My 19 ds suffered/ suffers with body/ face dysmorphia wouldn’t go out and staying in his room. He had online consultation with priory psych and CBT but didn’t engage. 6 weeks ago I threatened him with eviction if he didn’t help himself get better. There was a big upset and I took his phone away as his conversation seemed too involved politically and I was worried as also weed was an issue. He was self medicating with it.
He was on his phone constantly.
I also demanded he run every other day and go to the shops every day with my credit card. After a lot of initial resistance he is now going out to the shops every day without issue and running 5 k every other day. He is also taking sertraline. He seems in a much better place and the house is calm. He says he feels all right now but finds it very difficult to talk or admit to his mental health struggles.
I feel I should give him his phone back but I’m worried as when I let him have it for half an hour a week ago he arranged to meet his friends and he admitted that he smoked weed. He promised me he would not smoke regularly as he feels better. They also gave him a spare phone as (they felt sorry for him) which he allowed me to take off him.
My worry is that if he has his phone. which he is not asking for at the moment, things will go backwards with his MH, weed taking, politics but equally I don’t feel it is right for me to be so controlling to an adult/ thinking his phone makes his MH worse.
He seems so childlike and clueless, passive and easily led. No ASD diagnosis
He has no LD and got good GCSE grades but things got bad over covid and since.
Any advice from people in similar situations would be appreciated.