Our son is 17 and 1/2 and we are watching him spiral down. He dropped out of school last August with only 4-5 credits needed for graduation, he doesn't work and he has dipped into some criminal behavior - stealing. He talks about suicide and tells us that it is just to scare us. He refuses to see a therapist and blames us for everything - including his criminal behaviors. We adopted our son as an infant and it seems that some adoption issues are entering the picture also - his anger at his birth family comes out in his rages. He gets very verbally abusive towards both my husband and me and breaks things around the house and punches holes in the walls. When he does not get his way or we try to impose a limit, he loses it. After the most recent incident, he tried and failed to break into a bike shop, was paper arrested and brought home in hand-cuffs; he was totally disrespectful to us when we gave him consequences. We took his cell phone and discontinued his car insurance for driving. Both privileges, we explained would be returned if he went back to school or got a job/apprenticeship, and that he start to show more responsible behavior. His rage escalated and he took my cell phone and physically restrained me from getting it back. He continued to be verbally abusive and pound holes in his bedroom walls. He was also threatening to hang himself. At this point, we talked to Suicide Prevention who recommended we call 911 and have him taken to the mental health hospital near by. We did this and that is where he has been for the last 4 days. We have attended all of their meetings but our son refuses to attend and insists we get him out of there. The first couple of days he told us if we didn't get him out of there, he would punch us in the face. He is so angry that he does not speak to us at this point. We feel that it is time to find him an alternative living situation rather than home. This is agonizing and we now are faced with deciding what is best. He has much support from family and has had many successes in his life but he doesn't seem to be able to draw from this which makes it all the harder. He is a good kid that is spirally down quickly.