Adult son in mental hospital

[Destressedmother316]

A year ago my son, 29 was admitted to a private mental facility for about 10 days.  His diagnose was indefinitive.  It was maybe Bio-polar skitzo...His symtoms were voices, paranoia, having a hard time trying to answer any questions and he was sent here as a guardian to protect the weak.  He grew up i the church and was quoting scripture outload.  He was a dean's list student in college, very smart and creative. He has never married, he  had several friends in school and college.  He is not gay.  He was very depressed about failed relationships with women.  Just this week he had his second episode, (very servere).  Worse than the last, some things were similar and some not.  The fear of people wanting  to get him was the same and he arms himself with knives.  He is in a mental hospital again.  In talking with a relative they immediately recalled this happening to a boyfriend of many years having this problem.  He was an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons as is my son. He went from being a very sucessful computer programmer to being homeless.  My son is a big world of warcraft player.  Is there something that could be related to his disorder.

[Xila31]

I would say D&D and WoW did not cause your son to be mentally ill. And instead of focusing on things that do not matter, maybe just focus on helping him and finding stability again. Get him into treatment right away. If he's a cutter, he could be in danger. People with mental illnesses are intelligant and creative people. We just have an illness, just like diabetes or cancer. Reduce the stress in his life and get him to a psychiatrist ASAP.

[leighanne143]

i work in the field of mental health and it sounds like schizoaffective disorder which is Schizophrenia (the delusional aprt) and some mood things like times of depression etc.

it is very common for males to experience no signs of this growing up and then randomly out of the blue in their 20's have a "mental break."  

Th best thing i can say is talk to him about therapy and a mild medication.  I do not beleive medications are the be all end all but when it comes to things liek schizophrenia, there is no cure but the medications do help prevent someone from experiences the delusional part constantly.

[dame_wilbur]

Interesting that you bring up WoW and D&D. There's been numerous studies that prove that avid WoW players, when playing, have the same brain activity when playing as a drug addict on a high. Had your son stopped playing WoW for some reason before his episodes? If so, he could be going through severe withdrawal and suffering a psychotic break from it. It might be worth mentioning to the docs at the facility, just so that they're aware of the possibility.

Good luck to you and him,

~Dame

[ILADVOCATE]

I would say that all of this could be related to his mental illness, including his difficulties relating to people. It would be essential to discuss this with his psychiatrist so they would know how to best treat him.