Are any of your teens self medicating with xanax??

[seriouslyworried]

Long story short dd has been under camhs on and off for three years dealing with anxiety and depression. She stopped taking prescribed medication off her own back a little while ago and seemed to be doing really well. It has recently come to light that she has been smoking weed and taking xanax, that she buys from friends - a lot of teens take it for the buzz apparently!! Camhs are now aware of this and seem to think that there is nothing I can do about it if that is what she wants to do!!! Looking in to the highly addictive nature of this drug I am going out of my mind. Has anyone else had to deal with this?

Yes. About 6 years ago, although he did it with a valium equivalent. If she does not stop she will have to take more and more to have the desired affect. There will come a point where she cannot get hold of it any more and will get seriously bad withdrawal. My son persuaded the doctor to wean him off it by getting a prescription each day for less and less until he could stop. The combination of strong weed and xanax is not good for her mental health. Try and persuade to ask the GP for help in stopping. Unfortunately she should not have stopped the prescribed medication. How old is she.

My Ds's self medication led to serious addiction over about a 5 year period. Both the addiction and the underlying mental health issues have to be dealt with at the same time.

She is 17. This is what terrifies me. She has no real knowledge of what she is doing to herself, but so many of her friends are doing it too and I feel utterly helpless. Short of physically stopping her from going outside the front door there seems to be nothig I can do. We speak about it but she just gives me a pack of lies! Do you think help and access to any kind of rehab would be better once she becomes an adult??? At the moment camhs dont seem to want to do anything...but saying that as she doesnt seem to want to stop what can any of us do?