Accessing urgent mental health support

[NumbersLetters]

Hi. I need to access mental health support for my son urgently. Drugs, self harm, suicidal thoughts, all since starting uni 7 weeks ago. He's home for the weekend and it's all come out, and he's now in withdrawal agony and begging for help. Ive been through to 111 and am waiting for a call from the mental health team. Does anyone have experience of emergency private options in sw London? I've called the Priory but they can't help til 8am. Thanks.

Oh OP, what a worrying time, you sound like a fantastic mum, hows he getting on now?

How did things go at a&e , OP

Thank you so much for looking out for me. The mental health team saw him and felt that he was ok to come back to uni and access counselling here. So he has let me bring him, I'm staying in a hotel and
getting him in to the system. He's very keen to get help. Honest with everyone. He also has tonsilitis and he's miserable so he's been sleeping alot. I did all his laundry yesterday. How much lesiurewear can one teenager own? 3 machines full, apparently.

ahh I hope it was just a blip and he recovers well x

I hope he gets the help he needs. You do realise this has been going on much longer than 7 weeks though

Hi all. Thanks again for your support on that dreadful weekend. He’s very much more his old self now; I think what we witnessed was the peak of a crisis. As he said at the time, he had been in denial and now was in acceptance, and ready for change. By no means is he fully reformed but for now he’s well and happy. My challenge is to get him to accept some long term counseling to prepare himself for when things aren’t going so well again. We will never be the same people again, but there’s been an amazing amount of honesty and openness between us all which I hope will stand us in good stead as a family.