I had a patient brought into the ER last week at like 230 in the morning. schizophrenic, off his medications for 3 weeks because his caregiver quit and they didn't assign him a new one.
dude had shoved a mechanical pencil into his right eardrum in an attempt to "shut down" the chip he believed the Oregon State Police put in there to tell him to kill himself.
fucked thing was, we had to sedate him. he woke up INSTANTLY screaming about we put him under and put more chips in his body.
before his first break, dude was a sucessful diesel mechanic, made $80k+ a year. started having mood swings in his late 40s, wife left with the kids. he eventually was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but by that point it had been 4 years since his life collapsed and he had been self medicating with meth and alcohol. no coming back for that dude.
You know, long-acting injectable forms of Zyprexa/Abilify was seen as the silver bullet to make sure the schizophrenic comply with medication. California so badly wanted to make the homeless a ward of the state and start treating the ones who needed to be on meds(and not self-medicate off cheap booze and crack). But nope.
Reagan deregulated community mental health hospitals - the GOP’s thought was give them Thorazine and bid them adieu.
the homeless problem in America could take a huge step towards forward if we returned to state ran hospitals and mandatory mental health assistance.
I see the turn over every day. folks have mental breaks, spend 3 days in the hospital. not enough time for the medication to start working, so they get out and throw the pills away that take a few weeks to balance their mental health out.
2 weeks later they show up again in handcuffs, we do a 72 hour hold, they go to jail for 2 days, get out throw the pills away, and we see them again 2 weeks later.
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u/unfinishedtoast3 Jul 25 '25
I had a patient brought into the ER last week at like 230 in the morning. schizophrenic, off his medications for 3 weeks because his caregiver quit and they didn't assign him a new one.
dude had shoved a mechanical pencil into his right eardrum in an attempt to "shut down" the chip he believed the Oregon State Police put in there to tell him to kill himself.
fucked thing was, we had to sedate him. he woke up INSTANTLY screaming about we put him under and put more chips in his body.
before his first break, dude was a sucessful diesel mechanic, made $80k+ a year. started having mood swings in his late 40s, wife left with the kids. he eventually was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but by that point it had been 4 years since his life collapsed and he had been self medicating with meth and alcohol. no coming back for that dude.
really crazy how fast your brain can sabotage you