To need emergency help for my son’s mental health?

I wouldn’t send him to school but would let him know that this is a panic attack and although it’s very frightening, nothing bad can happen. Reassure him that he’s not going mad. It sounds as though he’s highly sensitised. Try chamomile tea - two teabags in a mug, let it steep with the teabags in it until it’s cool and then get him to drink it all.

Adrenaline lowers blood sugar significantly so give him something sweet to eat.

CAMHS will not consider this an emergency, so you need to do mental health first aid.

I’ve been here and still fighting this daily.
setraline saved my life. I was put on diazepam but was paranoid and it was just horrible so I came off them. I couldn’t stop the anxiety and heart rate. I thought I was dying. The out of body experience is what caused it it was AWFUL!! I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.
I really hope he’s ok. I’m doing loads better now this was me to a T last year. He will move forward from this. I hope the gp has helped xx

Hi I’m so sorry this sounds scary.

A cold flannel to the face can help to pause and re-connect and then allow something like the breathing techniques. The breathing ones can’t work if he won’t engage.

similarly is he eating/drinking? Would a cold drink help or crunch some ice to regulate?

someone mentioned a run - it’s cold today in a lot of places so would he go for a walk/run in the cold air.

then come back and use a weighted item and snuggled for body contact and safety.

he may feel his body is disconnected so the exercise and/or ice may help to pause. The the deep pressure for safety and to feel his body if that makes sense.

how about some white noise in the background for stability? Might need to play quite loudly weirdly to overtake any audio hallucinations he may have.

im not a medical professional so feel free to free to ignore - but how about an antihistamine? They can sometimes calm. If he’s had before and know it’s safe then might help take the edge off

if no choking risk then a chewy sweet or something to calm his breathing/body.

smells to awaken him and reconnect breathing. Or to calm. Got any olbas oil or essential oils?? Or coffee under his nose.

sorry for the random list - jut thinking of some quick fixes you may have available to you.

longer term I’d go low stim/low demand and not attempt school for a while.

Oh your poor son -
he sounds utterly overwhelmed
your best bet is to get him into Cahms
check what the wait times are for
triage of urgent referrals
assessment and then treatment
if the wait times are horrific - go private - even if u put it on a credit card
psychiatry UK is good - the psychiatrists are often CAHMs specialists
NHS services are tragically overwhelmed- so always ask how long … when you are referred for anything ….
prioritise his sleep, diet, rest, comfort and safety
reduce screen time and increase comfort things - weighted blanket. Favourite movies, etc

Has he tried sticking his face in really cold water it does like a body reset. Another good one is grounding where its 5 things he can see 4 things he can touch, 3 things he can hear 2 he can smell and 1 he can taste I always find this quite helpful

Agree with previous suggestion to see if exercise such as a run will help.
His brain wants to escape danger, if his body follows through it might ‘complete the cycle’ and allow him to re-set and calm down.

Have you ever seen the GP with a child with a MH crisis? Please tell us how that went. You obviously talk about something you have no experience with.

It’s extremely unlikely that he would be given any kind of medication. You could go to A&E but it’s a busy, noisy environment.

GPs are generally useless at a time of crisis. They are very limited. I would take him to a children’s a&e and be very clear on why you are there - list full symptoms and examples, and keep repeating you are scared for his personal safety as he is suffering a mental health crisis.
You will be fobbed off until you make enough fuss that you’re taken seriously. The child needs to be seen by a psychiatrist urgently and given treatment

Despite the fact she's been advised by 111 - the NHS service which also deals with mental health to not do that and seek support via GP which is already happening and he's already got an urgent CAMHS referral?

And her DS specifically said he doesn't want to go to hospital?

Please be careful about your advice, it is wrong in this instance.

All that would happen is he'd wait in A and E, becoming more and more distressed only to at best, a MH professional in the next few hours (the CAMHS hospital assessment teams work at the latest till 10pm) who'll send him home with anxiety management advice or he'd be sent home anyway as there would be no available MH practitioner to see him after regular hours as many only work till 5pm.

This isn't a MH crisis in the eyes of secondary MH services.

I’ve got quite a lot of personal/family experience of this type of thing, and unfortunately the only thing I think would help would be diazepam, but it would only help while he’s taking it, and it isn’t prescribed long term.

Realistically there is very very little help out there via the NHS.

It sounds like your DS needs to see a psychiatrist and a counsellor with regards to putting some medication and ongoing therapy in place. What is available via the NHS is either nonexistent/insufficient/insultingly useless.

If you have the resources you should arrange a private evaluation.

The similar situation in my family was shockingly unsupported by the NHS even at the point my family member was being sectioned.

The hospital I work in has a children's A+E and there is a small mental health team who are on call for children and young people (teenagers). I would think most hospitals have this.

if he can't calm down go to a&e. I have been there multiple times with a mentally very unwell teen. They are usually not the most urgent cases so expect a longer wait but that's what I would probably do.

There will be a community crisis team that your gp can refer you to. If it continues into tomorrow without easing, I’d recommend taking him to A&E.

I would definitely go to a and e

This isn't a MH crisis in terms of secondary MH provision, that would be psychosis for instance or overdose with suicidal intent, not extreme anxiety.

He's on the urgent CAMHS list, you've had the appropriate advice from 111 and although it's extremely distressing for you and DS, he won't meet criteria for crisis intervention.

And it's unlikely that when seen by CAMHS, he'll be given medication immediately.

You've had some great advice here in helping him to manage his anxiety and that's the way forward for now.

Your poor son, I've been there, love reassurance also helps xxx

This, they can use you to regulate.

Have a look at the butterfly hug. This is another method of self soothing and settling the nervous system.

Had he had a recent infection or has anyone in your house?
Have a look at pans/pandas. The suddenness of this crisis rings a bell along with motor ticks and some of his other symptoms
https://pandasnetwork.org/pandas-symptoms-checklist/

On the pans group, some parents find ibuprofen helps to bring inflammation down.

In addition, please get his folic acid, b12 and vitamin D checked.

Sorry I know this sounds bananas but try getting him to go for a jog with you or doing star jumps. Anything to get his body moving in line with his heart rate. I used to have terrible panic attacks with a racing heart /startles and this really helped me. I figured it out on my own.

Anything like breathing exercises or body awareness just drew my attention to how out of control I felt and made it worse.

Alternate nostril breathing helped as a next step.

There's probably nowhere else to turn but the GP at the moment unfortunately.

There is some brilliant advice on here.

I would absolutely avoid a&e unless there are delusions/ psychosis I’m afraid. I wouldn’t want my son in the institutional part of the system.

i hope the GP has been helpful, and I hope there is some suitable medication to help him get some sleep

It may be worth looking at PANs/PANDAS (there is a good facebook UK Support Group with insight and advice), especially if this has come on relatively recently and definitely if he has had strep/covid/high temp/exposure to mould recently. It can cause behaviour just as you describe.

He doesn’t have a choice here, he has to engage with the breathing. Be calm and be firm.

Learning strategies at this age is essential. They won’t dope him.

I hope you can get some swift help. Camhs crisis line? We called once for DS when he was about 16 - they were good ‘in the moment’ and calmed things down a bit. He was already known to camhs which helped.
Bresthing helps a bit but they have to want to engage.
Having DC with anxiety is hard and takes its toll on you too.