My daughter has given up

[catclarks]

My 16 year old DD has been in hospital for the last 3 weeks ago after being detained for the fifth time on the back of multiple suicide attempts.Things have been deteriorating over the last few months, and I guess we knew this is where it was heading, but there's something different this time as she has given up on ever feeling better.

It's a long story, but she refuses to engage in therapy and is pinning her hope on medication. She has been on a raft of different medicine but none have really made any significant difference and we are now running out of options. She phoned again this evening and just cried down the phone. I feel so hopeless. I'll never give up fighting for her but this time round I'm struggling to see how she is going to come out of this.

I was picking up on a pp 's comment about horses, sparked me thinking.

That must be so difficult and distressing for you. Sometimes severe mental health difficulties are very difficult to treat , but there are many treatment options and just because what has already been tried hasn’t made much difference, that doesn’t mean that something new won’t. Venlafaxine can be very effective against treatment resistant depression.
When people are very unwell it can be difficult for them to engage in other therapies- sometimes because they are so preoccupied by their current symptoms, and so negative , that the levels of concentration required to participate just isn’t there. Medication can then get people to a level where other therapeutic interventions will be tolerated.
One of the difficulties on forums like this is that very few people have experience of severe mental illness. I don’t mean to make light of what people go through as any form of mental illness can be so difficult for the person going through it. But it sounds as though your daughter has been so unwell and I am glad that you trust the team who are caring for her.
The support on these forums can be amazing , and people are being very supportive. But it’s wrong for people to suggest treatment options or critisise what her own team are doing because they don’t have enough knowledge or expertise or understanding of the complexities of your daughters situation to do that .
That’s not to say that your dds team will always get it right or that you shouldnt expect them to explain the rationale behind any decision made.
I understand why you are feeling so hopeless. I hope you have some real life support and that things start to improve for your dd soon

I have heard just simple things like caring for horses can be employed in a therapeutic way for depression.

I was also thinking that some sort of "caring therapy" might help her focus outside of her despair. She sounds as if she's trapped in a cycle of hopeless thoughts and perhaps if she had something else to focus on, like caring for an animal, it might help break the cycle?

I can't offer any information, but it would be worth asking at the adolescent centre. Sending you OP

@catclarks

Massive hugs to you, OP it must be almost unbearable for you as her mum and so frightening. Handhold from me

Is there an occupational therapist on the ward I took lorazepam it works for a couple of hours then wears off and is very addictive. Painting cooking gardening walks outside are good for managing emotions

Also push for CBT