How many times can you say, "I was wrong"

I was so wrong.  This is not what I thought.  Not more of the same.  Not, "Here we go again".  This time we stepped into uncharted territory. 
The beautiful, messed up daughter I know so well was not waiting for me at the bus station.  Instead the young girl waiting was something foreign...and so scary. 
What I was prepared to say and do was thrown out the window and instead, we went into panic mode.  Hailey was skinny, dirty and stinky - all things that can be easily fixed.   But what was most concerning was what she was saying and how she was acting.  I'd seen Hailey high before.  I know the signs of drug and alcohol intoxication...this was something vastly different.  All the strange talk we had been experiencing from her phone calls home started to become much more than eccentricity.  Hailey has always been way too smart for her own good.  She's always been a conspiracy theorist.  She's taken great pleasure in looking at the extreme angle of things.  But what we saw coming off the bus was the dark side of what used to be "fun" conversation.  Hailey really believed that she'd been talking to aliens.  She was convinced there were RFD chips in everything and she was being watched carefully by "them".  The hardest part was her absolute certainty that we knew all about her concerns and were okay with it all. 

Because we knew it would take a miracle to get her into the psych ward, we decided to take Hailey out for breakfast.  We were hoping we could get her talking and that we'd get her to say something that would qualify for involuntary commitment.  Our Dr. neighbor let us know that a threat to either hurt yourself or someone else is almost the only way to get your loved one help.  We also wanted her to talk more in an effort to have more "ammo" to tell the doctor.  Luckily, Hailey was also in pain.  What turned out to be a UTI was our ticket to the ER.  She was hurting and did admit that she was feeling bad emotionally, so the door opened and we PUSHED!

After a pelvic exam, Blood tox, urine tox, visit with a case worker, visit with the county mental health professional - a total of 11 hours later - we were told Hailey would be staying - whether she wanted to or not!  Success!  Hailey was going to get help! After spending 11 concentrated hours with our daughter, in a little room, with nothing to do but talk, Mike and I went from scared to terrified.  Hailey was truly unhinged.  She was so afraid for herself, so convinced the nurses were talking about her, totally sure that the antibiotics she needed were poison.  Nothing we could say would ease her fears.  She said over and over again, "can you hear what they're saying, can you see what they really are, can't you see them change in front of you?"  As soon as the doors to the psych ward closed behind her, Mike and I breathed a sigh of relief...finally...she was gonna be okay...maybe.