Teen depression and letters to friends
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Anonymous
| I like the psychiatrist Nora Galil in Chevy Chase, but I am not sure if she will work on weekends for emergencies. |
Anonymous
She often does have openings though, as she is expensive! |
Anonymous
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Lots if good advice but would like to add / moves can be incredibly stressful for kids/ teens. Our developed anxiety/ depression and chronic fatigue syndrome after a move - it is much more unsettling then people generally realize. It is up there with death in family and divorce in terms of levels of stress/ change/ adjustments needed. Some handle it way better then others.
Your child may need a therapist to process losses/ stress associated with the move. Maybe not - just one more consideration. Best wishes and good luck supporting your kid. It has been a rough year. |
Anonymous
So is the friend who received the text and told her mother right away. |
Anonymous
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As a longtime sufferer of depression beginning in teen years, and a survivor of multiple suicide attempts, I echo the calls to take her in ASAP for assessment by mental health professionals via the ER. Even if she claims to have no plan - even if that’s true at this moment - she’s obviously experiencing intense suicidal ideation or she wouldn’t subject herself to the potential humiliation of telling her friends goodbye. That’s huge. A plan can be formulated in mere moments when the intense urge to not exist washes over her. Pills and sharps are not the only effective methods. Kids asphyxiate themselves with clothing, they drink household cleaners, they jump off roofs.
Take her in ASAP; this is a better safe than sorry situation. |
Anonymous
| Call the suicide hotline and see if they can find you a local crisis center or hospital to go to. For suicidal ideation (no concrete plan but jus thoughts of wanting to die) you can try to get her into a partial hospitalization program (PHP). These are usually 2 weeks long and provide therapy and a psychiatrist during the day, but sleep at home. If she has a concrete plan then an Inpatient stay would be in order. But you’ll need to go to an ER at a hospital that has an adolescent psych unit to be evaluated. If there is a plan or the ER determines the child won’t be safe at home, they will recommend admission. You’d need to wait for a bed to open at a hospital, and stay in the ER until a bed opens up. |
Anonymous
+1 Hugs to you and your DD. Knowing is half the battle. |
Anonymous
| Go right now to the ER for evaluation. Mental health resources are strained so getting help quickly outside the hospital is hard. It is much better to err on the side of caution. Suicide notes saying goodbye to friends are serious. I have a teen that attempted suicide and have been through the wringer of hospitalizations and have spoken with many other parents in similar situations. Especially since this was unexpected to you, your child may be very good at hiding depression and suicide planning. |
Anonymous
| OP here. Thanks everyone. She is being assessed right now. I'm having such a hard time with this and worried and scared. Like all the sudden I was yanked onto a treacherous dark road that I have no clue how to navigate but absolutely everything is on the line. |
Anonymous
Sending good thoughts to you and your daughter, OP. |
Anonymous
| I have no advice to add, but I wanted to say that I am thinking of you, dear stranger, and will keep your daughter in my thoughts and prayers. Hugs and good luck. |
Anonymous
Praying for you and your daughter and the professionals working with her. Of course this feels foreign and terrifying, but you’re doing the right thing, and the people assessing her can give you the right resources to aid your dd in her recovery. The circle of people looking out for your dd is expanding, and that’s a good thing. |
Anonymous
Lots of us understand because we’ve been there too. People here here will have lots of experiences to share with you as you travel this road. I’m sorry you’ve had to join us. I hope you have an easy time finding the are you need and that you have the resources to pay for it. |
Anonymous
Yes, I had chills reading this. And I hope my kids are as open with me as this teen was. |
Anonymous
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OP again. She was assessed at the hospital, then saw a doctor today and has started on zoloft.
She is triggered to go into her room. So is staying downstairs but just wants to be alone and be given space. Yet giving her space is what got us here and I am so stressed and don't know what to do. She wants to isolate and watch tv and says it helps her but it doesn't. Yet I feel scared to try too much, else she will maybe be pushed over the edge. She feels resistant to help in adjusting any perspectives and her habits after how she was talking about the therapist yesterday. I feel upset and helpless how to treat her right now. Does anyone have suggestions? |