My mom has been dealing with his behavioral issues for 5 years now and it’s only getting worse. He says he wants to kill himself sometimes or just says he hates everyone. It is affecting everyone in our household. My mom doesn’t deserve this and she can’t bring herself to do anything about it. When he gets mad, it’s over little things and then blows out of proportion. It can last from a couple of minutes to hours to days. In the end he always apologizes but I don’t think he does because he turns around and does the same thing he just apologized for. I just don’t want him to hurt us or worse himself.

I fewl hopeless I am in the middle of waiting for my sons dr appt to diagnose him with OCD he has anger issues and he screams hits and acts out of control he is only 5 but had been showing symptoms of ocd since he was a year and a half he has trouble in school he fights me every morning I have to practically drag him out of the car to get him to go sometimes I dont know what to do but cry its so hard dealing with this he just does not listen to me at all they are already wanting him to be held back and he says he hates his teacher i feel out of options

Hello All...I have 2 nine year old twin girls diagnosed with ASD/ADHD and Bipolar...their school has been aware of these disorders but recently their school absences have accumulated to the point where the school needed a doctor excuse from their pyschiatrist stating their disorders make it difficult at times to attend school and when one is sick the other will not attend alone. They got the doctor excuse bug now are adking for their medical records go be faxed go the school counselor...is this illegal and can information be used to kick them out of school?...They are perfectly behaved students and at home have not been a harm to themselves of others..when meds need adjusting the mania is mainly loud hyper behaviour nothing dangerous..they never exhibit any if this behaviour in school and I think the school is almost disbelieving of their diagnoses...nevertheless the school now seems nervous? Please help any advice?

How do you know when it’s time for inpatient treatment for your 8 year old son with anxiety, OCD, depression, executive function disorder and possible ADHD with language based learning disability his rages and anger are getting worse and taking a toll on our whole family. I’m torn.

I know this was published a few years ago but finding others in this position helps. My five year old was just admitted to an acute psychiatric facility. It had to have been the worst day of my life. He kept talking about killing animals and other people and I had no choice. We think his dad has most of the fault for what he’s saying because of things he’s said in the past. All I know is I feel like a horrible mother who should have paid more attention or done more.

Hi I'm am 14 but my little brother is Vinelent and beets up on are mom and little sister and if he doesn't get his way he screems and beets up on me and my mom and little sister he's 7 but his Vinelent

I’m also having issues with my 12 year old son. He’s acting out at school, there’s not a day I don’t get a phone call or email from a teacher or administrator. He’s been suspended countless times this year. Mental health is not helping us at all and they say they don’t have resources to help. We go to the dr there for 15 minuets a month and they want me to diagnose my son. I often am afraid to even say anything at these meetings because I don’t want them to take what I say and twist it. That have changed his diagnosis and medication countless times within the last six months. He does act out at home and I have an older daughter and a younger daughter and I am definitely afraid of him around the youngest because he can be very absive to her. I’m at the end of my rope. I have even contacted the pediatrician her recommendation was to take him to a children’s hospital. They don’t take my insurance and won’t let me pay in cash, they said it would void his regular health insurance. He needs to have some Nero Physh testing done but there is a 9 month wait. At times he is Suicidal and self harming. Anyone have any ideas?

Hello All. I have a 7 year old that was hospitalized back in May for psychosis. Dropping him off and leaving him there was excruciating so I understand how difficult having a mentally ill child is. But unlike most of the posts I'm reading here, my son doesn't have anger, rage, or defiance issues. My son is a paranoid schizophrenic. He has hallucinations at school (in 1st grade) that terrify the school staff. He is also autistic and has ADHD and GAD, so when he hallucinates, he draws attention to himself and makes him even more of a target for bullies and mean kids. He feels his "spirits" shooting him and he sees blood running out of his chest. He drops to the floor because he feels as though he is being tasered (one of his special interests is being a police officer). He won't go anywhere by himself, even in our own home during the day. Never...He believes he is being watched, that Hitler is going to kill him in his sleep, and that even the kids at school who are nice to him are out to get him and laugh at him (not true). Yesterday, he heard voices whispering, "I'm going to kill you!" He hears command voices telling him to hurt himself or kill me. School is very difficult for him and right now he only attends half days and has a full time aid. He cries all the time, often for no apparent reason. I feel that this is just the beginning of a very tough road. I live in a place far from friends and family. Every so often, I will meet someone with a child my son's age and we will agree to get them together to play. But shortly after, they disappear and once again, I am alone. The really sad thing is that even in the midst of his disorder, my son wants friends so badly it has become an obsession for him but as of now, he doesn't have any friends. We have gone almost the entire school year without a single birthday party invitation. When he had his party, we handed out 16 party invitations and only one child came. Her mom was the room mom and I guess she didn't get the memo..
What I wish for my son is that he can get to a place of self-confidence. I would love for him to have a real friend and be a happy little boy. I don't want him to be afraid all the time. I hope that one day he will be able to navigate his world with success. He is my only child and I just want to see him grow up into a happy, productive adult. Right now, thinking this far ahead is depressing. I worry about who will be around to take care of him (and love him) after his father and I are gone. He will be all alone and at the mercy of a terribly stigmatizing illness. Even his doctors cannot give me hope for a successful future for him.

I have a 15 year old boy who has run away, took drugs, been in trouble with the law, suspended and expelled from school (he is now in his 4th highschool). He was also in the care of Children's Aid because he kept running away and I could not take it any longer and I have other children younger than him to take care of so I signed him over to Children's Aid for a couple months. Before he was signed over to Children's Aid, I had to call the police on him because he was out of hand(intoxicated with cocaine and possibly other drugs) and a danger to himself and possibly me and his siblings. The police took him into emerg where he was tested for drugs and assessed briefly. He was released within hours and I later found out that cocaine was found in his system. I struggled to obtain information about him regarding his stay at the hospital because they said I was not with him when he was admitted and there was a patient confidentiality rule that they had to follow and the only way i could get the information was by his consent. I later on received a copy of his record because he agreed that it was okay for me to see it. Anyhow, I struggled for months trying to get him properly assessed but because he refused any type of assessment one could not be done. He either had to give his consent in writing in some cases or agree verbally. He obtained a total of approximately 7 charges within 9 months (with the first charge starting in November of 2016). One day when he took off again, he picked up another charge where I had to bail him out the next day (so he spent the night in jail). I went to court and pleaded for them to place a condition on his bail that he get an assessment. When I got the assessment done, I got the results and it said he had "A LEARNING PROBLEM. HIS SYMPTOMS ARE CONSISTENT WITH A LEARNING DISORDER AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE; HOWEVER, THERE IS A STRONG POSSIBILITY OF UNDERLYING ADHD AND CONDUCT DISORDER". Does this mean that this is his diagnosis, that he has ADHD and CONDUCT DISORDER? The psychiatrist offered him an adolescent psychiatric program for further assessment, but he refused to participate in the program. My question is, was that the diagnosis (ADHD AND CONDUCT DISORDER) and was the doctor just sending my son for treatment for these mental illnesses? I thought the psychiatrist was unsure of the illness, therefore he wanted to get a second opinion. However, my family doctor informed me that that was the diagnosis and my son did in fact have ADHD AND CONDUCT DISORDER. Please share your thoughts. I really need some advice on what to do in order get my son treated. As well, recently he has been defecating on the school washroom floors about almost everyday for over a month and he denied it adamantly. He has also urinated in the past on the school washroom floor and in someone's home in the vents. He has also stolen from me and others and denies it. Sometimes he seems fine and other times he is irritable, blaming, wants to give up (depressed about everything), selfish, dependent on me, disorganized, messy, throws tantrums, daydreaming and doesn't seem remorseful or doesn't take responsibility for his actions... Many times I have to do things as little as making sure he has his key for home. Most times he leaves the door open when he leaves, even though he has his keys and he loses his items a lot.
What do I do. This has been the most stressful year ever. Please help!

My son is 8 years old and has been diagnosed with ODD. He is very angry and will throw his books on the ground and when I try to speak to him over the phone he won't talk. He's on Intuniv, but it doesn't seem to be working as he continues to throw this fits of rage. I'm a single mom and am nearing the end of my rope. He's on an IEP at school for his behavior and dysgraphia and dyslexia. I've removed him from one after care facility to a smaller after care that provide Karate instruction as well. He is seen by counselors at school and outside of school along with a psychiatrist. I've had to take him to the ER as he would not de-escalate and have their psychologist see what I've been dealing with. I guess the next option is to try a different medication, but if that doesn't work, are there inpatient behavioral centers for kids his age?

We were finally able to get her into a behavioral clinic. The first visit was just history and the 2nd one they did some testing but I don't kno what they did as I wasn't allowed to be with her and I feel that was a good thing. Will not hear anything until next week but I had to make a call to them this morning because her negative behaviors have increased. She has thrown one of our ferrets on the floor, still hitting etc and went after a classmate at pre-k yesterday trying to cut her hair and when the teacher explained that it wasn't safe, she cut a big hole in her shirt. I am becoming increasingly afraid of what she will do next. She has no remorse for the things she is doing. She is becoming more demanding as in if she doesn't get what she wants immediately, it is an explosion of anger.