Support for parents of children who suffer from depression and anxiety

[Shawnda]

Hello,
I am just looking for other parents who are dealing with their children and their mental health issues.
My daughter (16) is suffering. She has suffered from anxiety since about the age of 8. Mostly at that time it was night anxiety. She would need to sleep in my room, or I would sleep in hers. She couldn't sleep at friends houses or go away overnight on school trips. She also was diagnosed with OCD at about the age of 10. We went through therapists, and attempted CBT. While the night time anxiety never fully went away, it seemed to tremendously better once she hit 13 or so. January of 2015 when she was 14, I found suicide notes in her room. I took to the hospital and asked for help. We were there for 6 hours and sent away with a pamphlet. We didn't once see a mental health nurse or anything of the sort. We saw her dr. and she prescribed some meds that helped.
Fast forward two years to this past January when she overdosed on pills. This time, the hospital was great. Set up in a mental health for teens program - group therapy, individual, family, and a new medication.
We are now in May and she's going downhill again. Anxiety is through the roof and she's depressed again. We see a psychiatrist this month for a med review. She's not attending school on a regular basis and takes two online classes at home now.
I don't know what to do. I don't think the CBT is working. She doesn't like therapy. I'm not sure new meds are going to work and she's nervous about taking them.
I'm considering trying CBD hemp oil but am having a hard time finding a good brand that will ship to Canada.
I'm just at a loss. I worry for her future. I worry for her.
thanks for listening

[paul m]

Hello Shawnda and welcome. You have my sympathies, I too dealt with an ill teenager(different illness) and I know how stressful and difficult it can be, not to mention the feeling of feeling hopeless a lot of the time.
I can't comment on your daughter's problems as I know to little about them and secondly I have no medical training. I can give you some info and it may be useful or it may not be.

CBD oil is for sale in Canada, but in order for it to be sold in Canada it has to have no, or very low amounts of cannabis in it or be medically supervised. An example of this is at Cannimed(I'm not recommending this company, but they do have good examples) You can get products that vary from 1%THC- :13% CBD to 22%THC-1%CBD , the later having no pyschotropic effects. https://www.cannimed.ca/pages/our-products. If prescribed by a doctor. There are many companies in Canada that sell Hemp oil, but there are very few studies (long term double blind) that show the medical effects of Hemp oil. That doesn't mean that you can't try Hemp oil as they say that some people have3 found the hemp oil with out the THC helpful.

If you are looking for for a medicine with a high THC content all indicators show that while it may help in the short run it is a well known depressant in the long term.

In order for CBT to be effective, it's been my experience that the person has to be reasonably stable and they have to work very hard at it all the time, whether they are feeling ill or not. I'm not saying that your daughter doesn't work hard at it all the time, but CBT isn't the magic cure that some claim. It has helped me, but it was very intense learning it ad then putting it into daily practice and then not back sliding.

I'm sorry that I haven't been more help and I know that I've focused more on what doesn't work than what does, but as I said, I know very little about teens and OCD/Anxiety or your daughters situation. There is a line call the Teens help line and they may have some answers for her https://kidshelpphone.ca/ They have both chat and live counselors as well as on line resoucres. Taake Care. paul m

[Neli]

Hello Swanda and welcome to the forum. I feel for you and don't have any answers. I just wanted to show you some support. One thing I recommend is don't let her watch the Netlix show called "13 Reasons". It's a show that is currently on (about teenage suicide) and there have been several warnings about not letting kids who are vulnerable watch it. I hope you are looking after yourself as you will be no good to her if you are depleted. Take care and let us know how things go.

Neli

[AJ]

Welcome to the forum Shawnda. It must be very difficult for both you and your daughter to deal with all this. I hope the med review is helpful. Sometimes finding the right medication or combination of medication can be a challenge, but well worth the effort.

Perhaps a chat with your pharmacist would be something to consider. It would probably be of benefit to both of you. Most pharmacies will book an appointment with you, and in some provinces there are programs that will help pay for it. Even if they don't, if you can manage the cost, it can be well worth it.

[Stenacron Man]

Hi Shawnda You have got friends and support here. I am very knowledgeable about ODC, I actually Have OCPD and OCD. I did a post here awhile back about OCD and OCPD to help better educate everybody about it. My line is open PM me anytime I can talk to you and you daughter in PM's to try to help.

I will ask one question first; What med's is she being prescribed now ?

So you know up front I am Bipolar type II, OCPD obsessive compulsive personality disorder, OCD, GAD general anxiety disorder, and if that isn't enough I have suffered MDD major acute depressive disorder since the loss of a child in 1997. My son also has AVPD avoident personality disorder. The hardest part is knowing how to talk openly with her. OCD is technically a anxiety disorder so truly by the book she should first be treated for an acute anxiety disorder. On the FDA data base you can look up to find the most effective and prescribed medications for her specific needs. Med's are not truly generalizable, many cover many serotonin spectrum's but each medication is chemically engineered to target certain things. Here is an example. My son is on prosac, and it moderately help. I have documented from the DSM that he is in fact AVPD, so now he smoke pot everyday cause prosac is the wrong med. If they would listen and read my quoting from their textbooks and FDA protocols they would understand that the med I am pushing for is the right med and #1 rated for his type and that med is Effexor that's what it was chemically engineered for. Youth are under the gun with anxiety. I am available everyday if I can help either or both of you. I can explain from personal experience and from the textbooks I own that they use. I will find my other post and post it after this message.


Buddy Mack

[Stenacron Man]

found it OCD and OCPD

https://mdsc.ca/forum/forum/general-subjects/the-sandbox/47651-exploring-ocd-ocpd-and-just-what-they-really-are

[Jafar the wizard]

Good evening Neli
Good evening SHWANDA

13 reasons why ..
..
It's a new TV series that you can watch on Netflix ..
..
i haven't watched it yet because I cancelled my Netflix membership few months ago .. but I heard my older son talking about it ..
..
despite the fact that my older son was badly effected by his parents divorce .. his condition is mild compared to your daughter's case SHWANDA ..
..
you have all my sympathy SHWANDA .. it's a very hard thing to see your son or daughter being in such an ordeal ..
..
The show is getting positive reviews & high ratings on ( rotten tomatoes website ) & IMDB ..
..
however.. it's a good suggestion to check about it before watching it .. I wouldn't judge it before watching it but .. better safe than sorry ..

[joefcastillo]

One of the best pieces of advice that I had from a psychologist was that you have to live in present, not the past because you can cause yourself anxiety, not the future because also cause anxiety. The best way to live itīs being present in the present tense. When I get into therapy I find out by experience that had helped me a lot to cope with fears and all the daily triggers that can cause you even depression,here you can find more about it, although, in Spanish, doctors speak English and have video consultation at very affordable prices. Hope it can help you the way they had helped me. Bests.

[AJ]

Welcome to the forums joefcastillo. Thank you for sharing those links.

(Just a note to those wanting to check out the websites, many browsers such as Google Chrome will translate the web page for you.).

[Sativea]

When we want to solve a health problem, physical or mental, we must first find out the cause. The pills help, but as long as they are consumed, the anxiety will appear if you stop the treatment. It is best to work with a therapist to therapy with your daughter; you should be present too. Lately, I have also noticed anxious behavior in my daughter. She didn't want to talk to me; she didn't want to eat; she didn't want to do anything. I encouraged her to tell me what was going on, but she didn't want to. I said that if she doesn't want to talk to me, she can talk to a therapist to feel better. That's how I found out she was the victim of cyberbullying and being told she's fat and doesn't look good. This moment triggered me, somewhere I was wrong as a parent. From that moment on, I installed https://www.familyorbit.com to monitor what she does on the Internet and to make sure that nothing like this will happen again in the future.