How to help DD sleep.

[ICallConnerie]

DD is 14 and has been dealing with some issues around self harming and anxiety since September last year.

There are two main issues for this - academically she struggles due to Dyslexia and Auditory Processing Disorder. And secondly because her father has never wanted anything to do with her and she eels a great rejection surrounding this.

we are waiting for Cahms to assess her for therapy. In the meantime she has been referred for school counselling to start in March and has a god supportive head of year with lots of steps in place should she feel the need to harm herself etc.

This last few weeks things have really seemed to fallen apart for her. The biggest issue is that she's barely sleeping which has a knock on effect for her mood/concentration etc.

The GP was reluctant to prescribe anything until she'd seen cahms but I gather that could be months.

What can I do in to help her now? Some nights she drops off ok but only manages 2-3 hours before she's awake again. She knows she can come into bed with me and does this often but other times she just sits in the dark in her room.

I'm just feeling so useless. And scared that she's going to do something in the middle of the night when she's exhausted and feeling so low.

So many spelling mistakes. I'm a bit sleep deprived myself at the moment

I'm so sorry. A few ideas- dd has a pillow speaker( Amazon) which she can play music/ podcasts through.
Have a look at "this works" sleep spray- all natural and lavender. Bach rescue remedy. Headspace mindfulness apps.
Relaxing lavender baths before bed. Sending

All good ideas thank you twentyten

I hadn't thought of mindfulness apps.

All wine gratefully received!

I spoke to my dd who had problems last year- past of it was we got into a spiral of her going to bed earlier but not tired and got anxious about not sleeping- so I stepped back and she pottered in her room until she was tired and went to bed. I understand this might be harder with possible sh issues.... Would she read/ make something? Doing paper models and origami gas helped dd. good luck.

My DD was prescribed melatonin for sleep which she has taken for some time now. The slow release version helps her get a proper nights sleep and is often prescribed by camhs.

That's good to know anthropology. I will mention it if things continue like this.

twentyten I've been trying to step back a bit as I think you're right, if she feels she should be going to sleep and she cant she does get more anxious about it. But I wanted her to stop screen time and read or draw for a while to see if that helped. At the moment we are breaking a napping habit - she is so emotionally exhausted after school she'll often just fall asleep as soon as she's home and that makes it even harder to drop off at bedtime. It's hard to know if I should let her catch up with a nap or wake her. Ironically, she was a dream baby when it came to sleep and I'm more worried about this sort of thing now then I ever was then!

The self harm issue does mean that I am reluctant to go to sleep until I know she is tbh. She doesn't ever talk about it so I don't trust she'll come to me if she feels the need to do it or if she's cut quite badly. I'm pretty certain she would just cover it up and ignore it.

I have suggested the app thing and she said she'll look at them.

She is actually asleep now. Earliest it's been for so long. It's half term her and I took her to work with me so I think she's warn out bless her. I hope it lasts tonight and she gets a much-needed solid chunk of sleep.

er.. that turned into a bit of an essay... Thanks again to you both.

Www.meditainment.com have good downloads that help me sleep.

Anthropology - is melatonin used with ADs? My DD is on sertraline. She struggles to get to sleep at night, although once asleep she's ok. At the moment whenever we have to wake her before 8-9-ish she vomits and feels really rough for a few hours, although if we leave her til 10 or later she's fine. She had to give up college this year due to various health issues, but intends to start again in September. At this rate I can see a problem.... At the moment she's taking omeprezol (sp?) to counteract the vomitting, it seemed to work for a while but we now seem back to square one.

Think it might be a good question next time we see our various medical professionals!

Thank you.

My DD1 is prescribed Sertraline and Circadin (slow release Melatonin) together.

Yes my DD took them with ADS fluoxetine and sertraline.she prescribed by psychiatrist..the melatonin shouldn't make things worse.coming off sertraline had lots of side effects btw but she just takes slow release melatonin now.