Teenager refusing Meds and going crazy.

[Sam0207]

Evening,

First ever post so please excuse me if I don't know the lingo :-)

My 16 year old daughter has a diagnosis of Rising Personality Disorder, Emotional Dis-regulation Disorder, PTSD, ADD, Sensory Processing Disorder (hyperstimulation) , OCD, Severe Separation Anxiety, Generalised Anxiety and has disordered eating (starving/binging). Her self harm is off the charts and She is also just waiting for a formal ASD diagnosis. It's fair to say her brain, and her thinking processes don't work the same way as the average teenager!

She spent four months in hospital last year as she was so suicidal I thought I was going to lose her. While there, they gave her her formal diagnosis' and got her on a meds program that's been working really well. Few blips but now we (she and I) understand how differently her brain works we've been able to work through most things. She was working well with a therapist but has taken against her and now refuses to engage.

I've been worried about her behaviour for a couple of weeks (just slightly off centre - for her) and I found out the other day shes been spitting or hiding her medication. For safety reasons it lives in a lock box in my room and I hand it out every evening. Since I discovered that she hasn't been taking her meds I'm now insisting that she takes it in front of me. The last three nights it has taken an average of an hour a night to get her to take her meds. Bribery, explaining consequences, praise, nothing is working. I've explained how crazy she gets without them (and she gets off the charts crazy), that without a doubt she'll end up back in hospital or worse, I've got a call in to her psychiatrist to discuss (with us both) medication alternatives, I've explained the side effects of withdrawal, the risk to her physical and mental health. I can't do the "I'm disappointed in you" or get overly firm with her as it just sets her off into a spiral of self loathing and ultimately self harm. What she perceives to be anger or disappointment is a massive trigger for some of her more dangerous negative compulsive behaviours. Her behaviour, over the last week, has been nuttier than usual (found her sitting in a freezing bath fully clothed, she's carved her arms to shreds again etc) and she had a bad spell of disassociation a couple of nights ago.

She;s not doing this to be "naughty" or as a power play. In her right mind she KNOWS she needs the meds. At the moment, unfortunately, she's not in a headspace which she can understand the consequences of not taking them. It's as if her brain has just said no, and that's that (she does have very black and white thinking - known as Splitting and common with ASD)

As I said, I have manged to get her to take them but its getting harder and harder. She takes them at 10pm since about 7.30 this evening I've been getting more and more anxious about the battle to get her to take them. I feel sick and fidgity and, well, just plain anxious.

Are there any other parents out there in the big wide world of the Internet with any advice or coping strategies? I'm on my own with my girl (although my oldest daughter has offered to come and stay for a night or so, she's got a young family and lives quite far away so it's not really practical for her). Just finding it a bit tough atm :-(

[April2020mom]

Hello!

Is she seeing a therapist or counsellor? How much does she understand? How old is she now?

[Sam0207]

Hi,

She's 16 and when she's relatively stable she understands the need to take the meds (which keep her relatively stable). She understands most of academics around her ASD/SPD and mental health disorders and she can chat quite happily about where her head is at. She's been brought up with a very good understanding of emotions. Unfortunately she's not very rational, everything is black or white and once she has decided on a point of view there is no changing it. She's also very impulsive and compulsive (for example she will run out into the road even though she knows its dangerous, she'll take 30 tins off the shelf in Tesco - just because). Her brain works in some very weird and wonderful ways! In saying all that she's actually the nicest teenager I know (Not many parents of 16 year olds would say that - I certainly wasn't so keen on my other two at that age lol).

She sees her psychiatrist every 4-6 weeks purely for a meds review (she's on Sertraline as a anti anxiety/mood stabiliser and its worked well so far). She was seeing a therapist via CAMHS but has taken against her therapist for suggesting the sessions would EVENTUALLY need to go to fortnightly. She's had a terrible history with CAMHS (playing down her mental health and telling her she was attention seeking, failing to diagnose correctly, blaming family issues, blaming me, letting her down and TBH being all round crap basically). She saw the suggestion of fortnightly as another rejection and her polarised thinking won't change from that position no matter how much we try to convince her it was only a suggestion. So she won't go.

In better news, she has taken her meds the last few night - it;s still taking upwards of an hour and bribery ranging from a costa decaf latte (can you imagine her on caffeine!!!) to a head scratching session (she loves the sensation) so hopefully they're trickling back into her system and she'll start to be a bit more rational.