Really & truly we can breathe again... He's nearly over the detox

Dear readers,

Hi - this is a shorter one, as I have been doing my email - long overdue.

Tom, my son aged 28, is now recovering from his binge on 'detox', and has nearly finished the treatment. He has been allowed out of the acute mental health ward at Roehampton for breaks, and has enjoyed the freedom of being back at our house, sitting or lying in the garden, and today having a walk in our local parkland. (It is very pleasant around this neighbourhood - in West London's leafy suburbs, with much open space and a little managed wilderness in Crane Park, and Richmond Park.) Where he still is, he was only able to run round a fairly small, plain garden about 100 times, for exercise. He is quite fit, active and energetic, so he really needed this break. He was able to chill out, lie on his bed and listen to music (CDs and tapes), and stroke or pet our beloved old ginger cat, whom he really loves (Aah!).

He has been allowed home for the last 2 days for 2-3 hours, and again tomorrow. Then on Friday evening, in 2 days' time, he is allowed back for good. (Or, until the next time...!) We now have to look into getting him some sort of in-patient treatment at the larger mental hospital, maybe at St. George's Hospital, London. Last year the doctors there offered him intensive cognitive therapy plus psychotherapy, but he turned it down. Now he realises that he needs it. We have made a bargain with him that he may still live here, so long as he does pursue this treatment and accepts it when it's offered. He has deeply underlying psychological problems that cause him to drink and binge to excess, and get even more out of control. He knows now that this can no longer be just gone along with, but must be properly treated - or he will never have a decent life, and the whole sorry episode could happen again, with great risk to his actual life on this earth (and also to our own physical and mental health). I am myself somewhat better, but have a terrible chesty cough - I am on antibiotics for this.

He is back at the acute ward for only 2 more nights, finishing his detox programme, but he has nearly finished that. He was so much better today - just like his old self - very lucid. He was enjoying worshipping Gpod, adn could ask God for peace, which he was now getting. I hope his other problems do not build up again for a while. He will return to AA and to Church meetings once he is out, from Saturday onwards. Last night our church house prayed intensively for him at our Agape meeting; they truly focused on him. He is after all a covenanted member and brother of the church, and must not be lost to "the enemy" (ie. Satan and the dark side).

Well that's all I have time for tonight - it's been a busy day on and off. Tomorrow I am going out in Central London (Picadilly) for lunch with an old friend, a former student from the criminology course that I teach in London. We will talk about crime, the world and other things - quite a change. She has 2 cats (like me), but they have to stay indoors, unlike our puss, who has a decent sized garden. She smokes cigarettes steadily, unlike me. We are all long term non-smokers in this house - drinking is our family vice to varying degrees (I like a small drink of wine or scotch whisky most evenings; Dave likes two scotches every night if he can, ie he is not driving - and Tom has problems with booze, as our recent saga shows).

Goodbye, cheerio and thanks for reading my missives - if you have been.

Tigey

PS - We have had very heavy rain showers here this afternoon and evening. Driving back through Richmond Park from Tom's hosiptal, we saw a wonderful rainbow arch with a reflection, stretching right across the green trees (oaks and elms), grasslands and tower blocks in the distance. It made our heart leap and we drove round again to get a much better look. This is God in his heaven - but he smites some of us down here - as the flooding yesterday in Cornwall (Boscastle) has shown. Fortunately no-one has died (yet) in these floods. (So far these are still rare in Britain.) An old cat was rescued, showing how resilient and clever these creatures are, but probably other animals were drowned (eg. rabbits, guinea pigs and chickens in hutches, and dogs).