Frustrated

Yes, I'm frustrated. I'm not sure if I should be or not, but I am. In a big way.

My son is, to the best of my knowledge, still clean. But he is also still depressed, and that has him spending an awful lot of time sleeping. And the hours he keeps are not compatible with the rest of the family. For example, it is fairly typical for him to stay up until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. That alone wouldn't bother me so much if he got eight hours or so of sleep and got up. But my son is sleeping until 4:30, 5:00, or even 5:30pm on a regular basis. That just isn't normal. We're talking 15 hours of sleep.

It's frustrating as hell to come home from work on a day when my son doesn't have class--like this past Friday--only to have him still be in bed. Or--like yesterday--to have dinner ready and on the table only to have him still be in bed. It just upsets the chemistry of the whole house.

Up until last week, one of the reasons my son was staying up until the wee hours of the morning was the damn PS3. He would go down the basement and play video games for hours and hours on end. Even on school nights. So I finally took the game controllers and hid them. He would still stay up late, but he was doing other things, like playing the guitar. At least that didn't have the stimulant effect of the video games. But last night he was up late again. And this morning I went downstairs and found a PS3 controller laying out. My kid evidently borrowed it from a friend so he could get back to playing video games. This did not sit well with me.

My son's psychiatrist has him trying a new anti-depressant, so maybe that will help things. But if it doesn't, I'm not sure how long I can put up with the schedule my son has been keeping. It's disruptive to the household, plain and simple. I realize that he is an adult (at least chronologically). And if he was living on his own and keeping these hours then that would certainly be his own business. But as long as he's living under my roof, I feel like he should keep a schedule that doesn't have a negative effect on the family. Is that asking too much?

Maybe I'm trying to be too controlling. I don't think I am, but it's certainly possible. I'd be curious to see if anyone out there has any thoughts about this situation. If you do, feel free to leave a comment.