Guardianship advice - Adult Son with AS in serious trouble

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My young adult son with Asperger's (AS) is very serious trouble. He has lost all hope and has been attempting suicide. .An off duty nurse just happened to see him unresponsive on railroad tracks and they were able to get him to ER. He almost died. His idea was to OD on drugs pass out on tracks and have train run over him. It's heartbreaking for me! I'm at wits end and nothing I have tried to do has worked! Other suicide attempts have been made by him but he is getting better and talking more about it to his friends. He goes through this cycle of going to hospital, then a dual unit for a 3-5 days and then released?! A huge record he has. Because of his AS and now huge addiction he stands no chance living independently like he is. I am pursuing a guardianship. Anyone else out there going through or have gone through something like this? Taking that step. The step to interfere and save a life of your precious baby! They are always your precious baby even as an adult.

I have no idea but it breaks my heart to read this. I've been struggling so hard with depression this reminded me it's important to get up and keep trying. I'll pray for you and I hope you get the guardianship. Go for it and I hope you make a difference as you obviously love your baby.

I am very, very sorry about your son. My advice is that at this point you need to get him committed to a psychiatric hospital. Not the psych ward at a regular hospital, but a hospital that is fully dedicated to mental health. And he needs to be in there for a couple of weeks or months rather than 3 to 5 days. It would also benefit him to go to rehab for his problem with drugs.

Best of luck to you both.

I'd only pursue involuntarily taking away your sons' self-guardianship rights if there was trouble surrounding legal contracts. The problem isn't legal contracts. The problem is bed availability. Getting guardianship over him isn't going to magically make a bed available in a psych hospital. You might[/i] be involuntarily commit him if he starts showing suicidal tendencies or you might not. It probably won't matter, anyway. He'll probably get released in the same amount of time.

Guardianship can also take away rights that you don't anticipate--where I live, if an adult isn't their own guardian, they can't vote, drive, or marry [i]at all, even if they would otherwise be able to do so.

This is heart breaking. My kids are not that old yet, so I do not have a similar experience, but if it matters at all, I think you are doing the right thing.

So sorry.

And if you aren't already, pursue all avenues of professional help for your son. Leave no stone unturned in trying to help him.

Is there an appropriate structured group home that might be a good placement for your son?