Update: We’re so close Jon needs your help!

*Update: between personal funds we’ve combined as a family and the donations from all of you towards this gofundme we were able to hold a spot for Jon at an amazing treatment center in Arizona. We still need $25,000 more before we can send him. Please keep sharing we are so close! Thank you and happy holidays!

We are Jon’s 3 siblings, Nicholi, Anthony and Gabrielle. Along with our parents we are Jon’s advocates. We are desperately trying to raise funds for our big brother. Jon was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 19yo. He has been stuck in the loop of the mental health system for 21 years now. It has been a roller coaster of over a dozen hospitalizations, multiple group homes, family interventions, and an entire laundry list of different psychiatric medications and their side effects. He is now 40yo. This all has had a massive negative impact on his quality of life and spirit. It’s just not working.

We are here desperately asking for donations to help fund Jon to attend a holistic mental health residential center, receive quality alternative therapies, lab testing, supplements, nutritional support, travel expenses and to get him his very own therapy dog. All of this will give him the help he has deserved for so long, a better quality of life and a sense of purpose.

***When you go to donate, GoFundMe sets an automated tip to them at 17%. You can adjust this to any amount (even 0) by clicking “enter custom tip”.

*If you would like to know more about Jon’s story and our family please read on.

JON’S STORY

We moved to the island of Martha’s Vineyard in 1994. Jon was the oldest of the four of us siblings. He has 2 younger brothers and a little sister. There’s about a 2 year gap between each of us so we grew up very close and thick as thieves. Our biggest brother was our protector and a loving sibling. But this move was the hardest on him. He was 11 years old and his entire social life was uprooted and never really recovered. But he found joy in sports, fishing, animals and family.

Then when he was 14 years old he suffered a jet ski accident where he was knocked unconscious and woke up floating in the water. He slept for days and never truly bounced back. Looking back we see that this incident had a huge impact on his mental state and really slowed him down going forward.

He continued struggling to find his feet on the island and was largely misunderstood which resulted in being bullied. Kids and adults made fun of him for being “slow”. Though he excelled in sports, high school was truly hard for him. And that’s when he began to slowly spiral out. His dreams came crashing down. He struggled with OCD and severe anxiety. He was then diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, OCD, depression, and anxiety and put on all the drugs that go along with those. Nothing seemed to help. During all of this our parents were going through a complicated divorce. Jon started to check out and wasn’t sleeping. When his dreams of going to college for football fell apart, he tried to join the Army. That didn’t work out either. The spiral continued and at 19 years old he had his first hospitalization. He went into McLeans Mental Health Hospital and came out with the “diagnoses” of schizophrenia. That was the beginning of the next 21 years of his life. Every doctor had a different take. A list of symptoms and experiences that were checked off of in order to give him a different label. It was a roller coaster of over a dozen hospitalizations, multiple group homes, family interventions, and an entire laundry list of different psychiatric medications. At one point Jon was on 10 medications. A handful of which were for the side effects of his antipsychotic.

Through all of this, we have witnessed little bits of Jon, our big brother, slowly fade away. It was as if he started disappearing into a shell of a human and Jon was barely there anymore. He was no longer participating in life and a sadness and loneliness had glazed over his bright green beautiful eyes. We have tried the main stream, state funded mental health route for Jon for 21 years now. We are not saying it hasn’t helped others and do not mean to take away from the people who have found solace in the system. But there is no one size fits all. For Jon, it just isn’t working. And honestly at this point we feel the system, along with all the years of heavy medications and bare minimum services, has caused more harm than good in Jon’s life. His quality of life has declined to such a degree we cannot watch it go down any further. Our tight knit, thick as thieves 4 siblings lost their gate keeper. And it’s time we get him back.

WHO IS JON?

We can tell you firstly that Jon is NOT a “diagnoses” or “label” given to him in order to bill insurance. He is a bio individual. A complex and unique human being who didn’t fit into the box as an adolescent and struggled to find his way. And underneath all of that? He is kind and empathetic. Every hospital he’s been to the staff has told us he is pleasant and well mannered. He is passively easygoing and compliant to a fault. He is a first born son to his mother and father who have watched his story unfold and been there through all of the pain and heart ache. He is a loving big brother to his siblings who he’s made better compassionate human beings than they would have been without him. He laughs and tells jokes and is actually funny. He is an overly cautious uncle who is adored by his 2 nephews and 1 niece. He is a cousin, a nephew, a grandchild and a brother-in-law. He is a lover of animals. He is a pure soul who has gotten lost in the loop of the system. And we are here to get him out. It is the definition of insanity to continue down this road he has been on for so many years now. He is ready for a true change. And we (his family) owe it to him.

WHO ARE WE?

We are his siblings Nicholi, Anthony and Gabrielle. Along with his parents, we are his advocates. Like all illnesses, mental illness doesn’t only affect the person struggling but also affects the immediate family and beyond. Watching our brother go through what he’s been through and trying to navigate the system as a family has been devastating to say the least. But this experience has also helped shape us each as individuals and made us grow closer as a family. Over the past 2 decades Jon has lost his voice. He is no longer able to speak up and advocate for himself. He just doesn’t remember how to anymore. So we have learned to come together and advocate for him. We are asking for help. To be quite frank, we are trying to save our brother’s life.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We have been eager to try alternative programs and therapies for Jon outside of main stream mental health. But of course anything outside of the state funded options mean it is usually not covered by insurance or the therapies don’t exist where we live. This is what has stopped us in the past from seeking out alternatives for Jon. They are outside of our family’s means. We would discuss sending him to this place or try this alternative therapy but the funds were never there when we needed them. And honestly we were too proud to ask for financial help. But at this point, Jon is now 40 years old. Too much time has passed. He’s lost too many years in this loop. It’s not working. All of the years of trauma he’s endured, therapists who came and went, emotions he’s had suppressed and long term side effects of his medications has taken a massive toll on his spirit. So it is time for us to try something different.

We are asking for donations. The funds raised will be used to have him attend a holistic mental health residential rehab center, receive alternative types of therapy, nutritional support, supplements, lab testing, travel expenses, and to get him his very own therapy dog.

We are not searching for a “cure all”. We want to take a look at him from a different perspective than ever before. Our hope is that these alternatives will help to provide a better quality of life for him. We no longer want him numbed by medication and at the mercy of a label. We want to see our big brother participating in life and for him to get his voice back. Everyone deserves to find their sliver of peace in this world. So does Jon.

We wish so badly we had this mindset 21 years ago before he got lost in the system and medicated for so many years. But we are here now and we are ready.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. We understand not everyone is in a position to donate. Just sharing our brother’s story is so very much appreciated!