I'll try to keep this brief but since going to secondary school our child has been claiming at various times to have different metal illnesses. They've claimed to suffer from tourrettes, they've claimed to have multiple personality disorder, they've claimed to suffer from depression, anxiety, panic attacks, eating disorders (briefly) and a few others. They have also prolonged injuries (they had crutches for a while for a genuine injury but maintained that they needed them long after the injury had healed). Although we've always been slightly dubious of the severity of any of these afflictions, we have nonetheless done our best to help them, discussing it with their teachers and doctors and even referred them to PCAHMs at the suggestion of doctors and the school as a precaution.
The general consensus from all involved is that the claims of mental illness are unfounded and intended to garner our child more attention, regardless of whether it's positive or negative.
Herein lies part of the problem. Teenagers being teenagers, she has been widely mocked for 'faking' and on one hand I can't blame them (it's what I would have thought at their age I'm sure), but on the other I just want my child to be safe and well.
Has anyone else had experience of their children being almost obsessed with being diagnosed with some kind of mental illness? How did you handle it? Is there a way of helping them?
I can still remember being a teenager myself and I remember many of us used to idolise musicians and film stars who seemed to promote the idea of being medicated, suicidal, hospitalised, and while this can obviously have a serious influence on some kids, it doesn't on others and overall I believe that musicians have a positive influence on children for the most part. Our child is obsessed with a certain female musician who sings about being on medication and going to the psychiatrist and I can't help but notice that her obsession with these things coincided with their obsession with this singer.
Likewise, while I don't have access to their phone, I have seen them sharing and liking memes that discuss depression, medication and so forth on social media (instagram/snapchat).
The point being, I believe that their behaviour is partly down to societal influences and partly a desire to get attention, attention that they don't appear to want from us.
Our child is intelligent, funny, a talented musician and singer, and a bit of a looker (obviously biased on that one...) and I've told them that the best way to get good attention is to excel and to put forward their best and most endearing characteristics. When they get complimented for their music they are beaming and can't wait to tell us. But it seems like the easiest and most immediate way to get attention is to act as if they have mental illnesses.
The other effect of their claim to mental illness is that it gives them an excuse to get out of doing things they don't want to do. They have gotten out of taking tests by claiming to be having a panic attack. They use it as a means of control.
I don't have much else to say except to ask for any help/suggestions/similar stories. It seems to be a common thing among them and their friends to claim to be feeling suicidal, and it's also extremely common for them to claim to be non-gender specific and so forth.
I'll end this by saying I wish social media had never ever been invented!
Thanks again!