Son - mentally ill, sleep deprived or on drugs?

[ShatteredRose]

Been having lots of problems with my 16 year old son. He hasn't done anything since leaving school and has been out every night smoking dope with his mates. I don't give him money anymore so I don't know where he's getting money from. He disappears for two days at a time lately saying he's staying at his mates.

This morning he got in at 4am (after been "at his mates" for two days.) I found him sat on the dining room floor in pitch black darkness staring out of the window. He said there were 3 men in "gigalo suits" hiding in the bushes watching him with cameras. He insisted on showing me where they were and couldn't understand why I couldn't see them. I've made him go to bed. I'm at a loss of what to do. Is he mentally ill or taking something other than weed? What can I do when I can't physically stop him leaving the house??

Thanks everyone for all the responses. I called cahms and have made a referral, awaiting callback. I also called NHS111 and they gave me the number for the crisis team so I called them and they're calling me back. Called social services who were useless. Contacted his dad (who is normally useless) who surprised me by coming straight round, verbally kicked his arse and went rooting around his room looking for drugs that he might be harbouring. We've told him that he's not to go out for the rest of the week and he's to attempt to get his sleeping pattern back in order. I've also set him a task of eating 3 meals a day as he looks emaciated. He's always been skinny but now he really looks starved, all bones visible and veins popping out everywhere.

I've also planted the seed about considering the army. I think even just the two years basic training would do him the world of good.

Sounds like a successful proactive day, all the best

Op i have a lot of 3experience with this exact situation sadly.

Your son is having a psychotic episode and the really important thing is to try to keep him from taking more drugs.

Rather than mumsnst advice you need help from mental health professionals.

Is he still hallucinating?

Glad to hear you are getting help in and hope things start to improve for you all.

If he has underlying mental health issues and substance misuse history, I would not recommend the army.

Up until 1pm he was still insisting that there were snipers on the driveway but they'd gone by the time I got up. He's now saying that he thought he'd seen them but can't have done - which suggests the hallucination was strong enough to still seem real to him.

I had paranoid hallucinations after taking ecstasy which had probably been cut with ketamine.

I was about 18/19 at the time.

I was convinced my friends had written messages about me that I could see in the curtains, on cushions, on bed covers, in the patterns on the wallpaper.

It lasted about 2 days and I went to stay with my sister, who I trust the most in the world.

I never touched drugs after that, and it was hard, because my whole life was wrapped up in the 'rave' scene.

Having to break away from close friends was the hardest.

I know the Forces' attitude to mental health and illness has improved in recent years but I'd be VERY wary of sending a vulnerable young man into that environment without absolute certainty their mental health was robust and resilient.

I can totally understand why you'd want him to be in a structured and disciplined environment but please remember his age and gender and substance use history render him statistically very vulnerable, even with appropriate care and treatment.

The army sounds a really poor idea, I’m afraid. He needs help and boundaries. He may well need medical attention. He may be suffering from drug induced hallucinations or he may be self medicating mental health illness. Whichever it is the army isn’t the place for him right now. Or possibly ever.

Good luck with get him help. It must be a frightening situation.

That's great that you've accessed some MH services! They will be in the best position to help figure out what is going on and support your son and your family. Agree with other posters about getting the right advice. Some of us on here are MH professionals and/or have first hand experience but it's not the same as someone meeting your son and actually talking to and assessing him.

Sometimes CAMHS services are really stretched and the wait to be seen can be long. Also as I mentioned before, there are specialist services for people experiencing a first episode of psychosis called Early Intervention teams. All across the country. There are strict government targets that from the point of possible psychosis being flagged up with a mental health service, EI teams have two weeks to assess and (if appropriate for their service) allocate a care coordinator. This is probably by far the fastest way to get specialist help and they will have more expertise in this than a lot of CAMHs services (because of the focus of the different services, not because CAMHs aren't good).

With regards to the army, I'd be very wary of going down that road now. Basic training is pretty stressful, he'd be away from home for the first time and it'd be naive to think drugs aren't present in the forces as they are everywhere. Also if he's in combat situations (even mock ones), it's basically his hallucinations happening for real. Snipers firing at him, people watching him etc. There's potential for all sorts of trauma even for psychologically quite robust people (hence all the veterans focus with PTSD) and he's possibly even more vulnerable to this because of these existing experiences.

Please don't send him to the army. Terrible idea IMO. Liek others said, he's in a vulnerable position. He needs love and support (even if it's tough love at times) not packing off to face combat training.

And YY to drugs being available in the army - a long old history of that. If he's a drug user, he'll find the other users pretty quickly.

I definitely wouldn’t think the army is a good idea for your DS, and tbh I don’t think he’d be accepted anyway. It’s a very tough process to get through.

It’s good that you’re accessing help through CAMHS.

He's always been skinny but now he really looks starved, all bones visible and veins popping out everywhere.

He's quite possibly taking a stimulant drug, regularly, then.

Very unlikely to be weed alone (it makes you eat more!).

Could be coke (or crack). I don't know enough about spice - it wasn't around when I was young. Weight loss is a classic sign of MDMA and speed use - do people still use them?

Meth. Sounds a LOT like meth.

maybe hes doing speed? Although tbh, i think youd tell by other behavior

If it’s drugs, my guess is he’s been taking acid/microdots/mushy tea.

Or possible psychosis

It sounds like he's taken either 'magic mushrooms' or some form of LSD or acid, this would cause you to hallucinate yet be hyper ..

in this case he's 'tripping' and it would last anywhere from 5-12 hours

Just because he is like this now doesn't mean he will be like that forever, he's having a shit teen time. I had one myself, failed all my gcses but 'copped on' 2/3 years later and pulled myself back, went to a good college

I'm sorry you're going through this OP x

acid/microdots/mushy tea

I thought similar earlier but I've changed my mind. They were widely available in our day but are they really, now?

The weight loss and paranoia aound more like overdoing a stimulant drug to me. Meth from the PP is a possibility.

Or is could be psychosis. Hopefully not but it can't be ruled out. Psychosis does look just like the person has taken a lot of drugs IMO.

waterrat , exactly. Psychosis from any cause, drugs, mental health issues or a combination is a medical concern to be seeking medical help immediately for- particularly in a child. OP has now got in contact with the services needed and I hope she ignores the vast majority of comments (particularly those clearly finding this to their own amusement) . Once diagnosis has been made I'm sure there will be someone in a similar situation to share their own experiences. Meanwhile the 'meth. It's meth' type comments really are more of a reflection on the individual poster , rather than the OP's very serious predicament

Drugs known to trigger psychotic episodes include:
cocaine
amphetamine (speed)
methamphetamine (crystal meth)
mephedrone (MCAT or miaow)
MDMA (ecstasy)
cannabis
LSD (acid)
psilocybins (magic mushrooms)
ketamine
Source for above is www.nhs.uk/conditions/psychosis/causes/
"With methamphetamine and cocaine, it's more the drug, not the person that contributes to the psychotic symptoms.

Cocaine addicts often fall victim to paranoid delusions surrounding the drug where is the cocaine? who hid the cocaine? who stole it? but methamphetamine addiction is worse, Miotto says.

"With methamphetamine, they're just plan bizarre," Miotto said. "[Methamphetamine users] can think people are after them -- that their child is trying to poison them."

They can go through "a prolonged or persistent psychotic reaction that doesn't end with the 12 hours in the emergency room," Miotto said. Moreover, even if methamphetamines don't cause a permanent psychosis, drug users risk developing depression."
Source for above abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=4483681&page=1

I would try and not upset him, it takes some time to really get over a psychotic episode, even if he seems normal now. Hope he will be ok and get help that actually does help him out. I hope you are ok too OP, I imagine you must be worried sick.

I think all 3, OP. It's a nasty combination - MH, drugs/ alcohol and lack of sleep. They tend to all exacerbate each other and spiral.
What a horrible situation, I hope he gets the help he needs.

I hope he can stick to your plan op. I had a friend who went through this and they had no support from anyone (sadly not even me, as I didn’t know how to help) it’s a very scary time for all involved but I really hope you can all get through it

I hope CAMHS will be able to help him, OP.

It's possible that if this was a one-off, and drug-related, it might be enough to put him off drugs for good. It was what stopped DP smoking weed after about 20 years.