My Nonprofit Reviews

I would be lost without NAMI. My young adult son has Bipolar 1 disorder with psychotic features. He was diagnosed at age 9 and was med compliant for 16 years. At age 25, he decided to try going off his meds. The results have been catastrophic. After 9 private hospitalizations over a three-year-period, my husband and I could no longer continue living with him. We requested a long-term stay in a state hospital. He has been in Tewksbury State Hospital in MA for almost a year--with many ups and downs. It is hard fighting a broken system and one that gives someone with mental illness the right to refuse meds when a court order runs out, because he feels he doesn't need them. Sadly, we sit and watch him get sicker and more delusional during those periods. It seems like I am always waiting for him to get worse, in order for him to get treated. The hospital has applied for guardianship, but other cases get higher priority because the courts don't view a psych emergency as an urgent matter. We all know this is wrong, but no one with any power has taken steps to change it. So we can be waiting months, or longer, if my son contests it. My support group meetings are what keeps me going. Sometimes I cry for my son and feel the situation seems hopeless. I am trying to turn something devastating into something positive by becoming more active in NAMI. I was asked if I would be interested in becoming trained as a co-facilitator and start up a new support group in my area. So that's my plan. Meanwhile, I will continue to hope and pray that maybe someday I will be one of the people who has a positive outcome with a son in recovery.

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