ORANGE ALERT!

"There was a time when I would have been having a conversation with this rooster...now I'm just wondering why he's not on my plate...cooked, surrounded with potatoes and vegetables...and headed for my stomach?"

During his teens, Philip went through some very trying times, as we, and the 'profession', experimented with different approaches, interventions, and medications to regulate and control his behaviour. He wasn't being bad...not deliberately anyway...his mental stability was just 'wobbly'...causing him to do and say things which were not characteristic of what we had come to expect, and enjoy, in him.

From the age of 5 until around 12, Philip, relatively 'med-free', was simply 'delayed', and consequently, naive and vulnerable...and in need of constant supervision and protection. However, as he entered his teens, normal physical changes took place, and when his abnormal mental abilities were called upon to deal with these changes, confusion and frustration, and often, complete bewilderment, ensued.

Philip entered his teens a mess! A misguided educational system only exacerbated the situation by throwing him in with behavioural 'bad-apples'...a setting totally inappropriate for Philip's condition. And a misdirected clinical approach was causing a very stressful scenario on all fronts.

Thus began the process of neurological and medicinal stabilization. We needed to find a way to rescue him from the anguish he was experiencing and return calm to a physically healthy, yet very mentally disoriented, young man. The next few years were 'flavoured' with trial and error.

The success of 'hit and miss' approaches, experimental drugs, psychological assessments...together with the encouragement of doctors...the involvement of neighbours, family and friends...and the dogged, formidable focus of a determined mother...are the reasons why Philip is the wonderful man he is today!

"We have to stop monkeying around and get this young man back on track!"

At one point in his 'trial and error' era, Diane and her 'Dream Team' of doctors, neurologists, psychiatrists and teachers decided to purge Philip of all his medications. They wanted to clean him out...defrag him...so they could introduce 'new and improved' experimental drugs, as well as tweek the dosages of his current established medications. Philip's world became a pharmaceutical wonderland!

During this 'purge' period, Philip became a complete stranger. We quickly ruled out the 'med-free' approach. He was to become...and still is...a prisoner to his pills! He was code orange!

Speaking of prisoners, Diane called Philip's neurologist one day for an appointment...things were not going well! He had suffered a very serious reaction to some 'new' meds and was experiencing symptoms of full-blown Parkinson's. It was a scary time! The doctor sensed the urgency, but was unavailable at his office that day...could she bring him to the psychiatric ward at the General where he was spending his day. He would see her there.

In the tiny waiting room Diane watched in agony as Philip paced and floundered around, and finally settled in at the receptionist's desk...leaning over the counter...drooling uncontrollably over her papers...and pathetically staring at the young lady, who, although accustomed to this environment, was clearly unnerved with the spectacle in front of her. The reason for her anxiety soon became obvious as 2 policemen came down the hall escorting a shackled, 'orange-clad' prisoner...they were returning him to jail...he'd been there for an assessment.

As they neared the reception area, Diane panicked. Philip, oblivious to the situation, was directly in the path of the 'prisoner parade'! What if, she thought, the 'man in orange' decides to grab Philip and hold him hostage? (she'd been watching far too much Hill Street Blues!). The receptionist sensed the impending danger as well and quickly recommended Diane and Philip 'escape' to a small room off to to the side where they would be safe. Diane immediately grabbed Philip's arm and as they turned to go, he saw the approaching officers with their prisoner and mumbled something to the effect..."nice outfit!'.

He never referred to the incident again. As was the case in those days, things entered and exited Philip's mind at the 'speed of light'! We had arrived at 'the darkest before the dawn'!

But dawn soon peeked over the horizon. And the sun's been shining brightly ever since! And to make a long story short (if only, eh?), we got the meds right and the dosages right...and today live in the 'presence of perfection' (at least as perfect as can be expected).

Philip's a happy, healthy young man...very comfortable 'in his world'...lives life to the fullest. But like the 'man in orange', Philip's a prisoner...shackled to his condition...incarcerated by his 'obsessive compulsions'...his pencils...his binders...his movies...his pop...his routines. The irony of it is...his obsessive compulsions mentally demand that he take his meds every day...on time...in order...and without fail. Which...think about it...is why he takes them...to keep his OCD in check! Can't get much crazier than that!

Wanna bet? Christmas is less than 2 weeks away...and Johnny's coming. It's gonna get a lot crazier!

And we're looking forward to it!