Just some advice

[Maddaline]

Just some advice would really be appreciated. Currently my teenage daughter has anxiety and depression. It started last year when her dad, my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer. That day changed our lives. He is not the man he was, losing his lung, finding it has spread, radiotherapy and now we just wait to see when it comes back. He is broken mentally and physically. Our daughter has taken it so hard seeing dad wasting away. I have linked her with therapists, but she is getting worse. I am struggling to work full time to make sure we can keep a roof over our head, support her, support him. Drive to a huge amount of medical appointments and do everything around the house and garden. I have no family in the country and feel im so close to actually having a breakdown. I just want to he able to support her but no idea what else to do. Im financially on breaking point and just see no way to hold the family together. Any idea on positive ways to try and support our daughter would be great!

Do you have any involvement with Macmillan? They may be able to come up with something. Also Red Cross have a Young Carers project in my area.

Yes, definitely call MacMillan and tell them how you feel. If you are supported you’ll be able to support your DD more easily. The local Hospice to us also run carer’s events and counselling sessions. Do you know if there is a Hospice near to you that would offer similar services.

So sorry you are going through this OP. Cancer sucks.

So sorry to hear OP, what country are you in? Have you asked your GP or social services for some advice or help? What about local churches, friends, neighbours? It sounds like you are trying to do absolutely everything yourself and that is tough.

Find and contact cancer charities like Macmillan, they have support lines and chat rooms.

Also how old is your teen? School age? Have you contacted the school to ask for support for your situation?

I'm so sorry to hear what you are going through. This is only a small thing but might help your daughter just a little - it's an app called Meetwo which is for teens with problems of different sorts to just vent how they are feeling, have replies to what they say and support others. It's fully moderated, so is a safe space for them to write whatever they want. As social media goes for teens, it's pretty good I think. I'm nothing to do with the app myself, but I've been having a look at it before I recommend it to young people I work with. I know a lot of them find it difficult to open up enough to have help from counsellors or therapists. I would also second Macmillan as others have. Best wishes to you x

Hi Maddaline - we hope you don't mind, but when these threads are flagged up to us we usually add a link to our Mental Health resources - here.
You can also go to the Samaritans' website here, or email them on [email protected].

Support from other Mumsnetters is great and we really hope you will be able to take some comfort from your fellow posters, but as other MNers will tell you, it's really a good idea to seek RL help and support as well.

Sorry for hijacking your thread Maddaline and we really hope things start to look up for you and your family soon

Thank you everyone for the advice and support. I will definitely get some further help and hope to be able to turn a corner.