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My twenty eight year old son Krystian has been battling severe mental illness since adolescence followed by the onset of debilitating drug addiction to self medicate. At age twelve he declared that he felt “something” had taken over his body and he asked for help. This was the first indication of his awareness that something wasn’t right. Two years later, he was wrongly and cruelly diagnosed as schizophrenic which greatly stigmatized him. He began to neglect schoolwork and sports, skipped school, smoked marijuana and fell foul of the law. In lieu of jail time and funded by the family, he attended wilderness therapy in Utah. Yet, he was still troubled and at sixteen began “sampling” a cocktail of drugs. While attending a Florida accredited school within a residential mental health and addiction treatment program, his psychiatrist diagnosed him with bi-polar disorder, drug induced psychosis and drug addiction. He graduated high school at a therapeutic boarding school back in Utah where he was also receiving medical care again paid for out of family savings.
Even though he was closely followed by psychiatric doctors, Krystian’s late teens and early twenties were tumultuous. He attempted to take classes at community college, tried out a number of jobs such as waiting tables, stocking and dish washing but could never hold down a position for long as his mental illness and addiction progressed without proper treatment. He discovered harder drugs and became a crack addict, spending several years in and out of short term dual diagnosis drug and mental health and rehab treatment programs in South Florida that insurance would cover. At age twenty three he was also diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and his compulsions and rituals began to interfere with all aspects of his life. Subsequently, he has completed three short term residential stays at Rogers Hospital in Milwaukee for intensive OCD treatment. Each time he responded well to therapy and each time Krystian’s length of treatment was always determined by his insurance company.
Following the repetitive relapse cycles and short term rehabilitation stays, the family took a decision, at considerable financial cost, to send Krystian for long term, intensive residential treatment at Burning Tree Recovery Ranch in Kaufman TX. Krystian did very well at Burning Tree, took his treatment very seriously and was very hopeful about getting on with his life after discharge when he lived among a supportive sober community in Dallas. Although he struggled with rapid bi-polar cycling and OCD, he clocked up almost two years of sobriety.
Another relapse in January 2019 heralded a very difficult and painful year. From June to October Krystian was “missing” and living homeless on the streets of Lubbock, Texas engaged in active crack use. When he called for help, he was in a hyper mania, had been off his medication for five months and was extremely traumatized by the violence he had experienced on the streets. After hospital stabilization, he returned to a sober home in Dallas and continued to attend out patient therapy. In the last few months, his OCD and bi-polar cycling rapidly accelerated as the Covid-19 pandemic developed and quarantine was mandated. His OCD became intolerable and led to another self-medicating crack relapse and active use on the Dallas streets over a two-week period in May.
Fortunately, Krystian has been back in treatment since June 11 at Renewal Lodge by Burning Tree in Elgin, Texas, a sixty day treatment program. His program completion is crucial to his well being and survival but unfortunately, insurance will only cover thirty days of treatment. Over the years our family financial resources have been severely depleted and I am unable to keep him in treatment without support. Sadly, our health insurance companies neither prioritize nor recognize the need for longer term treatment.
I would be extremely grateful and appreciative to receive any donations to assist with his program completion. Despite Krystian’s very challenging and difficult life lived to date, he still has hope that he can find a way to manage his bi-polar depression, OCD and drug addiction. When I met him at the airport in Lubbock he declared “I want to live. I should have died but I didn’t. I know I have a purpose and I want to find it.” As his mother, I remain hopeful that he will end this vicious cycle and that recovery will eventually triumph with support from family and friends.
Nina Duval
Even though he was closely followed by psychiatric doctors, Krystian’s late teens and early twenties were tumultuous. He attempted to take classes at community college, tried out a number of jobs such as waiting tables, stocking and dish washing but could never hold down a position for long as his mental illness and addiction progressed without proper treatment. He discovered harder drugs and became a crack addict, spending several years in and out of short term dual diagnosis drug and mental health and rehab treatment programs in South Florida that insurance would cover. At age twenty three he was also diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and his compulsions and rituals began to interfere with all aspects of his life. Subsequently, he has completed three short term residential stays at Rogers Hospital in Milwaukee for intensive OCD treatment. Each time he responded well to therapy and each time Krystian’s length of treatment was always determined by his insurance company.
Following the repetitive relapse cycles and short term rehabilitation stays, the family took a decision, at considerable financial cost, to send Krystian for long term, intensive residential treatment at Burning Tree Recovery Ranch in Kaufman TX. Krystian did very well at Burning Tree, took his treatment very seriously and was very hopeful about getting on with his life after discharge when he lived among a supportive sober community in Dallas. Although he struggled with rapid bi-polar cycling and OCD, he clocked up almost two years of sobriety.
Another relapse in January 2019 heralded a very difficult and painful year. From June to October Krystian was “missing” and living homeless on the streets of Lubbock, Texas engaged in active crack use. When he called for help, he was in a hyper mania, had been off his medication for five months and was extremely traumatized by the violence he had experienced on the streets. After hospital stabilization, he returned to a sober home in Dallas and continued to attend out patient therapy. In the last few months, his OCD and bi-polar cycling rapidly accelerated as the Covid-19 pandemic developed and quarantine was mandated. His OCD became intolerable and led to another self-medicating crack relapse and active use on the Dallas streets over a two-week period in May.
Fortunately, Krystian has been back in treatment since June 11 at Renewal Lodge by Burning Tree in Elgin, Texas, a sixty day treatment program. His program completion is crucial to his well being and survival but unfortunately, insurance will only cover thirty days of treatment. Over the years our family financial resources have been severely depleted and I am unable to keep him in treatment without support. Sadly, our health insurance companies neither prioritize nor recognize the need for longer term treatment.
I would be extremely grateful and appreciative to receive any donations to assist with his program completion. Despite Krystian’s very challenging and difficult life lived to date, he still has hope that he can find a way to manage his bi-polar depression, OCD and drug addiction. When I met him at the airport in Lubbock he declared “I want to live. I should have died but I didn’t. I know I have a purpose and I want to find it.” As his mother, I remain hopeful that he will end this vicious cycle and that recovery will eventually triumph with support from family and friends.
Nina Duval