when is it time for a psychiatric hospital?

[mybridget]

I have a 6 year old stepson. He has been diagnosed with adhd, bipolar, odd, and conduct disorder.My husband and I have tried every type of discipline and nothing seems to get through.He has set fires, talks back, will not follow directions of any kind,has toileting trouble,steals, sneaks out of his window,laughs at his 10-month old brother when he cries or falls. Recently he has started head butting me and pushing through me when he doesn't get what he wants.We are to the point of considering hospitalization. He currently takes1/2 of a .25 risperdal in the morning along with 15 mg of adderalxr, 1/2 .1mg clonodine. At night he takes .1mg clonodine and .25 risperdal. He still lies, steals, destroys toys, talks back,. when he gets punished to time-out all I here is I hate you,your stupid,sucker,leave me alone.I have been involoved in his life since he was 3.He has always exhibited extreme behavioral difficulties. At 4 he was put on meds for adhd. It was a rocky road with lot's of med changes and increases. At 5 he was taken to a child psychiatrist. He was diagnosed depressed and adhd. After a bad reaction to an anti-depressant (i.e.)intentionally cut his hand and said he wanted to hurt himself because he didin't like his body. We took him to the emergency room but we were reluctant to send him away for a 3 day eval. Now I wish we would have. I love my son but I fear for his future.I am not a doctor or school teacher but I am doing the best I can. I'm to the had it point.I have seriously considered leaving my husband.Should we consider 24 hour care?His doctor seems reluctant to try anything but risperdal because of worse side-effects involved with others.When we asked him about hospitalization he weanted to know if we could move to another state because Louisiana has no funding for psych care for children thanks to Gov. Foster.Moving is not an option right now but will be in about a year. There is a psych hosp. close that used to take children and still does on a very limited, non-advertised basis. We are considering going there. Help!! We have been told by many family members that he needs specialized care that we can't give.

[sprstr7427]

I am going through a little of the same myself. My son is 11 years old and I am having a rough time with him. He's not on any medications because until recently he was a pretty well behaved child. Still is when it comes to school, he is a model student, gets great grades, teachers and other foutsiders thing he is just an Angel. At home its the complete opposite, many people said it's normal he's just a boy, but I don't know.

He talks back to no end, saying he hates me, he wishes we would all die, it's all our fault that he throws fits. Last week, he got mad at me and ripped his homework in half. He throws things, kicks things, immediately goes after his older brother, trashes the house. Over what you ask? Well, both kids had asked to do chores to get an allowance, so I agreed. An Allowance of $10 per week, each, mind you. They each alternated chores daily, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the 11 year old does dishes, sweeps the living room floors, washes the counters and tables, and cleans up the bathroom. His brother 14 year old, takes out the trash, cleans up the living room, sweeps and mops the kitchen floor, and gets the laundry started.

maybe to some people that is a lot for chores, but trust me if it isn't done daily, my house is trashed, BOTH kids are slobs and will trash a house is seconds. I don't know maybe it is too many chores for them. Well if I tell the 11 year old to do dishes it's ALWAYS a fight, every single time. He screams, yells, talks back, throws things, and when I put him a corner he bounces his head off the wall. This started about a year ago with the bouncing head, people said let him do it, if it hurts he'll stop. It's only getting worse, now he pulls his hair, pushes on his temples, threatens to run away, says he wants to die, asks us to punch him (never punched him in my life) he says he knows but wants us to, so he can get out of this house.  He doesn't want rules, he wants things to go his way. Later he appologizes and asks for my help to do the dishes, if I say no, because he hadn't done his chores for three days it starts all over again. I SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO and I AM AT MY WITS END to where I cannot take much more. He wants to leave, he wants to go into a foster or childrens home cuz it so bad here. I work a lot, my work is on the computer, I work 15 hours a day to keep the utilities paid, rent paid, and food in the house. We don't get extras, I work that hard and much just for the necessities. But that gets thrown in my face during his fits. I'm always on the computer. If I take time off, they don't want anything to do with me, so I work to keep them fed.

I feel like I'm running in circles and I can't win for anything. I just do not know what to do. Maybe I am a bad mom like he says, maybe he doesn't get everything he wants, should I let him go to a foster home or childrens home? I love my son with all my heart and soul, I'd do anything in this world for him. I just can't take much more of this stuff, is something mentally wrong with him? Or is he just lashing out because I do spend so much time on the computer? Did I do something wrong? Do I make them do too many chores and that makes them thing they're slaves? I JUST DO NOT KNOW

[coolbeanz]

I have a 10 yr. old who had problems in school this past year. (3rd gd.)  The school wanted an evaluation and testing done so I agreed and then they told me he needed a psy. evaluation as he had above avg. scores but was distracted, couldnt focus ect..
So reluctly I brought him to a pediatric psy. and a pediatric nuro.  and low ans behold as it is today they said---ADHD AND BI-POLAR!!!!  Guess what folks this is really dangerous as they put my son on straterra and he got worse! then Depakote and they wanted to keep increasing the doses.  Turns out my son has none of the above disorders!!!!   I had blood work done and he has HYPER-THYROIDISM!!!!!!!!!  DO NOT PUT YOUR CHILDREN ON THIS MEDS THE INCREASE THE HEART RATE AND MAKE THINGS WORSE.  Do you know how many children attempt suaside on all those stimulant drugs they give for ADD and ADHD and Bipolar?  Do the research parents!!! ADHD drugs are made from cocain base.  They are "STREET SPEED"  Do you want to be responsible for turning your child into a drug addiction?  What a terriable thing to do.  These drugs Rittilan, Aderal, Concerta (sorry bout the spelling) are all GATE-WAY DRUGS!!!  Check out this site http://www.adhdfraud.org/index.htm and this one http://www.ritalindeath.com/ADHD-Drug-Deaths.htm and this one http://www.breggin.com/ritalin.html  http://www.breggin.com/index.html  What has happened here?  Why is it becoming ok to just put a stamp on a child's head and drug him/her up so they sit nice in the class room or out in public.  Deal with these issues don't drug your children and make it worse.  They need to learn to cope with life not turn to a pill to cope.  How can you teach your children to say NO TO DRUGS when you start them on drugs?????  e mail me to talk ***@**** Good Luck -- Rachel

[IMPO2004]

While the stepson may require hospitalization, this should be a last I mean VERY LAST resort. Psychiatric Hospitalizations in children of any age can cause trauma and stigmatize the child for the rest of their lives. Having worked in a pediatric psychiatric facility I know the affects of hospitalizations. Is there any way that you can place him into a day program that is not a hospital but would give him essentially the same psychiatric help you feel he may need? This is something that you may want to check into.

[xmsrlong]

First off, risperdal is a very powerful drug as is clonodine and adderall.  Some of which may be very dangerous in combination.  Prescribing adderall and risperdal at the same time is in my opinion malpractice.  I would suggest that you first try one of the SSRI drugs.  In addition, applied behavior analysis and a functional assessment of behaviors should be attempted.

[punkin-kitty]

I have a 7 year old stepson who has been diagnosed with ADHD and ODD (or so his mother says, we have never seen any reports to confirm this).  Over the last 2 years, his behavior has gotten worse.  We have him for summer visitation right now and have had several severe tantrums with increasing violence.  He has bitten me and left some terrible bruises, spit at me, called my husband and I terrible names, punched his step-brothers, kicked me in the face and this is just a partial list of the temper issues we are having.  He had one yesterday and pointed up to the knives on the counter and told me he was gonna kill me.  I called the police last week to have them talk to him and see if that would make an impact on him.  It has not.  He is on Abilify and Concerta.  I am at my wits end.  I am the primary caregiver as I work from home and his father works long shifts.  I do not know how to help him or know how to calm him down when he gets so angry.  If I let him run off, he starts destroying toys and other things or hurting other people instead of me.  What do I do?  HELP!

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Your son may well require out-of-home care, though most likely the best resource for him would be residential treatment. Psychiatric hospitals generally provide for fairly short-term stays, while your son will require a daily, structured, well-supervised environment for many months. You might contact the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals for a list of resources. The Department is responsible for designing and implementing regulations for such facilites. It is unlikely that your son will respond to conventional outpatient treatment.