I'll start with a brief introduction.

I'm a concerned parent of a 25 year old son who was diagnosed with ADD when he was 6 and was on medication for that until his Senior year of high school.

He was attacked in 2007 and received two skull fractures. One in front and one in back. He was airlifted to a hospital after having a series of seizures at the scene of the attack and in the hospital. He was in a drug induced coma for about 4 days in the Neurological ICU while they ran tests and waited for the brain swelling to come down. On the 5th day they had him out of the coma and on the six day he walked on his own and they sent him home.

Since that time he has lived on his own off and on. We sensed by the group of people he was hanging with that he was getting involved with drugs. He hasn't been able to keep relationshps for more than a year and a half.

Fast forward to last year. We noticed he was pulling away from family and friends more and more. He was becoming more agitated and his personality was beginning to change.

Now fast forward to this year. Our concerns for his well being were increasing. He was becoming more agitated and could fly off the handle quickly. (Not physically violent) He has been involved in a couple of fender benders within the past couple of months. Then earlier this month I received a call from the police and asked to come get him. He was also sending me text messages begging me to come get him and save him. When I arrived he was sitting in the dark and was extremely paranoid.

I took him to our home and he was scared that people were surrounding the house, on our roof and people are staring at him. I took him to the ER and he did have high THC levels. He went into counseling and therapy with a psychologist.

What we have learned is that he has been in pain with headaches and body aches for several years. He has been self medicating with marijuana and tried pottpourri for a few months earlier this year.

Since he has been with us for the past several weeks his paranoia has reduced some but his level of agitation has NOT. He is difficult to be around because he feels he is perfect and everyone else is imperfect and he seems to take pleasure in pointing out perceived inperfections and demeaning others. THis is very far from his normal personality. There are also certain subjects you avoid and everyone is walking on egg shells around him.

Now in his most recent counseling session it is been suggested his agitation, mood swings, headaches and other pains may all be related to TBI. That his self medication with marijuana was his way with dealing with it all.

We have no experience in dealing with TBI, head injuries, drug use or anything. At this point my wife and I are concerned parents, confused, depressed and uncertain of what to do next. We have asked for an appointment with a TBI center.

Hi, welcome to NeuroTalk.

In addition to being a TBI survivor, I have a son (age 31) who is a drug addict (marijuana, meth, opiates, bath salts, you name it) so my comments will be primarily from the perspective of the parent of an addict.

I suspect the paranoia and agitation are due primarily to the drug use since the TBI was in 2007 and this behavior has presented more acutely over the past year. My son also imagined people surrounding the house etc. Synthetic designer drugs (“potpourri”, “bath salts”, etc.) are well known to cause the paranoia and agitation you describe.

The brain is an incredibly complex organ with over 100 billion neurons, each connected by synapses to multiple others. It is very possible that his TBI is exacerbating the effect of the drug use, or vice versa. The ADD adds another level of complexity. That said, behavioral health professionals will be hard pressed to determine if the TBI is causing lingering symptoms when the drug use is still in the mix. The bottom line is he will need to find a way to get clean and sober for some time before the effects of the TBI can be assessed. Hopefully a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist at the TBI center can help sort through all this.

Regarding your wife and yourself, for your own sense of well-being, consider a support group for parents of addicts. A social worker at the center will likely have references to Al-anon or a similar support group.

I empathize with your situation and wish all of you the best possible outcome. Feel free to PM me if you wish.

Best to you all.

Thank you. My wife and I have been involved in Al-anon for several years. I should note he and his girlfriend both say the pottpouri use ended about 5 months ago. THC was the only thing found in his system at the ER.

We have our son with us in a new town. He doesn't know anyone here. Doesn't have a vehicle and has no way of getting anything here. He has been with us for about 30 days now. He has been in counseling and seeing a psychatrist. He wants to quit the counseling and follow up on the TBI center. But this morning the center notified us they will not see him without a referral. The couselors here do not give referrals and he has not seen our primary physician for several years. So we are stuck at the moment.

Well we learned something new last night. My niece, who passed away last month had been diagnosed as Bipolar years ago and was on Lithiam.

My brother never said a word about this to anyone. It might answer some questions about our son.

He has been EXTREMELY difficult to live with for the past 45 days. He's gone from being scared and paranoid to loud, abusive, arrogant, irritated to swings where he is very happy, laughing, joking and carrying on long conversations. Yet he repeats things several times over the course of a couple of hours. The smallest comments or jesters can set him off into an irritable mood and everything is our fault. He says we are stupid, don't care about him, steal from him, we are worthless, lazy and selfish.

He has called me a lazy, falling down drunk alchoholic.

Truth is we may have a bottle of wine with dinner once a month and maybe buy a six pack of beer once a month.

Now my wife and I are both respectable, professional people. We work hard, we work long hours and we are very giving people. This has become devestating for us. We receive no support from the counselors, doctors, communities or anyone. It is tempting, when he is berrating us, to simply kick him out. But he can't function, has no job, no money, no friends and doesn't know anyone here.

This is just sickening to me.

Sorry to hear this, sounds as if the situation is deteriorating rather than improving. These don’t sound like symptoms normally associated with a TBI, and since his TBI was six years ago it doesn’t seem likely to me that it’s directly related.

In any case, for your sake as well as his, he certainly needs psychiatric help. It does seem like he has some symptoms consistent with bipolar disorder. BPD can be concurrent with ADD, and there are some studies that suggest a genetic link.

I don’t know what the laws are in Kansas, but if his abusive behavior suggests he could be a danger to himself or others, you may be able to petition to have him involuntarily sent for a psychological observation and evaluation (this laws exists in Arizona, I would check the state mental/behavioral health department or a family law attorney to see what the laws are there).

Certainly sounds that he needs help, including therapy and/or medication. Since he is under 26 he should be eligible to be covered under your health insurances, or possibly Medicaid since he is unable to work.

Best to you all.

Thank you. He is covered under Medicaid. Haven't been able to check much but yes his behavior seems to be more BPD which we had no connection to until we found out last night our niece had BPD that nobody told us about.

The doctors have told us the TBI could be a problem since he began self medicating shortly after that and has not allowed the brain time to heal.

Several issues that all need to be addressed. He is not physically a threat to himself or others. He is just very negative towards us at times. Then very clingy at other times.