AIBU to ask for child psychiatrist recommenations. Really desparate.

[Concernedmamab]

Sorry I know it's a bit cheeky to post on here but I am at my wit's end. My daughter has been on the CAMHS waiting list for 6 months now despite some awful things happening to her in the last year. Two years ago she was seen by a CAMHS psychiatrist for half an hour and prescribed Prozac, it didn't agree with her at all, she went back and was given Sertraline but this didn't work for her either. Since then she's suffered some unimaginable trauma which I don't want to go into here, has been suicidal and really depressed, has frequent anxiety attacks. The last time she saw CAMHS they said she had PTSD symptoms but she is still waiting to be seen by a doctor. I begged them to prescribe beta-blockers but they refused and eventually the GP did. If anyone can recommend a psychiatrist who works with teenagers (I don't know what the age cut-off for late teens is) in the South of England I would be very grateful. DD is 16. Thank you x

EMDR is one of the two NICE recommended therapies for PTSD, the mechanism by which it works is still not clear but it has a good success rate. A psychologist will be trained in CBT which is the other therapy. One who can do EMDR and CBT can advise about the best approach. This article discusses it. As pp says make sure that they are hcpc registered.

EMDR isn't a talking therapy. One of it's advantages is that you don't have to talk a whole lot about the distressing event.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing

It can be used in fairly emergent situations because it can work quickly. Once the panic attacks are under control, psychotherapy (talking therapy) might help consolidate the gains she has made via emdr.

Psychiatry isn't really the answer here, most likely. Medical approaches (eg medication) aren't the gold standard for PTSD as far as I know. A psychiatrist is going to see you for 2 mins, shove some standard anti depressants your way, and forget you and DD ever existed. No shame on them - they're as aware as anyone that PTSD isn't usually responsive to medications alone, and what a psychiatrist specializes in is just that, medications.

You need a bacp clinical psychologist with EMDR and trauma focused CBT training. Those are the therapies that are most likely to relieve her suffering.

All the best x poor you and poor dd