Help Chase Rebuild Her Life
Donation protected
In October of 2020, my family began receiving desperate texts from the friends of my oldest daughter, Chase Edwards. They said that she was manic, aggressive, delusional and posting crazy, paranoid messages on social media. We all knew something was gravely wrong. The Chase we all know is loving and fun. And she is a very hard worker. Chase has two master's degrees, was an English teacher at Northern Arizona University, had recently won a national mountain bike series and bought her first house. She doesn't now and never has had an addiction problem.
What we finally ascertained was that Chase was having an adverse reaction to a prescription for Adderall for a diagnosis of ADH. For reasons that make no sense, the PA prescribing the Adderall kept raising her dosage until it topped off, in September of 2020, at 60 mg a day--that is the highest dose of Adderall that can legally be prescribed. The PA then refilled her Adderall prescription during a telemed appointment. We had already sent Chase's brother, Keefer Edwards, out to her home in Arizona to try and help her and he listened to the appointment in horror from another room. He called me the night of that telemed appointment and said: "Mom, it was clear she was manic. I can't believe they refilled her prescription." Needless to say, things escalated to nightmare levels after that refill until the prescription ran out and months later, she finally had a shred of self-preservation to text her dad.
Helping an adult child with a mental illness crisis in this country is virtually impossible because of Hipaa laws and laws against involuntary psychiatric admission. Suffice it to say, that until she finally texted her dad at the end of January I tried to move mountains to get her help--help she did not know she needed in her delusional state. When, to our incredible joy she texted her dad on January 26, he moved mountains to get her back from her home in Arizona and to get her help in Michigan where we both live. The doctors have been amazing in Michigan and I am beyond grateful to say that Chase is Chase again. However, she will need much help to recover from the trauma of the scenario. She has also lost 6 months of income and it will be many months before she has income again. She is working to get disability, her dad and I are helping as much as we can, but there are many bills. She also would like to pursue alternative therapies for trauma that insurance and medicare don't cover. And beyond that, she would like to find an attorney to pursue a malpractice suit.
I know that if we get Chase through this period, she and I both will spend the rest of the lives giving back to people who have faced similar issues--writing about and supporting causes devoted to mental illness issues.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for listening to Chase's story and helping her in any way that you can.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth (Lissa) Edwards
What we finally ascertained was that Chase was having an adverse reaction to a prescription for Adderall for a diagnosis of ADH. For reasons that make no sense, the PA prescribing the Adderall kept raising her dosage until it topped off, in September of 2020, at 60 mg a day--that is the highest dose of Adderall that can legally be prescribed. The PA then refilled her Adderall prescription during a telemed appointment. We had already sent Chase's brother, Keefer Edwards, out to her home in Arizona to try and help her and he listened to the appointment in horror from another room. He called me the night of that telemed appointment and said: "Mom, it was clear she was manic. I can't believe they refilled her prescription." Needless to say, things escalated to nightmare levels after that refill until the prescription ran out and months later, she finally had a shred of self-preservation to text her dad.
Helping an adult child with a mental illness crisis in this country is virtually impossible because of Hipaa laws and laws against involuntary psychiatric admission. Suffice it to say, that until she finally texted her dad at the end of January I tried to move mountains to get her help--help she did not know she needed in her delusional state. When, to our incredible joy she texted her dad on January 26, he moved mountains to get her back from her home in Arizona and to get her help in Michigan where we both live. The doctors have been amazing in Michigan and I am beyond grateful to say that Chase is Chase again. However, she will need much help to recover from the trauma of the scenario. She has also lost 6 months of income and it will be many months before she has income again. She is working to get disability, her dad and I are helping as much as we can, but there are many bills. She also would like to pursue alternative therapies for trauma that insurance and medicare don't cover. And beyond that, she would like to find an attorney to pursue a malpractice suit.
I know that if we get Chase through this period, she and I both will spend the rest of the lives giving back to people who have faced similar issues--writing about and supporting causes devoted to mental illness issues.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for listening to Chase's story and helping her in any way that you can.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth (Lissa) Edwards
Organizer
Elizabeth Edwards
Organizer
Glen Arbor, MI