costello: He's writing notes to his "gf" - the one who instructed her family to call the police should my son show up at her house again - asking her advice on what he should do with his life.

If he was up to it, an interesting exercise might be to have him sit down and write a note as if he were her, giving him the advice he was seeking.

Meantime, costello, I was wondering if you'd feel comfortable sharing more about your son with us.

I'm trying to get a feel for who he is, what happened in his life, what kind of treatment has he received thus far, what he perceived as helpful, what he perceives as harmful, etc.

I'm also wondering... what does he want for himself? What does he enjoy doing? What words or labels does he use to describe his own experience? If we were to ask him, what would he say happened?

I'm also wondering if there is any history of recreational drug use. That can be a triggering event for some people. If it was for him, does he still make use of them in any way?

Can you describe any of the themes that were present in his more challenging moments, i.e, some people see shadows, feel others are inserting thoughts into them, are following them, the government is spying on them, etc. It's clear he hears voices that he attributes to real people in his life. Is there anything about those people or his relationship with them that mimics a pattern of behavior with those same people or others?

How does he feel about this attempt to try a different way of dealing with this aspect of your lives?

Those might be things you haven't talked about with each other so you might not have any answers for me.

Meantime, does he know you are active here? Do you think he would be willing to talk to other people who have undergone similar experiences? What if he knew we wouldn't pressure him about the drugs?

~ Namaste