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Any ones adult child sectioned?

7 replies

Ragingoverlife · 08/02/2026 08:50

My son was sectioned under section 2, 2 weeks ago, because of 'good behaviour' they made him a voluntary patient until suitable accomodation was given. He then went AWOL and refused to return due to his paranoia so has now been discharged,

I'm trying to sort out housing, finances, his communication is very sporadic (he can't stay with me due to his behaviours and me having younger children) no other family can take him due to ill health.

Has anyone navigated this? He has no working bank or working phone no benefits, his ID is lost

I'm completely broken and desperate to help him but all he wants to discuss when we see him (he's randomly turning up for food / showers etc.)

He still has a care coordinator and under the mental health team but doubtful he will engage due to his paranoia and they won't be able to contact him. (I've bought him a phone but he wont take it. I can only contact him via WhatsApp as that still works despite his phone having no working sim.

There's debts piling up, I've been sent a letter by the hospital confirming I can deal with his affairs but not sure how much weight that will have with banks etc. It's such a mess. My mental health is being significantly effected I feel like I'm almost grieving.

I love him so much and I've done so much to try and help him but he's very angry with me for alerting the mentsl health team he wasn't well and him being sectioned.

Any advice.

OP posts:
MyThreeWords · 08/02/2026 11:10

Hi @Ragingoverlife

I saw your post when it first appeared but I needed time to think how to reply. I've been in a similar situation with my son, except that there wasn't an issue with debt and I didn't have to get involved in his finances. My best guess about the banks and similar institutions, though, is that they will take the documentation that you have seriously.

The matter I have more experience of is my son being out of hospital when he desperately needed to be in hospital. He did go awol on a few occasions, but out earliest difficult experience of this sort was shortly after he was first admitted under section. He improved rapidly on anti-psychotics, and was an extremely articulate person, whose challenges were often highly masked. So when he took his case to a mental health tribunal and asked for release from the section, it was granted, and he immediately discharged himself.

All of the people caring for him know that this was a mistake and told us that unfortunately it was just a case of waiting for his condition to worsen enough for him to be re-sectioned, which is what happened.

At this time he was living with us, so we didn't face the same sort of anxieties that you are facing now. But at an earlier period, and during later periods, he was away from home and we did face the horror of not knowing what crises he was getting into.

For him, debt wasn't a problem, but there was substance abuse, risky behaviour, self-harm and suicidal impulses. Every person with this condition is different, and faces a different set of risks, and so I can't generalise at all from my son's plight to yours. But I can certainly empathise with the general situation, and with the horror, fear and grief that you feel.

Your word 'grief' in particular struck a chord with me. But it is a numb, fractured, confused grief, because you are dealing at the same time with all the emotions and tasks of dealing of your living son. It is too much to bear emotionally, and I don't even think it makes sense to think of processing it. It is just a question of living with it. In particular that means distinguishing between the things that you can do, and the things that are quite simply beyond your capacity or control.

For example, don't feel bad about the fact that he can't live with you. And don't feel bad about alerting the mental health team, even though he is angry with you about it. His condition was much too much for him or you to deal with without professional involvement.

It sounds like the finance thing is something that you might be able to help him handle. Could you make a preliminary appointment with a bank, just to understand how they see their role in this? They will have policies and procedures for the documentation you have received from the hospital, I'm sure.

I can't really offer any advice, just solidarity and understanding of what you are going through.Flowers

Ragingoverlife · 08/02/2026 11:26

Thank you so much for your reply. That bought a little tear. The natural thing is for you want to save and protect your baby. He's extremely articulate - infact too articulate which is one of the main issues. People can't understand what he's saying because it's big science words (I consider myself intelligent but he tells me I am too stupid) however he is mixing up the meanings of words into his 'own agenda' and looks for hidden meanings in words the latest being psychiatrics as psychiatRICKS because it's all a big trick as part of the bigger plan.

He was given voluntary patient status 2 days before his tribunal which I'm sure they would have granted him as he was a yep. Okay of course I under stand (while arguing with the GP about flouride concurrently) they said he wasn't psychotic (even though that's what his sicknote says) as he could 'control it' he's very delusional talking about lots of conspiracies consistently and he is now believing he is God and is 'prepared to die for our sins" i dont believe he's suicidal as he feels he is too important' but I will highlight this to care co-ordinator.

So he basically promised the doctor he would tone down the conspiracies and carry on with the meds which because he then went and smoked cannibis at the first opportunity with teds still in his system this caused a major episode and has made him more paranoid and worse and doesn't want to deal with any health care etc. He thinks he knows legislation that can make him get away with anything and is untouchable (and annoyingly because police are useless and aren't seizing his untaxed and uninsured vehicle he's being proved right'

I'm having to tip toe around him when I'm with him scared of saying the wrong thing because I need him to trust me so that I can keep an eye. Which sounds ridiculous but arguong he is wrong or suggested he's ill he goes off on one and disappears.

Sorry for the ramble. I have little support other than my partner as my family have kind of disowned him as they blame him for my parents being unwell. Which I understand (heart attack during the sectioning)

OP posts:
Ragingoverlife · 08/02/2026 11:29

Apologies for all of the spelling and typos. Normally I'm extremely articulate and can use the right effected/ affected 🤣

OP posts:
MyThreeWords · 08/02/2026 11:55

Strange that his docs say he is not psychotic!

My son's diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia. He didn't have any of the 'grandiose' thinking that your son's condition appears to be causing. I can imagine that those characteristics are very hard to deal with, but it is good that they seem to make him less prone to suicidal thinking.

I think you are right not to challenge his beliefs, but to work around them instead, deflecting the conversation, etc..

Don't worry about rambing! I think that is probably the most beneficial thing about starting a thread - the chance to just say stuff and be heard. It takes a little bit of the pressure off for a little while, and helps you to work through things in your head. So even though no-one may be able to offer any answers, I hope it will help a little bit.

Ragingoverlife · 08/02/2026 12:05

He's just turned up here to use the toilet. So I'll try and find out a little more about where he's 'hiding'

OP posts:
Ragingoverlife · 08/02/2026 23:12

Literally give up. He asked if he could sleep on the sofa i said I would make him a bed in his brothers room. But to respect the house as we're all going to sleep and then he got angry with me because I'm controlling and I don't want to help him save the world then walked out then he came back 5 minutes later after I locked the house up, asking for a coke then helped himself to food. Reckons he's sleeping at a friend's but 5 minutes previously he was muttering that no one wants him because he's been in the hospital. When the truth is people are avoiding him because all he wants to talk about is the government, how he needs to help everyone who he met in the hospital and how the drugs used are bad because it's making everyone stupid. I'm at my whits end. He can't see how unwell he is and is now more anti doctors than before.

OP posts:
MyThreeWords · 09/02/2026 11:29

Have you tried contacting social services to ask whether they could intervene in any way (if they aren't already involved)? Before my son was ever hospitalised, circumstances conspired to make me think that a referral his GP had made was going nowhere. So I rang social services and began pleading with them to do something.

As it turned out, the wheels towards sectioning him had already been set in motion, and the NHS had itself already been in contact with social services. I don't really understand how/why that came about, actually. But it does suggest that there is scope for social service involvement.

I'm sorry that your thread isn't getting more traction. In the past I have seen very active threads involving people who are dealing with psychosis, or whose children are dealing with it.

I wonder whether it is because it is in the child mental health topic. I can see why you put it there, but this topic does seem more skewed towards non-adult children, with problems different from psychosis.

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