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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that my daughter may be having a breakdown

8 replies

Mumto3xxxx · 26/06/2019 06:35

I’ve posted about my daughter a few times before- she’s 23 and is autistic and also has tourettes and adhd. She also has polycistic ovaries. I am really worried that she may be having a breakdown- things have gotten progressively worse since the beginning of the year. She cries all the time (she can cry for 3 hours at a time), she’s hardly sleeping at all, she has pressure of speech, she sometimes makes herself sick after she eats (she’s done this before but had stopped for a long time), she sometimes doesn’t eat or drink all day, she talks about dying, she goes for walks in her pyjamas (which is out of character for her), she keeps saying that ‘whoever has done this to me will be punished’ (when I asked her what she means by this she says it’s about the person who made her have special needs- I did try and explain to her that she’s always had them). Also we were walking the dog in some woods last week and she was talking to the trees and then to the river. She was discharged from the mental health service just under two months ago- I have tried to make contact with them but they feel she’s probably just adjusting to life without as much support from them and that her hormones will be making things much worse so to just keep an eye on her to see if she settles down. I was just wondering if she does sound like she is having a breakdown or l am just worrying too much and being unreasonable. Thank you for reading and sorry it’s long

OP posts:
AJPTaylor · 26/06/2019 06:40

It's easy to say but hard to do. You know her best and if she has not settled and has got worse you need to really push for the help. Go back to gp and mental health. I am sorry it all sounds so hard.

Pikapikachooo · 26/06/2019 06:46

Hey . I remember being very worried about my son and googling the symptoms of poor MH . Sometimes when it’s yiour
Kid you need it in black and white

I think she needs some extra help and unsure if said help is actually available easily ?

But yes she sounds very unhappy and depressive

I am so sorry OP , given her set of needs I am wary to dispense advice as what I would do might not be relevant for her Flowers

JanesKettle · 26/06/2019 07:52

She sounds really unwell to me.

The re-emergence of unhealthy coping behaviours (bulimic eating, the crying jags and the major sleep disturbances do not sound to me like someone coping with being home and making adjustments to home life, however slowly.

I would be very concerned. Does she have a mental health professional she sees weekly ? If she does, can you let them know what you see, and detail the behaviours that have you concerned. She might or might not need to go back to hospital, but she sounds like she isn't really getting the treatment she needs to function at her best.

Good luck. I'm not in the UK, so I don't know what services you can access, but if it's anything like it is here, it can be very hard trying to access help for your young adult child.

JanesKettle · 26/06/2019 07:56

Just to add, my young adult only began to make real MH improvements with regular, consistent outpatient support - individual psychotherapy once a week, a group program once a week, and a peer support worker once a fortnight.

Re hormonal imbalance - I don't normally go for alternative medicine, but have found that a trained herbalist can offer some effective treatments for female hormone issues. But honestly, I think you are getting the brush off with her mental health needs being attributed to 'hormones'.

sevenoftwelve · 26/06/2019 08:15

Holy hell that is not what "adjusting" to no longer needing regular MH support should look like! Any adjustment would have been gradual and predominantly have occurred while support was gradually being tapered off.

Somebody who was ready to be discharged because they no longer needed that kind of support would not be as unwell as you are describing.

codemonkey · 26/06/2019 08:19

I'm cynical about a desperately overstretched mental health service brushing off anyone. It's in their interest to discharge people, not your daughter's. Push for more support.

Mumto3xxxx · 26/06/2019 10:43

Thank you for all your replies. I think she is definitely not well. She has been awake crying since 7 and will not touch her breakfast- she has gone for a walk again in her pyjamas. I also caught her with an electric razor threatening to shave her head because she says her head feels like it’s on fire. I think I will try and get a dr’s appointment for this afternoon. Once again thank you everybody for all your replies- I really appreciate it

OP posts:
Mumto3xxxx · 26/06/2019 10:45

Also, the mental health service discharged her because she did seem to be making good progress- I did feel that it was too early though but I get that they have a long waiting list of people who are trying to access support

OP posts:
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