Whenever thinking and behavior, mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions disorders that affect your mood.
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Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take or have recently taken, including prescription and over the counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Tell your doctor if you was vaccinated within 1 month before you start taking GILENYA. While taking GILENYA and for at least 2 months after stopping GILENYA treatment, you should not get certain vaccines, called live attenuated vaccines. Have you heard about something like this before? This series goes behind the headlines to examine people living with mental illness and those searching for solutions. My son is mentally ill,’ so listen up
Stephanie Escamilla is tired of seeing the country focus on the mentally ill only when there’s a national tragedy. Then, she and her son are telling their story.
He is 14 and hears voices.
He’s been hospitalized more than 20 times. Stephanie Escamilla is tired of seeing the country focus on the mentally ill only when there’s a national tragedy. She and her son are telling their story of a family on the brink. Actually, Stephanie calls psychiatric hospitals near her home in San Antonio, as the camera rolls. So, repeatedly she is turned down. Whenever nothing can be done for her son, she is told, unless he is a danger to himself or others. This is the case. Surely it’s December 2009, and Daniel’s hallucinations last more than two hours.
Daniel is 14 for any longerer needs to convince doctors that he is mentally ill. He suffers from bipolar disorder with psychosis. Oftentimes in the past four years, he had been hospitalized more than 20 times. Stephanie looks a worthy part combatant and strong advocate, with broad shoulders and a thick frame. For instance, it wasn’t always this way. She was a single mother with selfdoubt, quick to blame herself for Daniel’s plight.
The only time mental illness dominates the national conversation is when something goes tragically wrong.
The dialogue doesn’t last. It gets buried under arguments about gun control, video game violence and unheeded signs of trouble until there’s yet another mass shooting. With all that said… That refrain emerged stronger than ever last December after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown. Now look. Never mind that noone knew whether it was mental illness that drove Lanza. Nonetheless, he killed 26 people, including 20 children. Wasn’t that madness definition, right?
Newtown the week after the massacre and returned there a few times in the months that followed. Just down the hill sits a ‘high security’ prison housing the criminally insane, New England town. Standing there, Know what guys, I wondered about our state mental health system. More than 60 million adults and about 15 million children in America suffer some sort of mental disorder. That’s one in every four adults, one in five children. It’s a well-known fact that the numbers are still large, far fewer live with a serious mental illness. Bipolar disorder or severe depression.
The mass shootings that shine a spotlight on mental illness actually stigmatize those who suffer with it.
The vast majority, advocates point out, are far more likely to be violence victims -they often get beat up or bullied than to commit a violent act. Now let me ask you something. What if the issue may be seen through an average prism American family -not just through the lens of a national tragedy, am I correct? What gonna be learned from people who deal with the day to day reality of mental illness?
National Alliance on Mental Illness, to spread my word interest in telling that story. Stephanie Escamilla believes that. She also believes complete strangers could make a difference if only they understood. That motivates her to try to teach people about what it’s like to walk in her son’s shoes. San Antonio National chapter Alliance on Mental Illness, she welcomed CNN into her home beginning in June. In the months that followed, I actually witnessed her resolve to change a 14yearold path boy oscillating between the trials of adolescence and the anguish of mental illness.
It’s not only her fight, or Daniel’ It touches the entire family.
While ranging in age from 7 to 10, in their merged household, and her fiancé, Jose Farias, 33, are raising three other children. Living with the family is Stephanie’s mother, who has brain cancer. Now pay attention please. That isn’t his real name, and his last name is different from theirs, Stephanie and Jose asked that CNN refer to their oldest son as Daniel. Fact, they also asked that CNN photograph him in a way that keeps his face hidden. I’m sure it sounds familiar.|Doesn’t it sound familiar?|Sounds familiar, this is the case right?|does it not, this is the case right? the family didn’t want that label to extend to the Internet, where it could dog him when he seeks a job or applies to college, manylots of in his hometown know Daniel has a mental illness.
Stephanie and Jose -and, indeed, Daniel -are willing to take that risk. By telling their story, they hope to help others raising a mentally ill child and shed light on mental illness for those who remain clueless. That force in Daniel’s life is his mother, if it’s true that one person who loves you can change your outlook. Stephanie hasn’t sold out her son’s dreams. As a result, she believes he can accomplish whatever he sets out to do.
The lights go dim.
Stephanie stands at the podium and shows a photograph of Daniel looking dapper with deep dark brown eyes, trimmed brownish hair and a broad smile. It’s a recent picture. Ok, and now one of the most important parts. Actually the next one shows him at 6 months, dressed in a Dallas Cowboys bib and winter cap. That’s interesting right? On the day Daniel was born January 29, 1999 Stephanie eyed his tiny frame, all 5 pounds and 15 ounces, and marveled at how delicate he was. She felt a bond that touched her soul. She dreamed he would become a doctor, or join the military to explore the world. She was 23 and single.
Stephanie moved from Uvalde rural town, Texas, to San Antonio to gain better access to mental health treatment. She took an overnight job at a hospital so she will be around during the day for her son. She works in a tuberculosis ward and once was a 911 dispatcher. Two years ago, she did her first session for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, that puts its personnel through mandatory cr intervention training aimed at teaching the best ways to deal with the mentally ill.
The goal is to de escalate a situation and get people the help they need before going hands on and taking them to jail, says Cpl.
Shannon Lunski, who helps lead the program. For these cadets, Stephanie puts a face on the struggle. For ages and frustrating journey. Daniel was diagnosed with ADHD at age 6, his first manic meltdown came at 10, hospitals kept refusing to admit him because he had not hurt himself and he had not hurt anybody, and he didn’t have a plan to act -the legal threshold required for hospital admittance.
She plays a video of Daniel enduring an episode of psychosis from May 1 of this year. His legs and arms shake while he sits on a picnic table in the backyard. He places his head between his knees. Let me tell you something. He stands and paces. On top of this, he swats the air. On top of that, his head darts here and there, as if attempting to shake the demons he sees and hears. Stephanie herself had not understood the early signs. At age 6, Daniel complained he heard voices. She downplayed it. She told herself the walls were paper thin, that he was hearing conversations throughout the home.
On a fishing trip one weekend in March 2009, Stephanie watched as Daniel pushed their lunch supplies, one by one, off a picnic top table.
Chips, cups. Normally, he apologized, when she scolded him. He kept the real reason to himself. Voices urged him to shove his ‘3 year old’ brother into the lake so he would drown. It was his way of deflecting the voices, of keeping his brother safe, Daniel pushed stuff off the table instead. At school the following Monday, Daniel’s hallucinations intensified. He stabbed himself in the head with a pencil because he was having more thoughts about hurting his brother. He confided in his teacher. Only then did his mother learn the truth.
Stephanie shifted into overdrive. She stayed home to monitor Daniel’s behavior. She began striving to get him admitted to a hospital for evaluation. It took five days but she succeeded. On March 25, 2009, she went with him to Southwest Mental Health Center. Nonetheless, daniel’s mood changed every second. While sitting next to his mother, he was happy. I’m sure it sounds familiar.|Doesn’t it sound familiar, this is the case right?|Sounds familiar?|does it not, am I correct? while clinging to a leg and crying, he was under a table. He ran around the room, announced he could fly. Ok, and now one of the most important parts. He stopped and looked at his mother. Mom, did you know I can see through doors? Stephanie went to Barnes Noble and bought nearly every book they had on bipolar disorder. She learned to understand what she had witnessed. His extreme lows matched the depression that accompanies bipolar disorder, Daniel’s impulsive urges, his sudden bursts of energy fit mania description. Then again, the voices and visions her son described met the definition for psychosis.
Daniel suffered from a lack of self esteem, and he was gonna feel he lacks control and things happen to him, the report said.
This gonna be influenced by the early ‘loss’ of his biological father and more recently the reported relational loss with his stepfather. Stephanie renewed the pledge she’d made to her son on the day he was born. He will know that no matter how hard it gets, By the way I will always be there to pick him up, daniel will never know how heartbreaking it was to watch him spiral up and down in a matter of seconds, she wrote in her journal.
By year’s end, Daniel was in the hospital again. His episodes changed with every medication regimen. Drug combinations that were meant to control his state of mind seemed only to make his condition worse. In a way, she felt relief. Also, whenever getting professional care, and she had time to breathe, her son was where he needed to be. She recalibrated for any longerterm plan for Daniel. Essentially, she taught a class for medical assistants at a local trade school and continued working fulltime.
The visits were awful.
Daniel hurled insults at her, said he hated her. Once, he threw a chair at her during a family session. You should take it into account. He accused her of wanting to get rid of him. Therefore, any time, she left the hospital more miserable than when she entered. It didn’t help that her siblings weren’t supporting her. Considering the above said. They thought she exaggerated Daniel’s problems. Initially, thence did Jose. They met at the trade school, where Jose was teaching. Now please pay attention. Stephanie told him up front about her son’s illness.
Jose runs his own air conditioning business and can rush home when needed. He has filled a void in Daniel’s life. Accordingly the first hospitalization occurred exactly one year after Daniel’s stepfather left. Any year since, that anniversary has triggered an episode resulting in hospitalization. He embraces raising messy life a teenager, one who happens to be mentally ill, not only has Jose not turned and run. They’re freaks, crazies, even monsters, Many people, he says, don’t view those with mental illness as human. Other people, Jose says, have this Hollywood vision of mental illness.
On a day in late June, Uncle Joe’s custommade barbecue pit, complete with a bottle opener Texas shape, covers Stephanie’s front lawn.
Three massive smokers house a ‘Texas sized’ feast. More than 100 relatives mingle in and around Stephanie’s house to celebrate her 63rd birthday mother. I’m sure it sounds familiar.|Doesn’t it sound familiar?|Sounds familiar, this is the case right?|doesn’t it, right? it’s as much a goodbye party as it is a birthday celebration. Needless to say, rosa’s cancer is progressing.
Accordingly the family lives in a modest ‘four bedroom’ ranch in a workingclass neighborhood in suburban San Antonio. Stephanie’s living room has four framed photographs on the wall, including the children with this motto. Remember, outside, the children play on an inflatable water slide. Relatives scarf up the food at tables covered with floral prints. Everyone’s attention turns to a television set on the patio, when supper is done. Images of a vibrant Rosa with her daughters and son flash across the screen. Rosa sits nearby but is too weak to say much. She waves to everyone and thanks them for their love.
He almost left the family nine months earlier.
That’s when he tried to kill himself. He’d gotten into an argument with his mother about breaking curfew. For ageser be trusted. Now regarding the aforementioned fact… His response. Gulping down every pill he could get his hands on. Now look. Her mother for a whileer ignore his severity illness. For example, at the hospital, everyone wept except for one person. Eventually.
Lamar Enriquez is the oldest sister and knows a loved pain one going untreated. Her husband of 13 years shot himself in the head last year. Because he’s only I wouldn’t want my sister to go through what I went through, That’s what scares me about Daniel, she cries. Above Daniel’s bed hang a crucifix, a drawing of him swinging a baseball bat and a postcard from New York City. I am sure that the Walking Dead, it says.
In that way -and others he’s like most teens.
His passions are music, dancing, basketball, video games. Martial arts is one of his favorite activities -it helps channel his thoughts in a positive fashion. Basically, he hopes to become a UFC fighter one day. It’s a well his mental illness is a terrible thing, he says, not simply for him but his whole family. Now let me tell you something. Like I hate it. Let me tell you something. It’s just, I’m quite sure I don’t like it.
He doesn’t want to harm people. Whenever pacing in the backyard and cutting his arm, that brings relief, he averts his anxiety by running around the neighborhood. Then, he punches walls and kicks the fence out back so as not to carry out the voices’ commands. The family takes safety for awhileer kept in the house. Sharp knives are out of reach. Now please pay attention. Stephanie sent her youngest son to live with his father for a year while she got Daniel treatment. You see, with four children in the home, Daniel ain’t left alone with the others. Nonetheless, that requires extensive planning and coordination.
Daniel’s suicide attempt was a cry for help, he says.
They’re very impulsive and reckless, he says, when you have individuals with bipolar and they have an elevated mood and they’re manic. Something doesn’t go their way, and they’ll go and drink a bottle of pills. This is the case. They don’t really put any thought into it -and that’s a very risky situation and that’s something Daniel has done. For Daniel it means he worries about it constantly, the school start year might bring anxiety to any kid, Hough says. A well-known fact that is. It will take over a significant part of his day, just thinking about what’s going to happen, Hough says.
He describes Daniel as a very sweet kid who is outgoing, friendly and personable. Most people with mental illness deny they have a problem. However, is also very willing to discuss what’s going on, signifies a major step toward getting better, the fact Daniel not only recognizes his wild mood swings. What pushes a person across that edge, to act on the voices’ commands, remains the great unknown in psychiatry. Hough says.
She gathers her stuff and calls the Laurel Ridge Treatment Center, the closest hospital to the family’s home.
Bring him as soon as possible, she’s told. Needless to say, she hops into the family SUV. Anyways, daniel gets in the passenger seat. It’s only the second time she’s driven him to the hospital by herself during an episode. She keeps an eye on the road and one eye on her boy. It’s clear he’s still agitated, he sits quietly in the front seat.
Four days later, Stephanie returns to the hospital for a family session with Daniel and his counselor. First she meets with the counselor alone. Whenever doing best in order to help her son, making ends meet, she speaks of her stress -caring for her dying mother. It’s a well-known fact that the counselor stresses the positive -that Daniel is keenly things aware going on with him and that he seeks his mother’s help when he can’t handle his thoughts. Not too many children, especially those with mental illness, have that relationship type with a parent.
Stephanie tells the counselor that she and Jose have spoken with the children about the need to go easy on Daniel -that normal sibling spats can easily get overblown.
The family will need to address it further. It’s a tricky conversation. Then, jose and Stephanie try to shield Daniel’s siblings from their severity brother’s illness. They don’t want them to know everything because then they might be afraid of him.
He tosses his hands in the air and then puts them down. Daniel doesn’t like having an episode in front of his siblings. On top of this, he looks for ways to divert his thoughts, and it’s clear he’s attempting to contain his agitation. The whitish Chevy Suburban eases to a halt at for a while day -a Catholic healing Mass for Stephanie’s mother followed by dinner with cousins at a Mexican restaurant. Stephanie for agesawaited’ night on the town.
Daniel paces the backyard during an episode of psychosis in August.
His mother tries to distract him from the voices he hears. She knows if the episode isn’t brought under control within about 20 minutes, it can last hours -perhaps even days. Stephanie perks up. They’re almost home, she says, and he can take his medicine as soon as he walks through the door. The for any longerer than expected. Now pay attention please. Stephanie didn’t bring his nighttime dose.
See where to turn for help with mental illness in children, and find more mental health resources at Impact Your World Stephanie ushers Daniel through the front door, into the living room, and onto the patio. Daniel sits in a rocking chair. Then again, he sways from side to side, his legs and arms fidgety. There’s things all around, he says.
He plops down at a picnic table.
Daniel douses his head with a bottle of water. Stephanie and Jose ask him about a summer reading book, Moby Dick, to get him to think about something else -anything else. It’s a little past 10, and the temperature hangs in the 90s, the Texas heat adding to the moment intensity. Daniel’s mood eases. He heads inside to bed.
Stephanie Escamilla agreed to let CNN into her home to document what it is like to raise a child with a serious mental illness. Her 14yearold son, whose real name ain’t used in the story and whose face is obscured in the video and photographs, alsomoreover agreed to participate. In June 2013, reporter Wayne Drash made many first visits to their home in San Antonio. Video producer Evelio Contreras also spent weeks with the family. Basically the dialogue and direct quotes in the story were heard by Drash or drawn from documents, videos or audio recordings. This is where it starts getting really interesting. Italics are used in the instances where the dialogue was recalled by a participant and not witnessed by the reporter.
American soldiers plucked the child from her Iraqi home at the war height and brought her to America for lifesaving surgery.
How did she fare after her return to a war torn nation struggling to stand on its own, this is the case right? American soldiers plucked the child from her Iraqi home at the war height and brought her to America for lifesaving surgery. How did she fare after her return to a war torn nation struggling to stand on its own?