Help desperately needed for suicidal teen

Background:
MY 16 years old son  has always been anti-social - since nursery until today. He was top 3 at secondary school of 1500 in Year 7. He had no friends and all teachers couldn't say enough good things about him. In year 8, he befrended some bad boys from school and became 3d from the bottom - literally. Teachers hated him. He was expelled. Remotely schoold for a year, briefly schooled in a "special" schoold and stopped going there by mutual agreement. When 14 he formed drugs interest based on peer presure. When15, he had problems with police, gang culture (small town in West middland ), was arested etc. He was sent to his granny for a couple of months and now he is back. He stopped with the gansta, split up with his bad friend, stopped having problems with the police and acquired a nihilistic point of view. He tried to kill himself last week. We talked to CAMHS and Early prevention:

- we think he is autistic but he cannot be diagnosed because he is out of the system now - no referral is possible from school. 

- he is suicidal and we expect to try again any time soon - we are relifed he survived the week

- he is self medicating with weed as he is struggling with mental health - NHS says he is having drug issue (weed is not a drug for me) and cannot be diagnosed until he is off the weed. 

The ask:

What help is avaialbe as a private route - NHS cannot recommend as they are just being NHS. On the other hand, we cannot navigate in the sea of internet sites. 
We found we can find private diagnostic center near us. However I don't know if he will survive the diagnosis before someone can help him. 

Parents
  • It could be good to have him tested for ADHD as well. Bless, it's incredibly hard - hang in there!

    There is a reason ADHD and Autism (and then also Epilepsy) find weed helps. This Californian-based Professor explains the difference in the strains and how they work with or against the human brain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvuJu1kt48v=V_K4PAkFtRY 

    One variety helps filter out sense-perception for relief and aid focus / executive function, which are very specific things Autistic and ADHD have difficulty with (frontal left lobe) - organisation for instance. We are a mismatch in modern society. Often stuck in to right-brained thinking (tapping into a time-stream that is eternal/moment vs linear). Often overwhelmed by more intense impact from our sense-perception among other things. 

    My son went through some of the same issues. He's dyslexic, not autistic, but experiences some of the same hyper-sensory impact, executive function issues and prejudice. I finally got him on a reishi and ashwaganda supplement (now at 27, he just takes a mushroom blend with Lions Mane and Rieshi) this is a healthy long-term solution for us. I've found it helpful personally, supporting my gut-brain axis: focus / clarity and also my ability to digest what I'm not allergic to. It promotes vitamin D.

    However, an immediate POSSIBLE fix with a private GP (I don't fully know your situation): There are still moments where both my son and I need medical help shutting down looping melodies or a whole agenda creating excitement, spiralling into over-stimulation and anxiety which keeps me awake at night or becomes unmanageable. There's a good deal of medical research on Autism and ADHD being prone to less GABA (which is responsible for shutting this down in the brain), so in a pinch I do have a Private prescription for Xanax which is designed specifically for this (and for clarity, beware that anti-depressants further lower GABA which can be deadly for those of us with this different biology). 

    As this won't conflict with weed, under supervision one can always see if it's a momentary fix - just to get him through the week. For a healthy long-term solution, I'm a fan of a good nootropics blend.

  • yes, we wil go down the private route for diagnosis. 

    He says he hears voices at night and cannot sleep. He is paranoid and distrustful. 

    We are afraid to give him any medications as his first thougth would be to OD. He tried last week with his moms herbal tabs. 
    Could you suggest any clinic/practice for the food supplements? 

  • The suggestion with medication can be something you administer and control. For instance, asking a GP for 5 tablets, and giving him one every few days. As a mother, I would address the severity of the situation first with something which counteracts a potential medical issue (which is a big finding with Autism Spectrum) to provide ease under accountability. Given he's already self-medicating, this would be an exchange and at least under a professional's care, which can help you get to the next step and perhaps the medical help you may need if there is a biological difficulty. 

    Healthy supplements can take a month to really notice a difference. Thus the long and hard road vs a quick fix. This is a great way to introduce the importance of self-care. I'm happy to leave some links to start.

    On a side note, what I've suggested are also administered to patients with epilepsy and schizophrenia as well as ADHD and Autistics or any one else in need of a GABA boost to help calm the mind and an over-active imagination. 

    Without spending too much time on the sociology and philosophy of it, the experience of entering into adulthood in our current society is profoundly overwhelming - beyond what I experienced in the 90s when at least rock stars could provide comfort that I was not the only one noticing a corrupt system and I was not wrong to see the cruelties along with the beauty in the world. If ignorance is bliss, we lost it around the time the world became more connected. What kids are exposed to should make them profoundly skeptical and question who or what is worth trusting. X

    My son likes this company, we have a subscription https://feelgud.co.uk/ They have an FAQ page and recommend mushroom in the morning and ashwaganda in the afternoon.

    But these might be something yours might take interest in as they have CDB (no THC) https://thelondondispensary.com/product/cbd-fruit-jellies-reishi-ashwagandha-gummies/

    This company also has a mushroom blend and ashwaganda https://knownnutrition.co.uk/collections/mushroom-complexes

    I would search Reishi+Ashwaganda Gummy- in my experience, teens seem to happily take these. You can always double check with the company what dose and combination works. :) 

Reply
  • The suggestion with medication can be something you administer and control. For instance, asking a GP for 5 tablets, and giving him one every few days. As a mother, I would address the severity of the situation first with something which counteracts a potential medical issue (which is a big finding with Autism Spectrum) to provide ease under accountability. Given he's already self-medicating, this would be an exchange and at least under a professional's care, which can help you get to the next step and perhaps the medical help you may need if there is a biological difficulty. 

    Healthy supplements can take a month to really notice a difference. Thus the long and hard road vs a quick fix. This is a great way to introduce the importance of self-care. I'm happy to leave some links to start.

    On a side note, what I've suggested are also administered to patients with epilepsy and schizophrenia as well as ADHD and Autistics or any one else in need of a GABA boost to help calm the mind and an over-active imagination. 

    Without spending too much time on the sociology and philosophy of it, the experience of entering into adulthood in our current society is profoundly overwhelming - beyond what I experienced in the 90s when at least rock stars could provide comfort that I was not the only one noticing a corrupt system and I was not wrong to see the cruelties along with the beauty in the world. If ignorance is bliss, we lost it around the time the world became more connected. What kids are exposed to should make them profoundly skeptical and question who or what is worth trusting. X

    My son likes this company, we have a subscription https://feelgud.co.uk/ They have an FAQ page and recommend mushroom in the morning and ashwaganda in the afternoon.

    But these might be something yours might take interest in as they have CDB (no THC) https://thelondondispensary.com/product/cbd-fruit-jellies-reishi-ashwagandha-gummies/

    This company also has a mushroom blend and ashwaganda https://knownnutrition.co.uk/collections/mushroom-complexes

    I would search Reishi+Ashwaganda Gummy- in my experience, teens seem to happily take these. You can always double check with the company what dose and combination works. :) 

Children
  • Apologies! What I've suggested cannot cause further harm, especially under the accountability of a private GP. In fact, if GABA isn't the issue, and he's not actually Autistic or ADHD or dyslexic, he'll revert back to whatever he wants to do. I wouldn't want to suggest a thing which could cause further harm. But if it aids focus and clarity and relief, it's a good indication of the problem.

    However, given the severity of you've noted and all the medical papers out now, both the supplements and a trial of something like Xanax might provide the clarity needed to allow him to begin to organise his thoughts and provide breathing room and possibly the ability to learn new ways to perceive the world around. 

    These along with practical self-care guidance, and practical wisdom. it takes times from teen years into mid 20s to learn practical steps for self growth. 

    At a molecular level, what is being found is the Autistic biology is less equipped to filter out incoming sense-perception and appears to not have the same access or strengthened pathways to the Left-brain social linguistics, so from brith, there is not only a loss in translation, but also an onslaught of sensory input "too-much-all-at-once" which feels like one is constantly invaded and also cannot communicate the need for help. Internally, GABA is responsible for shutting down hyper-activity in the brain and filtering the incoming signals. When it's low, life is one giant escape room. Where just when you manage to troubleshoot and solve a problem, 3 new ones pop up. 

    Here's some of the research:

    "Further, lower cerebellar GABA+/Glu ratios were correlated to more severe social impairment in both autistic and SA males, suggesting that the cerebellum may play a transdiagnostic role in social impairment" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925492723001555#:~:text=Further%2C%20lower%20cerebellar%20GABA%2B%2F,transdiagnostic%20role%20in%20social%20impairment.

    "A recent investigation found that there was a negative correlation between thalamic GABA and autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) in male participants with autism" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8858939/#:~:text=Several%20evidence%20also%20reported%20higher,et%20al.%2C%202018).

    There's a body of work if you search for GABA autism ADHD x

  • The problem is that as any normal teen he also has the normal teen side where he likes to get high. So the issue is to separate getting high vs self-medicating. And I can tell that sometimes he indulges and sometime he is self medicating. Difficult to tell. 
    We tried CBD - no big difference. 
    He is in a such acute condition that perhaps we can try the GABA route later - in a few years. 

    For now , we need god knows what.