My blogging has been lacking in creativity and pizazz lately, so I thought I should give an explanation. I debated for a long time about whether or not to discuss this on the blog because it is such a downer, but in the end I decided that I want this to be a true reflection of our first year of marriage and these events have had a major impact on our lives for the past month, so I think they deserve to be noted.
My brother has been involved with drugs and alcohol from a young age. He's had several injuries and arrests along the way, and it all recently came to a head. Before Christmas my family held an 'intervention' where we were able to convince him to go to rehab and try to get some help for what we thought was an addiction to marijuana or something more serious. He spent two weeks in rehab and then transitioned to a sort of half-way house. During his time in rehab he was very angry at all of us for putting him there, and didn't seem to be making a lot of progress on his road to recovery. However, after 2 weeks the staff at the rehab center thought he was ready to move on and suggested he move into an Oxford house.
His time at the half-way house was a disaster, and he was asked to leave after two days. After leaving the half-way house he spent several sleepless nights in his car and in jail for various reasons. After 5 days of complete chaos, two trips between El Dorado and Lawrence, starting a fire, stealing gas and being arrested twice he asked to be taken to a hospital for mental evaluation.
Once he was evaluated it was determined that he was having a manic episode and most likely had bipolar disorder. The doctors thought he had likely been experience these mood swings for a while and was using drugs and alcohol to help regulate his moods. As it turned out, he had not used drugs at all since leaving the rehab center. But he was so chemically imbalanced that it appeared to everyone he was high.
Hopefully over the next several days the doctors can better evaluate him and get him on some medicine that will start to make him feel better.
About Me
- Year One
- This is the story of Rick and Jessie's first year of marriage. In Illinois Rick met Jessie. Jessie liked Rick and Rick liked Jessie. 1 year later Jessie moved to Kansas. Rick was sad. 1 year later Rick moved to Kansas. Jessie was happy. 1 year later Rick and Jessie got married. This is the story of their next year, the one where they lived happily ever after...
