WOW, What A Ride!

Post Reply New Topic

I remember like it was yesterday...

Ten years ago this week (June 29 through July 8, 2000) I was hospitalized in Lowell, Massachusetts. My father was living in Salem, Ma and my mother in Bangor, Maine. My need for routines had not been met and it literally drove me crazy, i was used to every other friday, boarding the 6:15 bus departure from Boston to Bangor. I had just been expelled from the seventh grade that may (for activities i will never divulge) and my father's plan was to deprive me of something i held most dear, my trips to visit mom.

by the last week in june, it had been six weeks since i had been "home" in maine, and my aspie self just could not handle it, i offered to use my personal savings to pay for the ticket (i gladly would have paid a thousand dollars by then), my father would not budge, he does not believe in aspergers.

this all spiraled out of control the evening of june 28, i had become suicidal, i had considered jumping from a bridge, or in front of a bus (not the bangor bus, i held that in high regard). my stepmother believed me to be homicidal too, i was watching the simpsons (i even remember which episode) and my younger sister was boxed in on the bed with pillows, one of which i was using for my head. my aspie like lack of body position awareness, caused one of the pillows to partially cover my sisters head, of course my stepmother began to panic (to this day i maintain that i had no bad intentions) and almost called the police on me, my father talked her down, but i did sleep out on the porch that night.

the next day, june 29, i was taken to an emergency mental health center, from there i was transported to lowell ma. this became my home for nine nights. my father, decided that my punishment should continue and instructed the hospital staff to prevent me from contacting my mother, and vice versa. six days into my stay, he phoned my mother and told her only "your son is in the hospital again".

on the morning of July 8, 2000, he placed one more call to her "Chad will be coming to live with you now, we will be there in four hours" my father arrived at the hospital saturday morning around 9. he had all of my belongings in that 1997 ford taurus of his, he signed the discharge papers and we were on our way.

at the time, my mother was living in a very small two bedroom apartment with her boyfriend and my other sister, she had four hours notice that i was coming, i lived on the enclosed porch for the summer until we could find something bigger, to me this was a very small price to pay for getting out of my fathers house.

i know there really isnt a point to all of this, but i believe that whatever does not kill you only makes you stronger. i just wanted to share my story with the community, i feel this is relevant to the "aspergers discussion" in that, clumsiness can have severe unintended consequences, and if you can hear your thoughts in your head, dont mistake them for hallucinations, i did, and my father thought i was schizophrenic, i simply misunderstood the doctors questions.

It has been ten years since these events, i have been off medication for 9 and a half years, i graduated high school, and am holding a job, in july of 2000, i wasnt sure if i would make it to the end of the day.

for those of you who may be in a dark place right now, just remember, its only temporary, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, you may not think so now, but things will get better, give it time.

I like your story.

That's a great story.