Mental Health or neurological?

[fortifiedwithtea]

Dd2 is 17. She also has an intellectual disability and is diagnosed with bi-polar . Currently in a depressed episode and on day 13 of Sertraline at a very low dose in addition to risperidone which she has been taking for nearly 2 years.

This afternoon DH took her into town to see the Christmas lights being switched on. She never got to see them. First complained of feeling sick, faint and having a headache.

I get an urgent phone call to come quick dd is breathing but completely collapsed and her jaw is locked. Reassure Dh that a locked jaw Is side effect of Sertraline and I am on my way. Other daughter drove and I spoke all the way to Dd2, she didn’t respond.

Arrive to find dd2 sat on a bench , DH and 2 police officers. Her jaw is to the side, her eyes are closed and the lids are flickering, she can respond, can grip my hand when asked. Totally catatonic, I have seen her like this before when she first became unwell in 2017.

I tried to help her to stand but she couldn’t. Police called for an ambulance. She has been in this state close to half hour by now. Whilst speaking to ambulance service she starts to slowly respond. Police cancel ambulance. We help her to my older Dd car and get home.

I am epileptic my family have a lot of experience dealing with me and dd2 would have seen many of my seizures. What dd2 experienced is similar to my seizures. She was very tired afterwards. She said she could hear me but could not respond. She can’t remember what happened. She thinks she fainted. She didn’t, Dh sat her on a bench She never fell to the ground .

Do you think I should take her to the doctors for investigation or is this all part of mental health?

I think you should take her to the doctor and I don't think it particularly matters if it's neurological or down to her mental heay. Sorry you / your daughter are going through this.

Speak to a GP and a neurologist. Go private if you have to, but the NHS is usually fine. My best wishes x

Thanks @ Neolara if the consensus of opinion is mental health I won’t take her to the doctor. My daughter is very traumatised by treatment she had at our local general hospital in 2017. She spent 3 weeks in the children's ward having every possible investigation. Her body completely shut down and was having a lot of episodes that looked like seizures but an mri and eeg was normal.

I'm so sorry you're going through this.

Could it be serotonin syndrome or neuroleptic malignant syndrome? Check our the symptoms and see if this matched her presentation today.

Hope she makes a swift recovery

It sound neurological and you should get it checked out.

Well she has gone to bed, she uses the Calm app on my phone to get to sleep. She didn’t look well, pale, headachy, palpitations and eyes very dilated.

I’ll email her CAMHS worker tomorrow as she is due to have an appointment with her this week. Our doctors are a nightmare to get an appointment.

Thanks for the replies

Dd has fainted, had headaches etc in the first month or so taking sertrizine not quite as bad as you describe but was pretty debilitating

Thanks for your reply @stucknoue it encouraging to hear this could be side effects that she will work through.