teenager - suspect manic depression/mania

[lisalisa]

I have always suspected my dd1 may have mania/manic depression /the beginnings of.

She is extremrely irritable and hard to get along with, has issues regarding space ( no one can sit too close to her), friends ( has a few close ones but is basically losing her friends as she's hard to get along with) and clothes ( sticks to very conservative baggy clothes). She also has some compulsive habits like hair pulling.

I have been worried about her for a while and have gently tried talking to her but she closes like a book. I have also spoken to the school inconfidence but apart from asking her if she's ok they haven't really done anything. I also took her to our GP when she wasn't sleeping at all but again apart from asking her if she was depressed ( she said she wasn/t) they didn't do anything either.

I suspect mania as some nights she doesn't sleep at all. I have asked her the next day how she sleeps and she sometimes pretends she slept ok and sometimes she just says she doesn't really know.

Sometimes she is very sad and reclusive and other times with no warning she goes hyper and acts literally like a toddler bouncing off the walls and completely inappropriately.

She is very lonely and my heart breaks fro her.

This afternoon she left her diary on her bed and I broke the golden rule and read some. There - spread out for me - was what I feared for the last year or so ( she is 17 btw). She says her mind is a prison and she feels controlled by her feelings and very depressed sometimes and sometimes completely hyper., She expresses deep loneliness and exhaustion and despair . She says she doesn't know why she feels like this or how to stop it .

I don't know what to do .

Please help.

[threedeer]

Go and have a private chat with the GP without your daughter present. Ask first if there is a GP at the surgery with a special interest in MH issues. They are by far the best ones to approach. Talk through what you have said here, including the diary entry.

Go onto MIND and SANE websites and take a look at the teen sections.

Once you have a bit of knowledge behind you, chat with her. Be very careful that your language is not confrontational, judgemental or accusatory. As her mum you can quite legitimately say that you are seriously worried that she isn't as happy in life as you feel she deserves to be, and that it is relatively easy to get help so that she doesn't have to feel this way any more. Don't mention the diary unless she does.

Book her a day off school and a double apt at the GPs so that she has time off to process anything that comes up when she is in there.

CBT is good. You could try logging her into an online set up like Moodgym and ask her to do the exercises. If it is manic depression she will need medication but it could be a combination of other issues and CBT will help either way.

good luck. She is very lucky to have a lovely mum who cares so much about her and is willing to go out of her way to get help before it reaches crisis point.

[heyday]

Try the charity YoungMinds, they are the experts in child and adolescent mental health issues. You can find them online. Good luck

[Bug2014]

I am no expert but if she is on the Pill? it would be well worth trying coming off it. There are thousands who have had their mental health adversely affected by it.

[lisalisa]

Thank you so much threedeer. I am going to begin with your suggestions . Thank you to the others who replied too

[threedeer]

Hope you get the support she needs from the GP.

Let us know how she is and how you are too. (If you want to) :)

[Goldmandra]

Also look into girls with Asperger's Syndrome.

Lots of people with AS have been wrongly diagnosed with bipolar and schizophrenia. They can present in very similar ways when high levels of long term stress are added to the mix as they often are with AS.

Tony Attwood has written a lot about girls with AS and the average age for diagnosis is about 15 I think.