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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If her symptoms are quite debilitating then she may need medication to put her mind in a calm enough state to benefit from the talk therapy. For therapy to be effective, your mind needs to be well enough to think and process and problem solve and if her anxiety is high she won't be able to do that.

You can certainly talk to her about recovery and how most mental illnesses and definitely anxiety are treatable and people recover. That once she has it under control (potentially with meds) and has learned the skills to manage and has reframed her thinking, she likely won't need long term treatment.

Medication can be an important tool in recovery. It is important that it doesn't become a quick fix / relief that is easy to depend on versus doing the hard work but it can be critical to managing symptoms of a serious health condition.[/quote]Agree.  We hospitalized my daughter in 9th grade.  She had been seeing a therapist but was suicidal.  At the hospital they put her on meds and it made a huge difference.  Like the pp said, she reported that it saved her life and helped her be in a place to work on other things.  I was also nervous about the meds, since she was already taking meds for ADHD and later added the birth control pill.  That's a lot of chemicals! But they've really helped her.  And later she decided to wean herself off the ADHD meds.

Me, I'm from another generation.  I was also suicidal in high school and ended up seeing a therapist but never doing meds, despite long struggles with anxiety and depression.  So, yes, people can overcome these things without medication, but why not give it a try, especially if it will make it easier to move forward in other ways?  It's so hard to watch your child struggle.  I know you can see the way forward without meds and you'd prefer that she do it that way - but she's the person who has to do it.  Good luck to her and you.  Hope things get better![/quote]

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