getting help for my aspie adult son

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My son is in such a deep crisis but still not bad enough to be hospitalized. His mental health symptoms are so crippling that no one can get through to him. Yet, he's not a danger to himself or others and so I can't make him go to the hospital to get stabilized.

His reason for being on ssi and ss is agoraphobia. From this fear he has gone on to PTSD, OCD (excessive handwashing and laundry and washing other stuff if he touches something he deems to be dirty. Of course it's not dirty by everyday standards. He is sleep disordered so that he sleeps all day several days in a month which makes his isolation worse.

He is constantly bothered by "ghosts". His ghosts are people he knows who have died: grandparents, first cousin, good friend and others. The other ghosts are people he doesn't know and they are the ones who bully him constantly, telling him he's wrong over the slightest move. It's probably scizzo (sp) effective.

He now thinks the people in his apt complex have telepathic powers and are watching him and creating trouble for him. He goes out late at night to walk or ride his bike or sit on his balcony and play his guitar.

He is so needy for friends that he sobs and cries and begs and drives people away with all this drama. He says he needs company 24/7 which he may need but getting it is impossible so far.

We are again getting him tested for autism so he can be documented with DD and get some services. He refuses therapy or drugs which is ok for the autism but not so for all the anxieties and crippling fears. He was partially tested last year but that isn't enough for documented autism; this was because the agoraphobia caused too much anxiety to go to a doc's office. This new doc will do house calls so that will work, I hope.

The law won't allow him being wrestled to the ground and given an injection but that is my fervent wish. So, any ideas how to get him out of this chaos?

Thanks, Mom of Scott

I just want to say that I'm sorry for what you and your son must be going through. I am lucky - my son is bright and healthy, and I don't take it for granted. I wish I had some concrete help to give you.
It really sounds like you son has a storm going on inside his head. Whenever I hear that I think that there is chemical damage due to maybe heavy metals or pesticide or something. I am no expert, but you might want to either find someone who knows about it to test your son, or if you are up to it, there are many books you can get online, and you can start learning bout it. One called 'slow death by rubber duck' is written by a couple of scientists might be a good one to start with, if you are not aware about how pervasive chemicals really are.
We are all genetically different so some of us will be affected by the same chemicals more than others. You son may have sensitivities.
My husband was a nurseryman for years and became so sensitive to chemicals that even when he sprayed natural pyrethrum he'd have problems. I became very familiar with it after so many years, I could spot one of his 'storms' from a mile a way, before anyone else could even see a single symptom.
First, he'd 'go grey'. His skin seemed to take a pallor, and he'd be quiet this could be a couple of days, but I'd already know it started. Then several things could happen depending on what the poison was. He's start not sleeping, maybe developing allergies - sinus problems, rashes or blisters, itchiness. He'd become constipated maybe a week or two without a bowel movement, so also bloated and gassy. About in the middle of this phase, he'd start getting nasty and angry. It usually eventually erupted in a 'psychotic episode' which if I was lucky only lasted a day or two. The worst time was a couple of years ago when he had been pretty much non-stop angry and horrible to me and my kids for almost a year. I was so angry and depressed, and desperate for it to end that I was LITERALLY planning to kill him. It was only because of my kids that I didn't suicide instead.
After I worked out that it really was the chemicals - the pattern was too predictable for it to be anything else, we closed down our business, and he got a job. He is a totally different person now. I am thinking to let him live.
I even like him some days. He sleeps well, has had almost no allergy problems, and his stomach is not bloated.
If he gets problems, I can usually identify what caused it. Sometimes new foods can be a problem, or some chemical product. Artificial fragrances etc, can be OK or not, ( you might have to identify specifically which ones affect him). He is in early development of diabetes, so he's all but cut out sugar, and he has had further improvements.
Obviously I have no idea whether or not this is relevant for your son, you may already have the answers. But if you have not explored this possibility, you should definitely check it out.
And if it turns out that chemical damage is the problem, then adding more drugs could ultimately make it worse. When they release any drug, it is on the strength of statistics, meaning they are effective to a certain degree for a certain percent of patients. NONE are 100% effective for 100% of patients, or even close. Read the inserts, read the list of side effects, it shows that. Your son COULD be one of the ones for whom it doesn't work. Be prepared to question it, don't be afraid to monitor his progress and question your doctor, don' be afraid to get another opinion. If you decide to explore this, keeping a diary of what he eats and what chemicals he is exposed to (including what laundry detergent you use on his clothes) could help you sleuth out what harms him.
Otherwise, someone who really understands this might help you narrow it down pretty quickly.
I really hope you find an answer.

This is something we can check out. He has been having a problem with metals but this has improved over the last several years.

Does this mean his actual symptoms have improved, or just the metal load? (which is still a good thing)
And if you are going to hunt for answers, be prepared to see several different 'types' of help. Question all of them, and let only actual results guide your choices, not idle promises. Quantify the symptoms if you can. You can do this by taking notes about the severity, duration and frequency of various behaviours. It may take time to make significant changes and you want to know it is working before you waste too much money on any wild goose chase. I know someone here in Australia who was very good at this, but she has retired. I think these things might be harder to address in your country.

He thinks it's mercury poisoning and allergy to nickel. But how do you check this? a blood test?
Thanks for the idea here.

I don't think this belongs in random discussion. Maybe a mod can move it to somewhere that it gets the attention it deserves.

Frankly I wouldn't be surprised. Mercury is in fish, amalgams, and was in some vaccines,( but I think they've phased it out in most places). You can try to find this out - the preservative thiomersal is the one I know about.
If he has amalgam fillings, I would be interested to know. They have caused some real problems in my family, and here I am with aspergers. I had so many fillings, and all removed except for the last 2 small ones. Mum said I was always smart and started saying byebye from 9 months. Talking late is more usual for aspergers, apparently. And I started having issues when I was older, after I started having fillings. I don't know if this is the reason, but that is why I am curious about others' experiences. I think everyone on this list would like to know the true cause of autism if one can be positively identified. Fish is also one of the big sources. I would be curious to know the rates of autism in places that eat a lot of fish, like Japan.
Anyway, as a precaution, you can avoid fish that are higher up in the food chain, as they would have higher concentrations of mercury. It is still toxic, and better to avoid, even if it not the actual cause of autism.
There are tests for metals. Ask you doctor what he can offer, but if you are not convinced, there are other ways. There are chelating fluids that you can get. The are supposed to bind the metals and help your body to expel them. One I know of is called CH77. It is harmless. Some probably would say that is because it is useless. I used it and a bunch of other things at the same time. Something definitely worked, but I cannot be sure exactly what helped me. All I know is that I feel better, and If some of my money was wasted, it was still definitely worth it overall. (for me)
And if you think your son has ideas about it, then listen to them, even if you don't think he is right. He is in there, and need to feel heard even if his body and brain don't necessarily cooperate with his spirit. He could well be right that there are more than one things going wrong, and each need to be fixed before he shows improvement. Allergies can develop when you liver is struggling, and they can behave like the problem/cause, when they are actually a symptom/complication.
There is a urine test, but again I don't know if doctors do that one.

What makes you so sure that would help? sometimes drugs can make things worse and well how would you feel if someone tried forcing a potentially dangerous injection on you. I just would think that sort of help is the sort of thing that would likely make him want to cut ties, I know I would if my family went that route.

I know that drugs can't be the true answer; this is just a wishful thinking thing that there could be a way to make him better, at least for the short term. I've been struggling with him for over 30 years and I'm burned out.
He needs therapy or something to rid him of the bullying "ghosts" and he needs to come to the decision to take action on his own instead of begging and sobbing for someone else to fix everything for him.
Now he thinks a move to California will do the trick.
Since he's been like this constantly for so many years and increasing the anxiety I believe he needs therapy but also some medication to help. However, he is terrified of drugs.
Thanks for any help.
Also, this is the closest I could find for a discussion group that might address this subject.

I also feel that this thread needs to be moved to a more appropriate section.

Good medicine should not be about artificially interfering in the body's functioning, but about aiding and facilitating the body's own functions. If an arm gets broken, the doctor can't heal it. He can make sure the bones are correctly aligned and held together so that he body can more easily and effectively heal itself. Same with a wound. Doctors remove obstacles to healing such as germs and dirt, stitch it together, use antiseptics and antibiotics to limit the damage done by microbes that got a chance to penetrate your defenses. The body does the actual healing itself.
In other words, when trying to heal something, removing obstacles to healing is always a good thing. This includes toxins and anything that interferes with your body's optimal functioning. And not giving your body unnecessary burdens to deal with such as junk food and too much alcohol, can maximize it's ability to heal itself.
A lot of "alternative" approaches are about supporting your body's own healing abilities.

Then you have those conditions that are not so easy. Sometimes your body is failing to make a protein, or to lay down myelin sheaths over the axons of your neurons, or to make enough of a particular hormone. This failure might lead to further damage to your well being, so medicine tries to artificially make up for that shortcoming so at least some of your functions continue normally.
This seems to makes sense.

What bugs me is when they call this a cure. To me, the only cure is to understand the cause, and to prevent the thing from happening in the first place. Controlling the symptom is no cure, but unfortunately that is the best available for some conditions at the moment.

My grandmother died from alzheimers related complications. Alzheimers people have plaque in the brain so you can see if someone had it post mortem. There have been documented cases of people who have been intelligent, and appeared to function well, to the end of their long lives, and when they died, it was found that their brains were riddled with the plaque. The only symptoms while alive have been a slight , dismissable, decrease in mental agility. These people remained mentally very active to the end, and this is thought to be why they did not succumb to the effects of the plaque. The brain found a way to function through the disease.
My point? There is a lot they DON"T know about how well the body can regenerate or compensate around diseases. Personally I prefer to do everything I can to support the body, even if the specific thing I do "has had no proven link" to the function I'm addressing. I try to minimize the 'artificial interference' as much as possible. We are not cars, where you can fix one broken bit and it's good to go. We are complex organisms, and every function in our bodies affects every other function one way or another.

My posts are always so long, so I'll leave my 'big theory' about health for another day. It came about from what I learned about in quantum physics, and some weird phenomena I have learned about or experienced myself.