SD medication to feel better

My 19 year-old wants me to be involved in her medical decisions and has given the GP consent to give us information. Not all young people are the same or in the same circumstances.

Yeah but parents opinions on whether her mental health requires medication are worthless. An actual medical professional’s opinion, with time to access the patient and ongoing monitoring, ideally bound by rules of confidentiality would be hugely preferable but I guess in whatever awful place OP lives medical confidentiality is not standard.

Young people need to be followed up once a week once they start antidepressants. I don’t get the impression this is happening, from the OP’s comments. If you don’t believe the OP though, then this thread will be pointless for you.

In this case, it does not seem to be breaching confidentiality due to systems in that country. I don’t have any understanding of those systems so can’t comment. We have very high standards of governance and confidentiality in the health service in this country which need to be respected, of course.

Just to mention, that confidentiality can be broken when there are significant risks. I’m not saying that this is the case here.

Woah, now you are comparing your step daughter to a 19 year old who is suspected of dealing drugs, who had brought unprescribed medication into a house and is most likely selling it?

All because she's asked for help with her mental health and been given some help with it?

No one thinks benzos are a reasonable coping mechanism for someone missing their boyfriend during a temporary period of separation by the way. It’s just no one believes your stepdaughter is telling you the truth about the situation because at 19 our parents were just not the people we would ask for help for emotional difficulties or mental health problems. It’s really an age thing. Earlier on and later on in life parents I would ask my parents for help but just at that age the need for independence was so strong that I kept my parents in the dark about most things going on in my life. They got the highlights reel when I visited and requests for advice or help when I wanted it.

I agree with your way of thinking op

How do you know she isn't? This prescription has only just happened - not enough time for monitoring to have even started and be billed via an insurance company for any follow up.

A coroner would take a very dim view on mental heath support and medication not being provided if deemed necessary, and breeches in medical confidentiality to wouldn't they?

Can you pay for her to see a Dr to follow the situation properly or is that simply not available where you are?

Which will lead to more step parenting monitoring and more breeches in medical confidentiality...

Honestly, even being referred to as a ´teen’ at the age of 19 would have pissed me off. I know technically, there’s still the word ´teen’ in that age, but for me, going to university was the start of my life as an adult. I needed to feel that I was in charge of my own life and that my parents no longer had a say unless I invited them to. I needed that sense of independence to be able to do perfectly normally things like have a boyfriend and a sex life and start going out to parties and concerts and organize my own drs appointments and haircuts and all sorts of little things that are part of being an adult. My parents are great but in my head I couldn’t reconcile making adult decisions while I still felt like my parents got a say in the matter. I would have failed to launch as an adult without that independence of moving out of home at 18.
I think basically the cultural difference here is too big for you to get relevant advice OP. Everyone is just horrified by the idea of a 19 year old still being monitored by her parents in this way. But we also come from places with a more joined-up and safer healthcare system.
Can you pay for her to see a Dr to follow the situation properly or is that simply not available where you are?

You’ve had some awful responses here, OP.

Yanbu to be worried. Those meds aren’t to be taken lightly.

Exactly. Benzos should not be given for panic disorder unless it is for a new and temporary stressful situation. As per the NICE guidelines. They are so hard to come off. I do not think they are suitable medication in this case. They make people feel so much better for a short time, and that is part of the problem.

How do you know she is being monitored? I see many examples in the UK of private healthcare where a young person is started on antidepressants and not monitored. It is shocking. Should the worst happen, a coroner would take a very dim view of this.

Which country are you in OP?

It's kind of vital information for you to get responses it now seems as people trying to advise you 'don't have the facts'.

Please tell me which country in the world does not have a policy on health care confidentiality for over 16s...?

@HeldBack

It's likely she will be being monitored - there are stringent regulations on this in place world wide.

Do you think that a step parent should access and then share a 19 year olds medical information? Do you think this sort of behaviour may be a red flag for why this woman hasn't discussed any of this with her step parent?

I'm from a Southern Hemisphere country (Australia), there is not a lot more parental involvement in adult children's health decisions at all. In Australia for instance medicare can only relay information to a parent once a child is over 16 with the explicit consent of the patient.

There are some over controlling parents who think it's appropriate to seek out the medical information on their adult children rather than maintaining their confidentiality; even if you had stumbled across this by accident you shouldn't have raised.

As a parent (or step parent) it is your duty to ensure your children can access safe, effective, and confidential healthcare.

I hope @HeldBack’s sensible and expert response is of some reassurance. I would be concerned about my young adult taking a benzodiazepine and would want them off it asap. If there’s nothing more going on beyond the minor life stresses she’s described, it’s hard to see how she’d stop “needing” them. I hope you can try and divert her into psychological therapy.