Caring for a depressed teenager

I’m sorry to read of your struggles in trying to help your son. It became apparent that our teenage daughter was suffering with depression last April, although looking back, I now realize it started much earlier. I’ve learned that it is often difficult for husbands to know how to be supportive, so don’t feel alone with that. You are a wonderful mom, searching for answers for your child.
Have you visited a naturopathic doctor? I took our daughter to a wonderful naturopathic doctor who drew a blood sample to test for food sensitivities. The result was that she is extremely intolerant to eggs, which I had been making for her most mornings and giving her protein bars for lunch which contained eggs. She also suggested some supplements which help her body make the neroutransmitters she was missing. All within the same week, our daughter quit eating eggs, started taking many supplements, and started taking Prozac. She will also take CBD oil if she is having a rough day. I don’t know which of the things is helping her most. It is probably a combination of all four with lots of prayer added. She also sees a counselor once a week. She went from having suicidal thoughts almost daily but now feeling so much better. I hope this will help you.

I feel like I just read my daughters story. She is now 19uears old and graduated high school with the help of DBT 2x week, having an I.e.p. And her father as the assistant principal. She too was an A student and at the end of with grade had a breakdown and has never been the same. In 6th grade with puberty she bagan feeling self conscious and having panic attacks. She spent many days in the counselors office while they tried to help regulate her emotions. We put her in a small private school for 7&8 grade and things got worse. The school was for kids with learning differences (mostly boys with add) and offered small class size with offering a college prep education which was highly competitive. Well the stress and anxiety increases due to academics, comparing in and out and the immaturity and meanness of the small click of girls and parent engineering. My daughter was bullied without teacher intervention and kept it a secret until the end when she was left out of an invite to a batmiz which she felt rejected and shamed and didn’t get out of bed for 2 days. This happened two weeks before the end of school. We were helpless and with the lack of quality local mental health I took her to Mayo Clinic’s Caimp program where she met several other kids with similar struggles and didn’t feel so all alone. She has never been the same and is very fragile. She did manage to complete HS in public school with a lot of scaffolding. I feel for you and your son. It’s a very lonely and helpless place to be. Wish I could help. My daughter also has suicide ideation and explains it’s not that she wants to die it’s that she just can’t live in this world. She is very impulsive when she is emotionally disregulated and is capable of anything. I can tell you all of this has brought me a lot closer to god.

@donzigirl1, @teresacharlton and @macie1

I would like to welcome you all to Mayo Connect. I appreciate your sharing your stories of your teenagers and their depression. Parenting teens are difficult at best, but if you add in a problem with depression, parenting requires great more diligence. I applaud you all for your caring as well as your hard work in finding appropriate help for your teenager. You have made a difference!

As you have each shared the importance of counseling meds and trying different treatments what is the most important advice you would give to other parents who find themselves parenting a depressed teen?