My mother is losing her mind. Is it time for placement?

SOUNDS like she is on medicine....and she is only in her 70's...I would make sure about the meds she is taking...otherwise sounds like alzheimers or some other form of dementia....lewy body....but she definitely needs to be checked out by a neurologist and have a blood panel done...I have a mother who refuses to go into assisted living with memory care...I paid for one month and the truck to pick up her stuff ..at the last minute she refused...so we had to stop it all. she is living alone...she wants someone to live with her...she wont go live with my sister who lives further away...so I'm waiting ..for her to forget her house...because she wont leave it...I have power of attorney and am on her accounts. her roof leaked and I contacted her ins and they are going to do a new roof and ceiling...its crazy but...she does the same things...she hates the spouses of her kids including mine...and screams and says really nasty stuff and curses as well. and talks to God all the time and says she has seen Jesus and God ...everyone around knows it and helps when they can...but its getting worse and I'm waiting..i don't want to get guardianship...that entails going to court and the gov interfering...God bless you and I hope you get the help you need...im going on 66 and my husband 70....she is going on 84. my father died in 2014 and then my brother in 2015 and that really hit her hard.....

MTRX, your head and heart are in the right place. Stay on track and don't give up.

I apologize for being so yappy in my first post. I did not realize you had sent your daughter to live with her other (more stable) granny. Props to you.

Your daughter sounds like a great kid and I'm sure you miss her company. Bless you for putting what's good for her ahead of what's convenient for you. Love isn't always easy, is it? 😟

Keep coming back here for support. Your issue is complex, for sure. The more you share, the more folks can help you.

BIG hugs, dude. You have been through some serious crap. Your persistence and forward-thinking is admirable. Keep up the good work.

@Veronica91 that's exactly what happened. i was in a body cast for 6MONTHS and over a year in a wheel chair, and told i'd never walk again. mom kept saying come home, but i didn't want to. i stayed for a year alone in austin in a bodycast and wheel chair to salvage what bit of a life i had left, and finally after some time, maybe a year and a half, i taught myself how to walk-because no therapy places would take me do to the extensiveness of my injuries. can't begin to talk about how bad they are. at any rate, after a year i completely ran out of money. savings, selling stuff, donations and charity, it all ran out. -and mom said this is it, you have to come home. i will take care of you, and help you recover. atleast here you don't have to worry about money.

when i got home she was already kind of weird and agitated all the time. she was in a lot of pain, and the medical conditions of hers were worsening, so we got her to a doctor, and he put her on tramadol, and that's when stuff got really weird. forgetfulness, saying things she regretted, etc. the introduction of gaberpentin introduced more behavioral changes. feeling of welness, reduced anxiety, less nerve pain, and such and for awhile it appeared to be working. Then came the tizanadine, but she never took very much until recently that her pain got a lot worse. she started taking it at night, and that's pretty much when all h*ll broke loose.

her mental health has been degrading for months, and i kept wonder wth is wrong with her?? i even began logging and charting her behavior and it was like insane clockwork. every 2weeks she'd start a ridiculous argument ending in rage, and as time progressed those incidents got closer and closer to where they were multiple in a week. including all the other aforementioned symptoms.

i know they had me on tramadol for a minute, and i felt aweful. so bad they had to take me off it. and the same with gabapentin. that stuff really messed with my head. it was making my flashbacks worse, giving me bad nightmares, making me feel out of place, and so on. i refuse to take that garbage anymore. same with the tramadol. they have been put on my do not prescribe lists.

one doctor suggested perhaps my mother and i share a sensitivity to these drugs. it's almost monday, and if i don't hear from her doctors by monday perhaps tuesday, i'm taking her to the E.R. can't wait on them anymore.

she has stopped the gabapentin, and she appears less drunk less often. same with the tizanadine i told her quit taking it, and got hersome benedryl otc to help her sleep. she's down to one tramadol in the morning, and one at night, and appears to be doing better. she doesn't appear as intoxicated, but u know. so much time has passed like this, she still doesn't quite appear to be herself. time will tell.

I can tell you what gabapentin did for me. I was prescribed 300 mg 3x a day for back pain, and I'd often take all three pills at once. Result: I'd feel drunk-ish. A bit dizzy and a bit clumsy, and in a really good, relaxed mood, (but probably also a bit stupid and forgetful) for about 12 hours. I'd call it "hitting the reset button", it would take away my depression. Maybe a bit too much. After it wore off, I'd be unhappy, angry and feel agitated. And I developed a tolerance that really encouraged upping the dose. So I'd say Gabapentin even by itself messes with mood and is easy to abuse. I have no idea how much worse it would be combined with other things.

MTRX2010, I am sorry if I offended you. All I had to go on was your original post and if you said your daughter was at her other Grandma's house, I missed it. Good for you that you made that arrangement. My heart goes out to you. You certainly have your work cut out for you. Hugs, Hugs, Hugs,

I had to stop taking Tramadol after a month or so because it blurred my vision. I did not go though any withdrawal symptoms. My vision did continue to be blurry for a few days while it fully left my body. I certainly hope your mother's experience isn't as gruesome as some other cases.

It is good to be prepared for what might happen, but worrying excessively about it won't change anything. Mom will have a hard time with withdrawal from her drugs, or it may be fairly calm. You'll find out when it happens, and there is nothing you can do about it now. (This is easier advice to give than to take, I know.)

I'm amazed at the maturity of your 14 yo daughter!

Thanks for keeping us informed.

@Dontask4handout I left a letter with her doctor yesterday, and told his personal assistant exactly what's been going on, so they should be calling me monday to take her off the neurological medicines. I have a scan planned after we get her off. I'm gonna take her to a hospital from a totally different network, explain to them the situation, and have a scan done, and blood work for all the aforementioned suggestions from the other users on this thread, including UTI, defficiencies and such. I put her on centrum complete for women a few days ago.

@lindylu thank you. It's hard just thinking about it. i actually got about 6HOURS of sleep straight last night which is more than i've had all week.
despite all the crap that's happened, my daughter doesn't seem to be angry or hurt to much at all. -and i ask often to check on her. infact she doesn't really get that angry when my mom's losing her gourd either. -but i can't imagine a child not being bothered by seeing there grandparent slowly descend into madness, and poor health. she tries to comfort me about it, but she's only 14. However she did say, old people get old and crazy. it just happens, and maybe this is who my mom is now, and if so, i'm not a bad person for putting her in placement. from the mouth of babes right?? 8(

@BarbBrooklyn we took her to the doctor last week for some blood work, and urinalysis. they didn't say what they were looking for or the results, and everytime i tried to get close to the doctor, they kept telling it would have to wait for the next appointment. last few times we went last week, we never actually got to see him, and we got another appointment with him on the 19TH. i'm thinking about just taking her to the hospital, telling them what's going on, getting her scanned and treated there, and see if i can just get a referal to a new doctor at the hospital, because i'm thinking if this doctor didn't know she was going to have an interaction, let alone doesn't have time to see his own patients regarding important personal matters, maybe she doesn't need to be there. She needs a doctor who's cautious, and going to be there for her when she really needs it.

i've always had a bad feeling about this clinic system, and have heard unsettling things about them in the past. I know recently they been shutting down clinics, and even shut one down my friends mom was going to-and she had cancer. When they system was contacted concerning her medical records, they said all records were lost in the old building!!!! i wonder if they're hiding mal-practice??

@cwillie yes. for some years. first was the tizanadine, then tramadol, then came the gabapentin. They were not all prescribed on the same day, they just kept stacking one after the other as the years went by. I knew she would taper off, and had actually started doing that herself over the passed few weeks on her own. Which makes me wonder if she's been going through withdrawl as well. SSRI's are notorious for severe withdrawal symptoms, and tramadol is both an SSRI, and an opioid. from what everyone says Tramadol withdrawal is pretty vicious, and unlike other pain medicines which only take a few days to get out of the system, Tramadol can take upwards of a full week, or longer. 8(

I think there's a lot of things going on with her. The side effects, the drug interactions, serotonin syndrome, and possibly even withdrawal from all the different medicines.

MARX. many landlords have their properties HUD approved which allows the tenant to get rental assistance Section8 housing is not the only subsidized accommodation available and you are correct there are usually long wait lists, even wait lists to get on a wait list.
You mentioned that you had serious disabilities from an injury. Maybe you can look at this from the point of domestic abuse. Your mother drove out your caregiver who you clearly need and to me that certainly sounds like domestic abuse. It is also worth consulting Catholic Charities.
Did this ll begin by Mom taking care of you after your accident and has now deteriorated since she has become mentally ill?

Veronica, the type of housing you are describing is often very limited in availability with long waitlists. There was a really interesting (and upsetting) segment on NPR a few days ago, I think on All Things Considered. It addressed Section 8 housing and the people they interviewed were in Texas. A mom had waited 6 years for a Section 8 voucher; when she got it she looked for a landlord who would accept it and after several months decided to turn her voucher in because there was just nothing available. She and her son ended up in public housing. That is not really an ideal situation either.

The plan for this young man was for his mom, him, and his daughter to stay together since his mom now needs assistance. It sounds like she was planning to leave him the home if something were to happen to her, and was in the process of trying to do the paperwork for that.

Both he and his mom are having a bad time right now. It is hard enough to care for someone with garden variety dementia when we are in good health. This man has had a serious physical injury and his mom is suffering from more complicated issues. It is not going to be a situation that gets fixed overnight. How many of us took months or years to figure out what was going on with our loved ones' cognitive and health issues? I know 15 years into the process, our family was still learning every day.

Several people have advocated handing his mom off to the state or to APS. I am curious how many advocating that have done it themselves. How did it turn out?

If it gets to the point where his mom is not able to function, it's not the meds or another underlying condition, then asking them to place her from the hospital into long term care makes sense. But from experience, Medicaid nursing homes -- and from observation even private pay -- are usually understaffed. Family still needs to be regularly involved to oversee patient care. It is not like there is a well-trained army of caring family surrogates waiting there to magically fix everything. It might be necessary for his family to place his mom at some point, but it makes perfect sense to me that he would want to straighten out his mom's medical situation before making a major decision for her like that.

Seek the advice of your local council on aging both for her and yourself.
i can see you do not want the responsibilityof the house etc. is there any form od assisted living that woud be available to you. There are often apartments for those 55 or old and those younger with disabilities.
I realize it is your mother a nd you feel respsposible, but look at it from the other side and see that your actions are actually totally irrisponsible in lettings things continue. With a lawyers advise it may be possible to have Mom made ward of the State and then everything will be out of your hands.

I missed the fact that your daughter was already out of the house. I read up on Mental Health Warrants in Tx after my last post. It does seem to be complicated if you try to apply for it yourself. But if you already have APS involved it is stated that APS can move it along pretty quickly. But I would think Mom would have to be displaying some pretty irrational behavior before Law Enforcement or APS would Act.

I am sure you well know Mental Health resources are scarce in South Texas. Resources had dwindled to absolutely nothing. Now, most Sheriff's Depts in my area are trying to train a couple of deputies in Mental Health Issues to deal with situations just like your Moms. Hopefully you are in a larger town or city with more resources available.

Here's hoping the the voluntary ER trip works out and your Mom gets a thorough Medical Evaluation.

You said she has been on these meds for years? And whatever is going on with her is fairly recent?
I would still opt for a medical intervention in an appropriate facility. Sorting out medications and tapering off is not something for amateurs, and since her behavioural issues are new there is possibly more going on with her than that.

Let me rephrase what I just said....
If your mom has not seen the doctor in several months, and these symptoms are recent, then yes, get her back yto the doctor if she will cooperate with going to an appointment and answering questions.

The minute she gets uncooperative or violent or starts talking suicide, i would get her to an ER. Tell them that you are worried about a dangerous drug interaction that is causing her violence and irrationality.

But as Jeanne says, her doctor can't fix what s/he doesn't know about. And always remember that you can call or write your mom's doctors to inform them what's going on. They can't divulge information but they CAN recieve feedback from you.

Have you told mom's doctor about her behaviors?

We're you planning to take her back to the same doctor who prescribed these meds ?

Perhaps you'd get a quicker and more objective evaluation from an ER, or an outside doctor.

You're doing a good job. The ER is a tough call. If her doctor is actually getting the tests lined up, and your mom is staying calm/comfortable, it might be better to wait. Hopefully you both are getting some sleep and you can see how she's doing in the morning.

As far as your daughter goes, that is great that she can stay with her other grandma. I would think that her heart will heal a lot faster knowing what caused her grandma's outbursts.

Keep having faith that you are doing the right thing. I am from a really small, close-knit family too. We help each other, and we each have had our turn where we've needed to lean a little harder on the others. You should not have to justify wanting to help your mom to anyone.

Where I would first start is to take her to the doctor for evaluation. See if the doctor will run a brain scan and some bloodwork. The brain scan will determine any brain damage from dementia or Alzheimer's. The bloodwork will determine any nutritional deficiencies that may have caused chemical imbalance in the brain. If she's deficient, she'll definitely need to replace what she has lost and see if there's any improvement. If she has an unhealthy diet, that's a sure culprit for nutritional deficiencies and she'll need a diet change to improve her health. That means she'll need to start eating a healthy diet from now on

@lizzywho61 Thank you so much. I'm in south texas, that's really helpful advice, cuz that's where i'm at, and i've been trying to figure that out in terms of procedures and what not.

alongside the medical research, I've also been doing the legal research, and everywhere i looked it just kept looking like the only way to get someone admitted was if they consent.

It might upset everyone to hear that i've also called the cops and the medics when she had her first major melt down. They did absolutely nothing!!!! The medics said she had high blood pressure, and the cops didn't do squat. They just said I might need to find a new place to live.

I was like what the heck?? I don't have anywhere to go. I'm disabled, section 8 is packed up for the next 5YEARS, and I'm tied to all my medical needs down here seeing as i'm so severely injured. What's more i'm in charge of all this crap. I do all my mom's paper work, set her appointments, maintain what little bit i can around the house on my own when she's to sick to help, cook, clean, and I don't think she'll survive without me-especially since she's been making the nurses quit-who's going to take care of her?? One cop said maybe it's time to consider placement. I said how am I supposed to do that?? -And he said he didn't know I'd have to look it up, and or ask a lawyer. It's like damm man, we're a disabled household, i can't afford a lawyer. We get exactly enough to pay bills, buy food, and side medical costs with our combined incomes. We don't live bad, but we don't live outside our means, or have money for tons of lawyers. I'm already trying to save money, so I can get the lawyer to draw up the paper work for the "will", full medical and financial power of attorney, and get the deed to the house turned over to me. My mom doesn't do that stuff anymore-I'm doing it all now. One cop was telling my mom, look if you got a problem with them here you can kick them out. get a lawyer to draw up an eviction notice and give them 30DAYS. I was like whoah. a) no money for that, b) she'll be left her all by herself, because of your advice, and I honestly don't think she can survive on her own. -And most importantly-She can't kick me out. I'm 100% disabled. We already discussed this with the life insurance lawyer, because my mom was worried one of my brothers might show up trying to claim the house after she died, and try and kick me out. The life insurance lawyer said, she'll deals with those kinds of cases all the time, and the fact of the matter is, nobody can kick me out under federal law, because I am disabled. Even if one of them inherited the house, they couldn't sell it out from under me, kick me out, or otherwise remove me from the house unless I left on my own, because the law prohibits any such action taken, because obviously people have tried doing to that to their family members in the passed, and the court squashed it.

-and that was it. that's all I got out of them. They didn't take her to the E.R. or tell me hey she's showing weird physical symptoms get her checked out, or anything. They did say however, If I decide to put her into placement, I could go by the P.D., and request copies of all the incident reports to show if she needs placement.

-And then they left. -When they left, she was still heavily agitated, and kept on yelling at me. So the cops came right back, and told her to knock it off, and again said just move out man problem solved. So i packed up my fishing gear and hobbled over to the creek and spent the day fishing, cuz they were of no help at all, and I had to get out of the house until my mother was well again. Oh and they also said they couldn't do anything, because she wasn't threatening to hurt my, or herself.

As for these CPS statements read a couple of comments up. That's not an issue at all. Already taken care of a long time ago.

I'm just worried about my mom right now. I really gotta figure out what the deal is with her medical situation.

I'm wondering maybe I shouldn't wait for the doctors on monday. maybe i should just get her to E.R. ASAP. 8(

@jeannegibbs yeah she's been on these for years, and it seems to have progressed slowly, until this year when it got really crazy. I noticed the major changes a few months ago when one night she fell off her bed. she had slid between the bed and the wall, and when i found her, she sounded really messed up. her speech was slurring, her eyes were glazed. she just didn't sound or look like herself. ever since that night, those same symptoms have been progressively getting worse and more often. I know my mother had issues with depression back in teh day. my father's death hit her pretty hard, and he died some years after her previous divorce which also hit her pretty hard, and she had a really bad childhood and some aweful life experiences. aweful. i know one time she saw her boyfriend get murdered. so you can imagine. PTSD and what not. -but seeing her flip and lose her cool wasn't an everyday thing back then. she had her bad days, but she was still functional. then over the last year or 2 i had noticed the unusual anger fits that were getting worse over really little and trivial things. i began keeping a log cuz i thought it was weird and unusual. She was especially weird when i moved back after the really bad accident that i had. I had moved back home to Austin to go scrape some years off my PHD in Computer Science, and left her here alone for about 3YEARS before moving back. I was gonna go knock out 2YEARS and come right back, but the accident kept me in Austin for another year. When I got back she was a little weird-cabin fever i guess, but nothing like this.

In my logs i had noticed that there was a frequency to agitation. and i noticed that she was creating arguments every 2WEEKS. like seriously ever 2WEEKS on the clock. and now they're getting closer and closer together, until this year where they were so frequent, they were coming around several times a week.

so yeah she's had problems with depression, and lonelyness, but she has never lashed out at her grandkids, verbally, or otherwise before.

Today It broke my !@$#ing heart so bad. I was in my room researching, and i heard her sobbing out there saying, "Why Lord?? What's wrong with me. Why am i like this. You know i love my granddaughter so much, what's happening to me." It tore my heart out. -And it's been making me cry, but it fueled my research.

It's so aweful, she knows she's losing it, and there's nothing, so far, that we've been able to do about it. If these doctor's don't act fast, like in the next couple of days fast, I'm taking her to the E.R.

@MaryKathleen
a) CPS cannot and would not take my daughter away.
I made a dual management arrangement with her grandmother on her mother's side(her mother is 100% absent, and will not be coming back into the picture), and let her go back to live there until I can figure out what's wrong with mom. -And there's no physical abuse going on towards my daughter, it's only been yelling, or she'd be in jail already, cuz I wouldn't have allowed that to go on once.

b) I owe it to my mother to make every effort to save her life. She's my mother. She has saved my life more than once, and when I lost my mind in 2000 When my father died, and my first fiance left me in the same 6MONTHS, I came down with panic disorder, and OCD so bad I couldn't finish my Army Enlistment, got out on medical, and I couldn't even eat. I lost 40LBS from about 170 to 130LBS in just a few months. She did everything she could to save my life, and keep me alive. She even got a job in her 60's making crafts dipping wreaths in oil drums just to put food on the table, because I couldn't afford to support the family anymore. -And not to mention all the years in my recovery, where she just wasn't just a mother to me, a father and my best friend as well. You obviously have no clue what this is doing to me.
Now the shoe's on the other foot, and I have to atleast try. I've never given up on a family member. Not even the bad ones, and i'm not just going to throw in the towel on my own mother. I worried her hair gray as a teenager and a youngman. I guess it's my turn to worry. -And I know for a fact, I'm the only person in the world who has never given up on her. My brother ditched us, and left all this on my shoulders. My father left long before he passed on. -And there's little to say about her relatives. I don't want to be the last one to give up on her.
-And this is her house, she once told me she got this house, because she didn't want to be living in other places where her kids were looked down upon. She went through h*ll to get this house, and made a major sacrifice that is outside the scope of this thread, but if she wants to pass on at home, maybe she deserves that much. -And if there's a chance that she can do it in peace, and I can give her that, I'm going for it.

There's zero percent chance of a CPS involvement I already made sure of that. I had already mentioned in a prior posting that I have already let her go be with her Grandmother, and I even have court arrangements already made, so her granny can get some assistance, and still leave me fully in charge of my daughter's medical needs since she's been sick, and we're in the middle of getting her tonsil surgery taken care of. -And I had ALREADY turned to APS(adult protective services), to get some help on trying to figure out what to do. If it was going to happen it would have happened when I had all those agents over at my house the other day discussing how to take care of mom.

The first time she yelled at my daughter, I told her don't let it happen again, the second time is when I let her go stay at her grandmother's without repeal, because I can't focus on both of these problems at once. It's to d*mm much for me right now.

You might think it takes a big pair of panties to toss my mother in a retirement home or psychward, and throw in the towel just cuz things have gotten difficult for everyone, but it takes a h*ll of a bigger pair, to find solutions that work for every family member, and save someone's life.

If i don't try to fix my mother's situation she could die!!!! That should be clearly obvious right now. She's dying slowly, and going insane, from side effects and medicine interactions, and I have to sit here alone and watch it. I'm not gonna sit on my hands and pass the buck, if there's still hope in saving what little family I have left. She needs me now more than ever. She knows she's sick, she knows something is wrong, and I'm smack dab in the middle of finding out what's wrong. Once I know what's wrong with her, find out if it's curable, if it's the medicine, and if we need to consider placement, can I can make a proper decision concerning both the well being, and placement of my family members. You sorely underestimate the level of responsibility I have here, and just how much I love all of them, or what kind of a man i really am.

my daughter is already taken care of. -and school isn't a problem cuz she's homeschooled through the k12 program which she can do from her laptop at her grandmother's.

my only worry about my daughter right now is if we can salvage her and mom's relationship after such a horrible argument, and when she can come home. -And I won't know when she can come home until I know if my mom can stay home, or if she's even going to survive what these crazy medicines and doctors have done to her.

My daughter left to her other grandmothers the same day my mom whacked me. She wasn't going to hang around for that crap. I got divorced for similar reasons-I'm not gonna let my kids watch me get abused. Readup incase you missed any other details. I'm more of a man than someone who's gonna let his daughter get pushed around, or let his mom get put away, and throw in the towel cuz things are super difficult, or let his kids get snatched up by govt, all in one fell swoop forthwith and without putting forth the effort to save everyone involved. govt is already involved. -and we're trying to figure it out. In fact they should be coming again monday, so we can discuss in an inhouse nurse arrangement for my mom.

we had caregivers before, but they were not real nurses. we're going to get a real RN in here with experience in elderly with mental problems and dimentia to help me take care of her, until we can get her diagnosed, off these stupid worthless neurological medicines, and enrolled with a real pain management professional.

My mom's been a strong woman her whole life. -But not everyone can be strong all the time. She needs me right now, and if i can find a way to save my little family, i'm going for it. especially if it's the woman who gave me life, and then saved it more than once. I atleast owe it to her to try, and I owe it to my father. That's called integrity, and loyalty. I was raised to have extreme loyalty towards my family members-especially my parents, and children. maybe it's cultural, maybe it's a flaw-but I would really hate to show my daughter to simply give up and take the fastest way out when there's a serious problem at hand instead of using both sides of your brain to solve a problem, or letting family members down when they really really need you.

I just can't imagine, knowing there might be an answer to it, and not doing something about it. H*ll problem solving and investigating is my career. I'm a scientist, and always will be. I'm just one of these people who has to know all the variables before I can do the math, and come to a solution.

especially like today when i hear my mom over there apologizing to God for being mean to us. That means mom's still in there. All her medicines have her symptoms listed as side effects. What if i tossed her in there, and I was right all along-and nobody ever found out, because I didn't say anything?? She'd spend the last few of her Golden Years in a box, when she could have gotten well, and spent them at home with her kids. I couldn't live with myself knowing I had doubts, and didn't follow through on my research. I just couldn't.

You make it sound way to easy. -And i'm over here crying every single day for the passed week. Putting my mom up is the hardest decision I've had to make since I chose to leave my ex-wife for being abusive. -And like then, I'm not going to do it until I have all the facts straight, and know 100% i'm doing the right thing. Otherwise I wouldn't have come here at all. -And I really think my daughter needs to see me atleast try. She needs to see me solve a problem, make a serious decision, come to a 100% correct decision, set the example, show forgiveness, intelligence, mercy, loyalty, and love. She's knows I spent almost 10YEARS searching for her, and checking every corner of the earth till I found her, because I don't give up on my family, and i'm sure she'll understand that'd i'd do the same for my mother-because we're family, and in the long run all we got is eachother. This decision affects everyone, and possibly affects us for the rest of our lives. I have to be sure i'm doing the right thing no matter which avenue I take in solving this problem. Whether it's finding a new place to live for me and my daughter; finding out if my mother's sick, and can be cured; or if the damage is irrevocable, and she needs to go into placement.

MT,
It seems you are on to something. I hope so. You mentioned sometimes you feel like you are dealing with 2 people. Here in South Texas I have never heard of the Baker Act used. If Mom flipped out in my area you would call 911. If whoever arrived, Sheriff's office or Police Dept if they determined Mom was a danger to herself or others she would be transported to the hospital for an evaluation. If Mom is having a Medical crisis and refuses to be transported a Health Warrant can be requested. She would then be transported against her will. You need to check with local law enforcement to determine how this works in your area in case you have another meltdown on your hands. If you catch her in a cooperative mood and you can get her to the hospital yourself it would be a lot less drama for everyone.

You asked if anyone had experienced a loved one go off their rocker from drug interactions. Yes, I have. My sister. She agreed to let me drive her to the hospital.

I agree with a comment above. You really do need to protect your daughter from this. A neighbor could report Moms behavior to Child Protective Services. Then you would have another problem on your hands.

Good for you for digging into the meds and doing the research!

Best of Luck!

You need to stop trying to fix your mother and take care of your daughter. You said your mother is physically and emotionally abusive to your 14 year old daughter. CPS could and probably would take custody of your child from you if you let this continue. A child is being abused and you are still focused on trying to find out what is wrong with your mother. The next time she has a fit, who cares why, call 911 and get her out of the house. Put your big guy panties on (since you aren't a girl) and take care of your child, she is the one you should be focusing on or you may lose her to the foster care system. Trust me, you don't want to do that.

Stop worrying about your mother and take care of your child or CPS will do it for you.

MTRX2010, I think maybe the best part of your discovery is that now your mother sounds like she will cooperate to find out what is wrong with her. No having her committed against her will. Good!

Those drugs don't always cause those side effects, obviously, or they would be off the market. Has your mother shared the symptoms with the doctor, or just kept getting prescription renewed? Doctors can't treat what they don't know about.

As for the drugs that have interactions, I am amazed that the pharmacy did not catch that. There was a certain drug that when I picked it up for my husband the pharmacist explained that there was a possible interaction with another drug he took. His doctor explained that she knew that but under the circumstances the benefit outweighed the risk. I agreed. But each time I got one of those meds, the pharmacist gave me the same warning. Doctors may sometimes not be viewing the entire medication picture, but pharmacists sure do! Or at least ours does.

But regardless of how this happened, it will be marvelous if tweaking her pain medications will restore her good nature and her sanity!

You say she has had some mental health issues all her life but this extreme behavior is new within the last few months. She's been taking this drug combination much longer than that, right? What happened a few months ago that might have triggered a change?

This sounds so hopeful! I'd give her primary doctor a few days to take some action -- better to go to the hospital on his referral than to show up on your own. Don't stop any meds cold turkey without the doctor's advice.

Please, please keep us informed on how this works out.

I am really sorry. You know, it's really good that you put all this together. When my friend was in her residency, she did a geriatric rotation and when she asked senior patients what Rx'es they were on, she had more than one pull out a jar with all the pills mixed together. One told her he just poured a handful a couple times a day and took them like that. I know this is scary and overwhelming, but your mom has you there looking out for her, and that is a lot more than many people have.

My family tends to have a few neurological issues and doctors never seem to take those into consideration when they recommend prescription or over-the-counter meds. It is really baffling.

Well, it sounds like it's been a hard time for your family, but it is really good that you talked to your mom's doctor and that they seem to be taking things seriously. I hope they can figure out quickly what is happening and then begin to straighten things out for her. Keep us updated.

@barbbrooklyn yes all from the same clinic and pharmacy which is one of things that's blowing my mind right now. how on earth did someone not pickup that 2 of these drugs have a severe and dangerous drug interaction between the 2??

@lindylu yeah i understand. I was on tramadol once, and it made me incredibly sick, it made me so sick so fast they had to take me off it immediately. I had to be on it for a few weeks while transitioning between pain doctors. I was with this one guy who almost killed me, so i had to get away from him, and the new doctor has me on standard pain medicines. morphine ER and Oxycodone IR, and i feel better than ever I have since I fell off the cliff. -and i don't get any crazy side effects like tramadol and nueroton, i've been on both of these, and they both made me very sick. a doctor told me since me and mom are related our sensitivity to these particular drugs could be hereditary. i.e....similar chemistries = similar sensitivities sometimes.

She's been on these drugs for years, and i've always noticed weird stuff with them since she started taking them, so who knows how extensive the damage is. I hope taking her off these neurological drugs, which weren't designed for pain to begin with, helps fix the issue. I think either way she's going to have to go the hospital for close monitoring. i'm scared.

Be really careful when you take your mom off these meds; it sounds like the doctor is going to help -- that is good! Tramadol has nasty side effects if stopped abruptly. (The rehab made that mistake with my grandpa. Luckily my mom figured it out ; he ended up getting back on it and was fine.)

I am so sorry this is happening to your mom. I had not heard of serotonin syndrome before you posted -- that is really interesting. How long has your mom been on these medications? (Sorry if you already told us and I missed it.)

I hadn't heard of Tizanadine before, but my grandpa was on Tramadol and Gabapentin at the same time for several years and was ok, but he was really sturdy (over 6' tall and husky) and had no other serious health issues. They took him off gabapentin after a while. These are both drugs that have a lot of potential side effects, as you said. I can see why you are concerned and I hope that they find out that this is what is causing your mom's trouble and without lasting effects!

Boy, I really do not understand why doctors don't look into drug interactions more closely. Good for you for researching this, and good for you for talking to your mom! It sounds like you made a break through with her. She sounds like she's been suffering too. I hope these doctor and medical staff stick by you and help straighten things out.

We're all of these meds prescribed by the same doctor and filled at the same pharmacy?

infact has anyone seen this before involving medicines and side effects, interactions, and serotonin syndrome.

@twocents medicines started driving your mom bonkers?? o_O

actually, it does. trouble is, she may still need to be observed to change/remove the drugs. this happened to my mom: some of them apparently caused some of the problems and, after she fell the first time, they really tweaked the drugs. Improved things for a while

Thanks for the answers.
I found something out that scared the h*ll out of me, but before i mention it, a few people have mentioned they thought i was a woman. I'm not. Just a single father trying to hold what's left of his family together, and figure out whether i need to do the moral thing or the right, as they are not always the same thing unfortunately.

Today I went through my mother's medicines. I looked up all 3, and what I found freaked me the h*ll out.
She's on 3 different medicines for pain. Including Tramadol, gabapentin, and tizanadine.

I began looking them up, and found that mother has all the side effects to every single one of them!!!! -Including all the symptoms of serotonin syndrome.

The Tramadol is an SSRI/SNRI drug with opioid properties which is why they use it for pain, but it's really a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, and it's known for causing serotonin syndrome. Side effects include: ANGER, AGITATION, RESTLESSNESS, and so forth on the mental side of things, all of which have been observed in my mother.

Next was Gabapentin.
Side Effects Include: AGGRESSION, AGITATION, INCREASED RISK OF SUICIDE!!!! All of which i've also mentioned she had!!!!

Next was Tizanadine which has a severe interaction with Tramadol and SSRI Drugs including UAC.

These drugs are driving my mother insane. I didn't include all the other side effects cuz there's too many, but she really has all of them, to all the drugs, including a drug interaction, and serotonin syndrome and all the symptoms those conditions include. All of which include driving a person bonkers, and ANGER.

I wrote her doctor a letter, told him everything that's going on, everything I found out about the drugs, all the symptoms and side effects, and jumped on my bike(not allowed to drive), and hauled it over to his office, and delivered it personally to his medical assistant, and told her exactly what was going on. She looked like she was in shock.

I told them they need to take my mother off all these psychologically active drugs for her pain, put her on something ordinary for now, and get her the referral to see my pain management specialist immediately. No if's ands or buts.

How could these people not know there was a severe and psychological drug interaction between the medicines they've been giving her?? I'm pretty p*ssed guys. And I don't really get angry, but this his caused me and my child so much heartache and difficulty, and to think this could be the direct influence of our problems.

The anger, rage, irritability, sobbing, speak of suicide, insomnia, confusion, memory lapse, these are all symptoms of her medicines, and overlapping with serotonin syndrome, and the aforementioned drug interaction. My mother is literally going insane. -And from what i've been finding it's word for word the side effect symptoms.

They're going to call me ASAP, and see about having the emergency appointment moved up to get her off the pills and on something safer for pain, and then im dragging her over to the hospital to get a catscan and get her headchecked for possible brain damage, and having her evaluated. I'm scared these doctor's she's with now may have caused her serious harm mixing all these neuropathic drugs.

Look up these drugs, and you'll find Anger or some synonym of such on each of their side effect lists. This is insane. I had noticed some behavioral differences a few years back when they started putting her on it, i had noticed little things, but wasn't sure. She's been on this garbage for years, so who knows how extensive the damage is, and who knows how many years of our lives have been hurt over this crap.

I know what my mom looks like drunk, and come to find out those days she would walk around looking and acting drunk, she was on the 2 drugs that have interactions at the same time. They're not even potent drugs, and she takes less than prescribed, but I think when it comes to side effects and drug interactions-all bets are off.

I'm praying this is the problem, and that there's still hope of getting my mother back. -And if it turns out they've caused her irrevocable damage to her brain to where she's going to be pissed off and demented all the time-then I will undoubtedly have to put her into a facility.

I've been crying, praying, and just devastated these past few days. I only get up to eat and use the bathroom, and spent 2DAYS hiding under my blanket and pillow just occasionally checking up here to see if anything's come up.

I always hear about drugs driving people crazy, but aside from illegal drugs, never really thought i'd see it, especially in one of my own family members. a few years ago, my mom was totally in love with my kids, baking breads, and buying presents, and now she's a total monster, and can't stand the site of us.

Earlier before I told my mother what I discovered, I overheard her sobbing, saying what's wrong with me, why lord, I love my granddaughter so much, why am I like this. So I waited a little bit, and went in there, and told her what I had discovered-and read off all the side effects of her drugs, and all the symptoms of the drug interactions and serotonin syndrome which I had already observed in her, and she confirmed every single one. She got really scared, and started crying and tell me about more of her symptoms which all seem to correlate to the aforementioned medical conditions. She even said when she quit using the gabapentin so much a few days ago, her sleep had improved, and so had some of her neuropathic symptoms including the weird twitches, spasms, and hard tremors she's been getting. tremors FFS. she said she's been freezing, and no matter how many blankets she uses she can't get warm-which turns out to be a side effect. She then told me she sweats at night sometimes so bad, she wakes up wet-also a symptom. This list goes on and on.

Does anyone here think I'm on the right track?? I sure hope so, I hope it's something that can be fixed.
Maybe I shouldn't wait for the doctor to call back-and just take her straight to the hospital??

MTRX2010, just to echo what others have said, your mom really needs medical help. Her problems are beyond anything you can do for her as the situation is now. Your mom isn't that old, but sometimes infections will mess with an older patient's reasoning pretty badly (UTI's especially do a number but usually that's more an issue for someone in their 80s.) Someone here mentioned once that unchecked diabetes can cause a person to have issues with their cognition. Although it sounds like your mom has had psychiatric issues for awhile, there could also be another medical problem like that at play. So if you can get her to the hospital next time as the others have said, that's a good time to ask for them to run labs on her and to ask for a psychiatric evaluation.

Also, the stress you are under is going to make the guilt feelings worse. It is easy to get depressed and exhausted in this situation. Your own health is important. And as you probably remember, teenagers are really good at masking home-life stress. Your daughter only has a few more years of being a kid; she needs a secure, calm place as her foundation.

Regarding POA, you can call an attorney -- there are special elder law attorneys but it doesn't really matter what kind -- and they draw up the papers. POA is generally financial -- you are acting in your mom's place in terms of paying bills, signing checks. Then there's Durable POA which allows you to act on that person's behalf more broadly, and medical POA or health care proxy. I'm getting the impression it might vary state to state what you need to act for the person. (We had DPOA and that allowed us to speak to drs and make medical decisions for Grandpa in Michigan. ) The lawyer should be able to tell you what you need in this case and hopefully it will be a reasonable fee -- they should tell you ahead of time over the phone. Best of luck! You are good to stick by your mom even though she sounds like she might be a handful.