Advice please

Hi, this is my first post but I really need help. My daughter is 14 and we've always believed that she was on the spectrum but as she was high functioning and just a little 'quirky' we never realised any benefits to getting a diagnosis. The in June 2016 life started getting really tricky for her. It's a long story and it has been awful. She remains wonderful, gentle and kind a truly gorgeous person but she has suffered terrible problems since entering High School, bullying, loneliness, she was encouraged to kill herself by a 'friend' in messages. We've had police involvement, arguments with school, CAHMS and the education psychologist. They said I had a problem and needed anger management but people were still refusing to do anything because her grades were too high and she hides it so well in public but at home the anxiety was slowly killing her. My baby has now had a breakdown, she's not been in school since June, she can't dress or feed herself, she's completely crippled by anxiety and terrified by even her own sneeze. She's now medicated and not responding on a cocktail of Sertraline, Loraxepam and Resperidone. She has always suffered terrible separation anxiety when away from me and home sickness when we're away together. We've stuck to the same holiday destination for 8 years because she's comfortable there. We've always adapted to her and she's best when she's with me. There is now a lot of pressure to admit her to a specialist unit where they can be more experimental with drugs and offer intensive counselling (she's never responded to counselling in the past). I'm refusing to let her go, I'll do whatever it takes to look after her, I'll take her to day patient appointments, I'll nurse her I'll chop my arm off if it helps but they want her in for an initial 6-8 weeks assessment period when they'll then tell me how long they want to keep her. My gut tells me it would kill her and be the worse thing for her. How would she ever forgive me or me myself. My husband is starting to come round to their way of thinking. School is the issue and I'd happily home school but he doesn't agree. I need some honest advice, am I being unreasonable? Would the best thing to be to let her go? She's not responding to drugs so far. She barely speaks and simply answers 'don't know' to everything. CAHMS says she has strong autistic traits but they're not able to diagnose so they're just treating the anxiety.

Any advice?

Thank you

Parents
  • Hi Mummy Lion,

    My heart goes out to you.

    I have worked in the NHS for over 20 years and in that time I have only had to initiate ‘sectioning’ with 2 YPs before. On both occasions this came about because they were a direct danger to themselves. And this is exactly how I made that decision- it was based on whether, if they were not admitted as inpatients, would they survive, and the answer I came to was no.

    So I think you may have to ask yourself this painful question too- if your daughter is not admitted as an inpatient, will she survive? Is she currently a direct risk to herself (such as suicide attempts, cutting, etc.?)

    Secondly, you need the professionals around you to explain exactly what they imagine she would directly gain from being admitted that couldn’t be achieved via being an outpatient? Accessing counselling (and meds) do not really seem to be good enough reasons for admittance alone- as she can access these on a daily basis from home, so why exactly do they think she needs to be admitted? What will she gain from being admitted that she wouldn’t or can’t gain from staying at home and accessing outpatient services this way?

    Thirdly, why is a diagnosis (of ASD) not CAMHS priority? If there is an underlying disorder which has aggravated her mental state, surely this needs to be fully identified in order for any current and future treatments to be effective (and not harming) for her? So I think that’s another question I would definitely be asking the ‘professionals;’ if your daughter had a diagnosis of ASD, knowing all that you (and they) do about ASD (such as often the need for routine, familiarity, different symptoms of depression, different causes of anxiety, different ways of conceptualising and perceiving self, life and others etc. than ‘NTs’) would they still be suggesting this exact same course of (inpatient) treatment for her?

    Critically: will she be treated as an individual on the spectrum at the inpatient unit or will she be expected to perform and respond to a ‘bog standard’ treatment plan as if she was not ND but NT as she has no formal diagnosis? This important question needs answering I think? Formal diagnosis or not, if your daughter is on the spectrum, she can't be expected to receive treatment or respond to current or future treatments as if she is NT.

    I think that, there are never any guarantees in this life, not one single one, not ever; with either opting to ‘heal at home’ or go for the admittance, both represent equally unknown outcomes. We can never ever know for certain whether we are doing the right thing, about anything, we can only ever do our very best at the time. And I think it is a cruel part of being human that we may always wonder about the path we didn’t take, or what may have happened had we have decided differently, no matter what we do.

    We are all only human, sometimes we do make mistakes and sometimes we must live with regrets but, if your gut instinct is telling you that your daughter would not gain anything from being admitted or be in a worse state for being admitted, I have to honestly confess to you that I would personally go with my gut instincts. There is little in this life that can’t be changed again if we do discover that a decision we made was the wrong one after all.

    My youngest ND son was on the verge of a breakdown (he had not yet reached the critical stage your daughter has but he was heading there) when he was 13 due to high school traumas and I did pull him out and have been home educating him ever since. Removing him from a highly toxic environment was the best decision I have ever made. It’s been a colossal amount of hard work- I didn’t opt for Home Ed in order to avoid lessons or exams or school work or life or anything- we didn’t flee into home ed- we actively chose this path as a positive solution, we decided to make a big life change in order to forge a better path than the road he was on, and I think, actively choosing (daring to make and follow) a different path in this way has made all the difference.

    With your daughter, I think it will take a good year or two of extremely hard work, blind faith in yourself and in her, and the tiniest of gentle steps; I lived with my own great fear, anxiety, and uncertainty for the first two years of home ed, never really knowing if we had made the right decision or not, literally going by blind faith and hope alone, trying my best to trust deeply in myself and my son, daily. But, for me personally, my son is living proof that this (nurturing) approach can work.

    The truth is that I needed to grow entirely new thoughts (a different paradigm) in order for it to work-I had to reassess everything I had previously thought about life, what it means, what a priority is and what it isn’t, what actually matters and what doesn’t. And take a huge risk. Everything in life is a huge risk really, no matter what you do or do not do.

    It all depends on what risk you think is the one most worth taking?

    Best of luck and a really big hug.

  • big respect AngelDust....and to you Mummy Lion 

  • Thank you ElephantInTheRoom,

    I hold you in high esteem and your respect means a lot to me, thank youRelaxed

  • The feeling is mutual.....keep doing your thing girl!

    (I assume you are a woman, unless you are a really butch Builder of a bloke called AngelDust!)

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