One Step Forward.....Three Steps Back

Over the last few weeks I've been increasingly concerned that Josh was slipping towards another manic episode.

His behavior at times has been very reminiscent of the behavior he exhibited at the beginning of his slide into his first manic episode.

This young man who texts me, "Yea"..."OK"...."Love ya", suddenly one day began texting me these LONG (but very coherent) texts. It was weird. Then he exploded on me that one day, and then he began talking about symbolism in some books, and when he was headed toward mania before he became VERY interested in dissecting books, movies and art for it's symbolism.

I left on a short vacation and was unsettled about how he was doing. He wasn't sleeping well at all and all these little things that had happened were niggling at me.

While I was gone I kept in touch and he said he was sleeping better. When I got home I talked to him briefly and he sounded OK.

And then today I got a text from him, "We don't need to worry about doing the insurance application, I quit my job."

Well crap!

I asked why.

"It was a shit job and it didn't pay enough."

"Well, did something happen that made you quit?"

"Yes, and we'll talk about that when I see you tomorrow."

I'll be interested to hear what happened. My first thought was that he didn't quit, that he'd gotten fired; you know, maybe he was acting screwy at work last week or something.

The reality is that no matter WHAT job he might find, it's gonna pay NOTHING and be a menial job. At some point he's gonna have to get on board with staying somewhere long enough to move UP. He worked at that big box (going bankrupt) video store for several years, so I know he CAN do long term employment, but he never took advantage of the opportunities there for advancement. Quite the opposite really. He refused to work more than 15-20 hours a week and I really don't think he was their model employee.

So I guess we wait and see what he pulls out of his hat next. I know I'll be able to gauge his real state of mind by spending some time with him tomorrow, and I hope I'm not distressed by what I see.

Sigh.