Evening all,
Just looking to see if anyone else has been through navigating CAMHS with teenage psychosis?
DD's friends mum called me about a year ago to say her DD had seen my daughter with fresh cut marks. Around this time my daughter had become withdrawn and snappy. After some talking to her she admitted she didn't know what was wrong but felt like she "didn't want to be alive". We got in touch with our GP, who was fab and got us a referral to CAHMS and DD school.
Well long story short CAHMS said she wasn't, basically, 'ill enough' and discharged us. We got her play therapy through a local charity but all the time things got worse at home.
Resulting in a recent suicide attempt, in which I sat with her in A&E for 5 hours waiting for someone from CAHMS to turn up. She did share with this woman a lot I didn't know about, I knew she was still cutting but not the extent, both arms wrist to elbow and both thighs knee to hip. When I took away what she'd been using, a blade from a sharpener, she'd used paperclips, and broke a small mirror to use too. Later that week I found a hand towel in her bed full of dried blood. She also admitted she rarely sleeps and she hears voices most of the time, but particularly when anxious or angry, which tell her to do 'horrible things'
I've no doubt she has swung very near phycosis lately, her rage is violent and frightening, with this blank wide eyed look. My DS is 12 and he gets in equal parts scared and angry with her, he threw keys at her once lately and I had to stop her from trying to repeatedly punch his head. She's kicked holes in her bedroom door. At worst she tells me she has 'intrusive thoughts' about murdering me and plans how to hide my body. A lot of this she says she can't remember. Its like she's 2 very different people. When she's calm she says it's like 'my head is a car and there's other people in the car. Sometimes I'm driving. Sometimes I'm in the back seat.'
After a lot of pushing at CAHMS she's currently seeing a psychologist but we're still pushing for a psychiatrist. Psychologist has said maybe, but then again maybe a blood test because it could be 'just hormones'.
Trying so hard to keep our little family going but feel a complete mess and failure. So worried about the kids, the impact on DS who has stopped sharing his needs with us as much, not to mention the stress on my marriage and I've had to cut back at work so DH or DS isn't here alone with DD, so money is also a big worry.
Feel like we're all drowning.