{"id":6536,"date":"2024-05-22T09:02:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T09:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=6536"},"modified":"2024-05-22T09:24:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T09:24:47","slug":"my-son-was-in-a-psychiatric-hospital-why-was-i-celebrating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=6536","title":{"rendered":"My Son Was in a Psychiatric Hospital. Why Was I Celebrating?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

In the midst of a family crisis, a writer contemplates whether heartache and joy can coexist.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

My 40th birthday celebration had been in the works for months. The plan was as follows: On Friday, my husband was throwing a party for me in the private room of a hillside restaurant with gorgeous views of Los Angeles. Our closest friends and family would be there. Philip had hired a D.J., rented a photo booth, ordered a three-tiered chocolate cake and picked out an eclectic menu of my favorite dishes.<\/p>\n

Then, from Saturday through Monday, I\u2019d take a road trip to Santa Barbara with three of my closest friends.<\/p>\n

But life doesn\u2019t happen in a vacuum where we can focus on just one plotline: The days leading up to my birthday were anything but celebratory.<\/p>\n

The Tuesday before my birthday, our family situation reached the point where I called the police on my 15-year-old son Luka. He had been struggling with clinical depression and suicidal ideation, and had been self-medicating with substances for the last few years. The officers took him to the emergency room where, on Wednesday, I saw him before he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital. On Thursday, I was allowed to visit him there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

I\u2019d been excited about turning 40. I love birthdays. When Luka turned 6 months, I decided we should celebrate half birthdays. I baked him half a cake and sang half of the \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d song (every other syllable, because complicating things is one of my gifts).<\/p>\n

I kept up the tradition when my daughter Matea was born almost two years later. And after I met and married Philip, and we welcomed our son Ari, Matea and Luka took pride in teaching him our half-birthday song.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the midst of a family crisis, a writer contemplates whether heartache and joy can coexist.My 40th birthday celebration had been in the works for months. The plan was as follows: On Friday, my husband was throwing a party for me in the private room of a hillside restaurant with gorgeous views of Los Angeles. Our closest friends and family would be there. Philip had hired a D.J., rented a photo booth, ordered a three-tiered chocolate cake and picked out an eclectic menu of my favorite dishes.Then, from Saturday through Monday, I\u2019d take a road trip to Santa Barbara with three of my closest friends.But life doesn\u2019t happen in a vacuum where we can focus on just one plotline: The days leading up to my birthday were anything but celebratory.The Tuesday before my birthday, our family situation reached the point where I called the police on my 15-year-old son Luka. He had been struggling with clinical depression and suicidal ideation, and had been self-medicating with substances for the last few years. The officers took him to the emergency room where, on Wednesday, I saw him before he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital. On Thursday, I was allowed to visit him there.I\u2019d been excited about turning 40. I love birthdays. When Luka turned 6 months, I decided we should celebrate half birthdays. I baked him half a cake and sang half of the \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d song (every other syllable, because complicating things is one of my gifts).I kept up the tradition when my daughter Matea was born almost two years later. And after I met and married Philip, and we welcomed our son Ari, Matea and Luka took pride in teaching him our half-birthday song.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6538,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6536"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6539,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536\/revisions\/6539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}