Hospitalization

We went to the emergency room as instructed. There Josh was evaluated by a doctor and a social worker. They conferred with his therapist and the school social worker and concluded that he should be hospitalized for further evaluation. The hospital had a child and adolescent psych ward and he was taken up there. Both he and I thought that this would be for a night, but then we were told that it would probably be for a week. I checked him in and we were given pages of rules and things that were not allowed. "This is a prison!" he said. "I don't belong here." Indeed, everything was restricted, from what they wore to what they did and when they did it. He couldn't even have a book to read until it had been cleared with the staff. When it was time for me to go, he yelled "I hate you!"
I felt horrible. What had I done?

Visiting hours were for one hour a day. When I came back to see him, all he could talk about was how everything was just fine until we took his game away. This was all our fault. I encouraged him to use the time in the hospital to work on his issues and feel better. Needless to say, this fell on deaf ears.

The next day his father came and Josh refused to talk to him.

When I came the next time he didn't talk about the game but only about ow far behind he was falling in school and how stressed that was making him. Maybe he's turning the corner, I thought. At least he seems to care about school.

But today when we had a family meeting with the social worker, it was clear that Josh had really made no progress. He started out ok when we were discussing that he might be able to come home soon, but when we explained that there would be no WoW for awhile until he was back on track, he became tearful and kept saying there was nothing else he enjoyed. Why had we done this to him?

Bill and I left feeling very depressed.