About Shnooks: He is currently in a BTR. That stands for Behavioral Treatment Residence. We got custody of him when he was 10. He lived with us until age 16. Then he decided he did not want to be here and we found out his behaviors were putting my other children at risk.
Shortly after he came to live with us it became apparent he needed help so we got him into counseling. This was back in 2004. He was diagnosed with Mood Disorder NOS and ADHD. He's been rediagnosed with BP, Conduct Disorder, ODD, and ADHD throughout the years. He loved his wacky weed. He got in a lot of trouble at home, in school and even in the community which put him on probation until he was 18. We got a CHINS on him back in 2008 and had to place him out of our home for the 1st time at that point. It was a difficult decision but what was best for our family. It was also the only way we could think of to get him the help he needed. The school was not going to pay for RTC or anything. We only tried to do what was best for him in the beginning, then our family as a whole as things went on. The decisions we made were heart wrenching and far from easy.
So we put him in voluntary DCF custody. He went through 1 foster home, 6 therapeutic foster homes that could not handle him, a phosp stay, a Acute Treatment Residence and finally an RTC placement where he stayed until June 2009 when it closed. Then DCF pushed for him to come back home. We did not really have a choice. Soon after the old behaviors began again. He's been on various meds throughout the years and nothing really has worked for all his symptoms. He was pretty messed up from the 10 years of abuse he went through with his maternal gramma who raised him before we got him. He has been to lock up twice for violating his probation in the past couple years. In June 2010 he decided he just did not want to live here anymore and ran away. He had a CHINS at the time so the judge sent him to DCF custody and we agreed we could not take him back home. After he left this time, we learned of some very concerning behaviors he had towards my other children so there is no way he is coming home. I have not heard seen him in over a year or heard his voice since March when he reconnected with his maternal Gramma who did all that to him. He wrote to me a couple months ago on Facebook saying that DCF was letting him go see her for Christmas. WTF? I did not understand why they would let him or why he would want to. Oh well, he is almost 18 now. He won't be much a part of this blog, but I just wanted to share this in case I bring him up at all. We tried all we could for him. More than we should have I've learned... He did some things that kind of destroyed my family to say things with the least words to get my point across. I still love him though as my heart aches at the same time because of what he did. I know that his issues are partly his diagnoses and partly the damage his Gramma caused.
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