Behind The Lies (Alex Gaskarth)

Chapter 8

Jack's POV

I couldn't stop crying. I couldn't believe that Alex had kept this hidden from us for so many years. 

"What?" Rian shouted in shock

"Psychotic depression is a sub-type of major depression that occurs when a severe depressive illness includes some form of psychosis. The psychosis could be hallucinations, such as hearing voices telling you that you are no good or worthless, delusions, such as intense feelings of worthlessness or failure or some other break with reality. From what you've just told me, i think it's highly likely that something caused Alex to loose contact with reality and fall into a psychotic episode. You said that he thought you weren't real? Because of his condition, it means that sometimes he will have trouble distinguishing what's real and what's not. Is there any reason why  he would think you weren't real?" He doctor asked

I was dumbfounded. Had we managed to cause him this much damage? I felt physically sick thinking about what we'd done.

I had to tell the doctor. This was the only way that they might be able to help Alex. They needed to know.

"U-um" I stammered "After Alex tried to slit his wrists and he ended up here, we tried our best to help him but i think we were smothering him. He started to get annoyed and him and Rian ended up getting into a huge argument"

I looked over at Rian, who had his head hung in shame. I reached over and patted his back reassuringly. He looked up and gave me a weak smile but i knew that deep down he felt guilty and like it was his fault.

"Alex asked for space" I continued " And we gave him space. But things got a bit out of hand. We ended up not talking to him for 2 months. We'd all hang out together and leave him out completely. We were just going to apologise to him when this happened"

The doctor looked at us with a small frown upon his face. 

"Well i'd say that he was already in a depressive state but with the lack of human contact it pushed him further in. He had gotten so used to you not talking to him that when you did again, he didn't know if he was hallucinating or not. He would have been hearing things and seeing things that weren't actually there."

Suddenly, little beeps started coming from a black box connected to the Doctors coat.

"Ah that's my pager" He said " That means that Alex is out of surgery and back in his room. You will be able to go and see him but i'm sorry to say that he wont be awake and might not be for weeks."

I just nodded a thank you to him and he disappeared. We made our way to room 32 and when we got there, he looked even worse than i imagined. His entire body was covered in a cast apart from his head.

His hands and toes were sticking out of the cast and they were severely bruised. He had a tube harshly shoved down his throat and millions of wires sticking into his neck. If the heart monitor hadn't have been there you would have thought that he was dead. The constant beep was the only indication that he wasn't.

He looked awful. Exactly how you'd expect someone to look after they'd jumped off a building.

"I'm so sorry Alex. I'm so so sorry" I sobbed 

I stood up and walked towards the guys who also had tears in their eyes. I embraced them all into a group hug as i sobbed. We all held each other so tightly, like we were scared to lose someone else. I never wanted to let go but had to after almost being suffocated by Zack's huge muscles.

We sat in silence or hours, just watching Alex. Listening to the heart monitor, just in case anything happened. Just in case he woke up.

Our silence was interrupted when the doctor entered the room and stood opposite us once again.

"Right boys" He said "There's one more thing that i want to discuss with you. Alex's psychosis might last for quite a while. He has to come out of his depression and learn to be able to tell the difference between what's real and what's not. I'd say that this episode will last for about 2-4 months from now. I have two options for you.

 1) You take Alex home and bring him to therapy sessions here at the hospital 3 times a week for 10 weeks. He will still be in his cast so you will have to know how to help him. He will also have to be supervised 24/7. You will have to supervise his eating as he is anorexic. You will have to check on him every 2 minutes whilst he's in the shower and get rid of every sharp object or anything that could be potentially dangerous to him. However, he won't be able to leave the hospital for about a month.

Number 2) Is that we move him to the Psychiatric Hospital about 15 minutes away from here. He can be transported whilst he's still asleep and will wake up in his own time there. He will have daily Therapy with a doctor, group therapy with the patients and groups to help him feel involved. People will be supervising him and he will have to eat the meals he's been given. The only downside to this is that he'll be there for a minimum of 3 months and there are no visitations as it could slow down patients recovery."

I looked at the guys and they nodded. We didn't even need to discuss it. We needed to do what was best for Alex.

I turned back to the doctor and answered him.

"He'll go to the hospital"

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Hey guys! What did you think of this chapter? The next one will be in Alex's POV when he wakes up in the hospital . 

Please vote and comment because you know i love to read them.

xoxo