Roll Call Take Two

I think I'm doing better with the increase of meds but am now experiencing constipation from it. I don't recall experiencing this side effect the last time I was on my antipsychotic and the dosage was much higher. I just don't understand. Looks like I'll have to go back down.

back... Doc John did not delete my account. hi costello and fish...hope your day went better than mine. my upstairs tenant has been intentionally pounding on my cieling and he knows i have ptsd. then, get this, he shows up at my front door banging on it. and get this, he has written 4 threatening communications to me and left them on my apt. door. i won't go to the local sheriff as they are aware of him and I. .. he too suffers from a mental illness and is extremely antisocial with depressive tendencies.. he told me he and his x wife used to raise "wolves."
the guy scares me. sorry about the rant.
may occasionally post.
experiencing so much stress at this time.
gotta go see the psychiatric nurse practitioner tommorrow.
got notha to say to her. notta.

Man, that sounds bad! Have you talked to the landlord? Can you be moved to another unit away from this guy?

Take care of yourself. This sounds like a situation which will harm you if you have to tolerate it long-term.

costello- i copied off the first two threats and they have been placed in the said tenants file. But, management, beleive it or not refuses to take any further action. I like the idea of moving. This has also been suggested by my brother. Maybe another building hopefully quieter.
I live in a large apt. community where they accept section 8's which means the government tends to group people who are mentally ill, into one area. This all began belive it or not, over a disagreement with feeding the squirrels. the upstairs tentant calls them "his babies" which is basically childish and says he has been feeding them for over 3 years he has been a resident here. It is clearly in the lease that there is to be no feeding of the "nuisance" wildlife or birds at our apt. community. the squirrels are driving me nuts ! they cling to my picture window and climb right up to the third level apt. where he lives. (I am on the second floor)
the animals create havoc on my deck each and every day. HE feeds them peanuts by hand as if they are pets. He also has been in trouble with the law. He knows some of the officers in this county and calls them "his boys" I hope i can move soon, but having been uprooted by the CMH so many times, psychologists wil tell you that moving is like getting divorced on a stress scale, it ranks high. i have been here 6 monthes now. The local authorities are quite aware of me and the tenant upstairs as we both have a "history" ... I can olny hope i do not agitate this guy upstairs any more. He has become one of my ptsd stress triggers.
Q) do you think i should go for 'trauma' treatment if it is offered by the local CMH? we do not have a good relationship and i have been trying to exit the system for over 10 yrs. now. At times, i was court ordered to recieve the treatment. I feel they are setting me up for another "crisis" situation by literally stealing away my coping mechanisms.
thanks for reading my Roll CAll... i'm here and not doing so well today.

Yeah, this is one thing that stops me from trying to get my son into that kind of housing. I don't want him in a ghetto for the mentally ill. Even the temporary housing for the mentally ill was no good, because there were so many people with poor self-management playing off of each other and triggering each other.

Yep, stressful.

Man, I don't know what to say to that. This is why I have my son in with private providers. The system sucks.

What are the coping mechanisms you mention here? And what others can you develop to deal with the situation until you can get out of it? Can you close the blinds and not make use of the deck? Headphones to block the sound of banging? Any way to repel the squirrels? I bought this sonic mouse repeller last weekend. I'm not sure but I think it's working. I haven't seen any mice seen I put it out, and they were everywhere. Maybe there's something similar for squirrels. If there is, and you get one and it works, don't tell the guy upstairs. That'll just escalate things.

I think you need to move and the sooner the better. You need to be away from this guy, and it doesn't sound like he's going to be moving anytime soon. Do you have a therapist, pdoc, or case manager who can advocate for you in speeding up the move?

I don't know what the rules for Section 8 are there, but here if you're evicted from your housing, you can't reapply for 5 years. So, you definitely want to avoid letting this situation get so hot that you do something that gets you kicked out.

first of all.. thank you for the sincere suggestions to some of my problems.
You are right, most in the local Community based mental health system are not capable of self-care due to thier illness, and this causes unwanted contact with the local authorities at times. at present, i am being "case managed" with a so-called treatment team. One problem, The turnover of staff is so very high, they never really get the chance to do their jobs properly. some of my coping mechanisms you already mentioned... i use wireless headphones when possible, the guy upstairs is paranoid about me "harming" his squirrels. He has accused me of poisoining them on numerous occasions despite me not ever having done anything to harm the wildlife. He would know if i put out a detterrant, and this would only aggravate him. i would hope i never do anything to "lose" my housing. I was on a waiting list for almost 8 yrs before i got housing. the system sucks. i don't know where i could go.
On the plus side, at least i think it's a plus... i have immediate family in the same area and am in contact with my brother on this issue. for now, i don't know what else to do. I had the thought recently of "surrender" to a higer power, and trusting the outcome, but i am not really religious. some say, if you turn it over to a higher source as you know and understand it to be, then, the outcome will be one by which you get some resolve to your issue. My mother does alot of praying. Matter of fact, i was at one time, on a natiional prayer chain. IMHO, it really did not help me obtain some kind of positive outcome. so, i am left with only HOPE.

Yeah, same problem here. My younger son got services from the local mhc for about 6 years. Constant turnover! And the better the person was at their job, the faster they disappeared. The only one who was the same the whole time was the pdoc, and he was awful. I remember when the receptionist moved to a different position after we'd been going there about 5 years. She was named Cynthia and had this lovely cultural accent. I was so sad when she told me she was being transferred. I told her she was the only constant we'd had there. You'd think these people would figure out the personnel change is just further trauma for the clients.

The thing I'm thinking about doesn't harm them. It puts out a noise that only the rodents hear, and it drives them away. It looks like the ones for outdoors are expensive, though. $60 to $80. And they're bulkier, so he might see it. The one I have in my kitchen is small.

Yep. That's how it is here too. Long wait.

I hope he can help.

Some people do find that very helpful. I don't know what to advise there, because it's a belief/faith kind of thing. Seems like you have it or you don't.

Hi Guru, welcome back. Nice to see you again

I'm sorry your upstairs neighbour is treating you so awfully. I hope you can move soon. Is there a chance to move out of the section 8 housing? I used to live in a place like that and it was NOT GOOD. Not good at all.

I don't know if this will get you in trouble or not, but I used to have a squirrel problem at an old place of mine and I would spray them with a water gun whenever they came on my patio or windowsill. You have to sit there for quite a bit, several times a day . . . in a few weeks, they'll "learn" that your deck is NOT a place they want to be. Then you only have to keep watch for a few minutes each day. But if you live in a place where they monitor you, then it might not be the best behaviour? Not sure.

Well, like Costello says, faith is such a personal thing. I can only share my story. . . . I grew up in a very religious family, though neither of my parents were especially so (father was a semi-lapsed Catholic and it went through phases). My extended family, who were heavily involved in raising me, were all Mormon. The fanaticism of what they believe made me basically stop believing in God like they say He exists. But . . . I'm still spiritual. I go to church because I like the music and the community. (Also, here in England it's an opportunity to sit peacefully in some of the most beautiful buildings ever built. )

I believe there is SOMETHING "up there". Maybe you do too, or maybe you'll figure you do if you think about it for a while. Maybe you won't. There are also lots of spiritual traditions - Buddhism and Taoism being perhaps the most famous - where there are no gods per se. Just spiritual practices and surrendering - not to a higher power, but to the flow of the universe.

update: here and accounted for. spoke with my father and he is acting as an advocate for me. also, sent along an email to the assistant property manager and she responded. the manager will now handle the situation. not sure of outcome yet though. so, i poured myself a tiny glass of cherry wine and will do my best not to aggravate the situation. BTW-fish -- i am not able to purchase a home of my own due to lack of funds. i remain on the SSI/SSDI which is a federal entitlement in the states for those unable to be "gainfully employed." i used to work with the public and have even had some classic Summer's working as camp counselor. some good memories... maybe that could be a new thread... "good memories" ?

I didn't mean purchase -- just rent. Flatshare in a non-care home? Can you do that on SSDI?

I'm trying to get my son to write down some happy memories. He seems to focus on the ugly ones only.

I'm having a really bad day today. Sigh.
Really regretting not taking my pupillage in September.
And I have a date tomorrow and I'm convinced he's going to rape me.

Then don't go on a date. I think you should stay within your comfort zone most of the time.

I'm comfortable with dating most of the time, just not when I get delusional. But he seems like a nice enough guy and I don't want to miss out on him in the event that I loose this idea sometime soon.
I'll just make sure we stay in public. He can't rape me in a coffee shop in a large train station, can he?!

Can you change your mind and do it?

fish- i currently am not in a "care" home. i live independently in the commuinty. my apt. is mixed with mostly a mix of local university students, very young, no older people. they tell me i can live anywhere in teh county, but have made it so i cannot leave the county. A section 8 is
nothing but trouble generally, but the place i live is not too terribly bad.
It is your typical American apt. community, one may find in anycity, USA.

No he can't so just stay in public and try not to stay in his car too much.

No, they took a pupil off their wait list instead.
I might go paralegal in Canada for a year instead. I see bilingual paralegals there can make a bonkers amount of money -- just applied to a job for that that pays $80k.

ETA: But you have made me think I could maybe clerk here in England for a year instead. Less overseas moving. I'll ring the chambers tomorrow to ask about it.

It's OK, I live in a big city where nobody drives.

Like all flats, I guess! I have a neighbour that appears to be both a nudist and opposed to curtains.

He's not a fittie, either.

I am under an incredible amount of stress right now. I just can't deal with it much longer. Mom just got out of surgery and now I have to do everything instead and see her in incredible pain and nearly crying from the pain when the painkillers are wearing off. Then today dad looked like he was suffering from a heart attack ON HIS BIRTHDAY! What a way to celebrate. Only us. Then when I was in the hospital we needed a new car. Actually used but only a few years old. It still was $15,000. Then my brother needed $1,100 testing to see if he has autism (and it turns out he does). My autism is mild because I am able to socialize with people but when I was younger it was impossible. So my dad will die soon. My mom with her amount of health problems is probably not going to live her life span. Then I will be homeless. Starving. Poor. My brother is 400 pounds and growing so he probably won't live much longer. I literally will live by myself on the streets. I WILL DIE IF THIS HAPPENS. Did I mention that I can't deal with this crap?

(((((((FireBird)))))))

Update about the heart attack. Now thankfully it looks like it wasn't a heart attack. It just acted like it for awhile. I wonder since he was under a great deal of stress, if it was a severe panic attack. I have had some myself (especially since I was a teenager) that looked like heart attacks and I had to go to the hospital for them.

My mom had a panic attack once. Just the one. And this was 40 years ago. She also thought she was having a heart attack and went to the hospital.

I'm glad things are a bit better for you. Seems like things are overwhelming right now.