Teens off school with depression and anxiety- how to aid recovery?

[M1ssour1]

My ds 17 is off school with depression and anxiety. On meds and having therapy once a week. Has started going for a walk once a day but still spending most of the day in bed on phone or watching tv. Diet not great due to previous not eating but starting to improve.

Not getting any advice from CAMHs as to how to support him. Don’t really interact with them bar psychiatrist appointments which aren’t often.

Will hopefully be well enough to go back to school in Sep. Until then wondering what we should or could be doing to aid recovery. The days seem so long and don’t think sitting on his phone helps.

Do CAMHs normally advise on this or is there nothing we can really do?

I really feel for you. My DD has had 3 weeks off in similar circumstances. Has your DS stayed in touch with his friends? Also, has he had blood tests done for any vitamin deficiencies? We found DD had an extremely low vitamin D level and just 5 days into her tablets, she looks a lot better.

How long has he been having his walks? Recently? Also, is he walking somewhere green with trees or just in the street? There's scientific evidence that walking among the trees and green can help with depression. I really feel for kids today. They're living in a very strange time.

Not sure about being in contact with friends but yes walking in green spaces. He is vit d deficient, psychiatrist has just prescribed a supplement.

The days are sooooo long and will be for a while.

Can the therapist not advise?

I would be encouraging him to maintain as much of a normal routine, or as close to it as possible. Read up about behavioural activation. Aim with building everyday activities into his routine, but this needs to be led by him.

Can i ask why he isn't in school? Is a part time timetable an option for the time being, with the aim of increasing to full time?

I advise you to try to check if he's socialising at all...online obviously. Even a little bit of a chat with mates can lift them a lot. My DD is happiest when with her friends but we're in a country with no lockdown so I appreciate the difficulty for most people there.

Was supposed to be Alevejs and the college said he couldn’t start the courses part way through or part time. He still doesn’t feel ready. He has just started talking therapy. Depression has improved but not the chronic anxiety..

Think the therapist has suggested he do things he did before but not well enough yet to focus on reading or coding which he used to do. He told her he used to like going into town so she has asked him to try to do that for a really short time. He is going to try next week and could maybe build up to doing that once a week but still leaves a lot of time.

It sounds really tough...keep telling him that this way of being isn't permanent. It will lift. I think that's one of the hardest things when you're depressed....you can't remember or imagine feeling normal.

Try to encourage as much music as possible...and comedy...even if a comedy show raises a smile, that's going to release the right chemicals.x