In response to Toria…My son does not have an “official” diagnosis of PTSD, but that is what he is dealing with. Last year he had flown to the Milwaukee airport to attend a friend’s wedding. It was the first time he had flown into that airport since his sister’s suicide. Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances at the airport, James essentially had a flashback to Beth’s suicide. His friend was late picking him up and was unable to get a message to him. James was wandering around the airport looking confused. People in airports these days are scared and someone saw a 30-year-old male, 6’3” tall with shoulder length hair and a full beard who was wandering around looking confused so they contacted security. Security then chased him around the airport which made him feel paranoid.
I then got a call from a police officer who told me that by law, he was forced to take James in to the mental health center for 24 hours for observation just to make sure he wasn’t a danger to himself or others. He said he could see no reason why James would have to be there any longer than that. When James was taken to this facility he was still wondering why he was there and what was going on when he met with a psychiatric social worker for a total of 5 or 6 minutes. She was on a power trip and without knowing anything about my son or what he had been through, she instantly branded him as a paranoid, delusional schizophrenic and put him on 5 different psychotropic drugs.
I spent the next 10 days trying to get any information I could on his case, and I had friends who were visiting him everyday. The pshchiatric social worker was drugging the hell out of him and trying to have him committed for a minimum of 6 months. I finally got hold of a nurse who was helpful and told her that I would be driving 1100 miles up to get my son out of there and that if I had any trouble doing so that I would definitely be suing them. I told her I would be there on Monday morning and they better have him ready for me.
So I made a 2200 mile round trip to bring my son back home, but his experience in Milwaukee has only made him more paranoid. I will probably check out the PTSD Supporters section as well. Thanks for the suggestion.
