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Really don't know what to do warning trigger sexual abuse.

7 replies

Ms82 · 04/09/2019 13:52

Hi, first time poster. Did post this on child mental health but was advised to post on mental health board also so hope that OK and right thing to do. I'm really at my breaking point with my 10 year old, she disclosed sexual abuse by her grandfather when she was younger and we are currently going through a police investigation. Been to camhs after years of them fobbing us off while she tried and threatened to take her own life (she tried to jump out of her bedroom window at 5 and recently I caught her in her bedroom with a knife after she'd written goodbye notes to us all) and they've diagnosed ptsd complex trauma, anxiety and depression and attachment disorder, she also has 'quirks' such as eye contact, food issues, talking in an American accent, walking on tip toes, coordination problems (difficultly with using a knife and fork at the same time, bumping into things and a few other quirks. The main issue I'm having is her meltdowns, she is driving everyone away, I could cope to a point when she was lashing out at me kicking and hitting and swearing etc but it's tipped over onto grandparents (obviously other grandparents not the abusers she hasn't seen that side of family since disclosure) and friends who she's always loved. I've had to take her out of main stream school and am currently home schooling her as she couldn't cope at all and I was being called from work daily to get her. Her hormones are also raging, I know as she is growing boobs and hair and is greasy and spotty but her attitude is just awful and I can't speak to her without being called a bitch or hit out at. She doesn't qualify for counselling yet until police have done their investigation so no help and we are waiting to go back to camhs, they put her on rispiridone but she was really ill with it so I've had to stop. I don't know how to help her anymore and how to keep going. She's nearly at her 10th birthday and she's spent most of her life so unhappy I just want her to be happy and to be a child while she can, it's almost like she sabotage feeling good, like she can't allow herself to be happy, I know from her outbursts she feels like her abuser saw something rotten in her and knew she was bad and thats why he did it but I can't get through to her that that's really not true, she hates herself and it seems like she is determined to be alone but also sad that she's lonely. I caught her tablet search history and it was how to not be a freak, how to make friends and asking Google to be her friend(she did this when she figured out the code normally she can't access Internet, code has been changed) .I don't know what to do. Has anyone been in her or position that can advise on what I can do to help her.

OP posts:
ALoadOfTwaddle · 04/09/2019 20:21

Any way you can pay for counselling privately?

Madamswearsalot · 04/09/2019 20:55

I'm not an expert at all, but I didn't want to read and run. I assume that the no counselling is because if it goes to trial they don't want the defence to suggest that she could have been coerced or rehearsed?

How much info have you been able to access? A charity like Rape Crisis provide support for survivors of rape and sexual abuse and can signpost you to lots of resources that might help you understand how better to help your daughter.

My other thought, which may sound crap but hear me out, is how much physical exercise do you and she do? Not that this will solve things but maybe a regular physical activity together (swimming, trampolining, climbing wall, a long walk or park run, boxing) will help to create a way of burning off frustrations, increasing endorphins, create time away from repetitive thoughts and flashbacks.

It must be so so awful for both of you. Have you accessed any counselling yourself? You probably feel that its not you who needs it but you would almost definitely benefit and it might give you a release valve and some more coping mechanisms?

I wish you every bit of luck - the impact is so far reaching and so so unfair that you both are left to live with it.

Flude · 07/09/2019 10:10

Did you stop the risperidone yourself or did the medical team abuse you stopped it?

Contact the Pottergate centre for advice re therapy and get her into therapy ASAP. Many people have therapy and go through police investigations.

Flude · 07/09/2019 10:12

Also what other trauma has she experienced? It must have been quite prolonged for it to become complex trauma.

Aridane · 07/09/2019 10:13

they put her on rispiridone but she was really ill with it so I've had to stop

On the advice of the mental health professionals? was it a tailoring off reducing dose? what replacement medication does she take?

Helpimfalling · 07/09/2019 10:29

I have exactly the same experience as your child unfortunately and I was exactly as you describe her as a child although my mum did do everything she can and was so supportive talked about it everyday as much as I liked put up with my abuse towards her and family watched me be sectioned various times but the only thing she didn't do it my favour was took me off the medication the drs prescribed me as I had such a turbulent childhood and Teenage years and the only thing that's sorted me out in my adult life is medication within months of being on the meds I had secured an amazing job and became an amazing person who could deal with life

I sometimes wonder if I had been on the meds from the get go would I not have had the most horrendous adolescence

Or maybe I needed to get to the age where I figured it out myself which was sadly 31 until I was over it...

I went to counselling but for me it was like opening a can of worms and I didn't work through that can cause it sent me more off the rails

I sometimes think maybe they should do something where survivors or abuse mentor little survivors to try and guide them and not make the mistakes they did due to feeling rubbish from this horrendous crime

I feel for you so much at the time I didn't think how hard it was for my mother I realise now it must have been awful she must have felt guilty and helpless

I don't know if there's any advice in this post but just do what your doing just love her

PlinkPlink · 07/09/2019 11:26

In regards to sexual abuse, she really needs specialist counselling. I know you said CAMHS but I'm not sure if they have specialists.

It's not quite the same but when I reported a sexual assault, the police put me in touch with my local Rape and Sexual Assault Centre.

I think most counties have their own version of it. Could you ask the police (I'd imagine you've been assigned a case officer) if they could point you in the direction of some specialist counselling?

It may go some way to helping her process what has happened and hopefully deal with it in a healthier way.
10 years old is a pretty difficult age to articulate how you feel with such massively complex abuse.

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