Teen in mental health crisis: Any good resources?
Does ANYONE have good experiences to report about PHP, or possibly residential facilities for teens with an array of serious mood disorders? Especially anxiety, with misophonia and sensory processing disorder wreaking havoc on our lives. Body dysmorphic disorder, panic disorder, depression, eating disorder- and on top of that a new diagnosis of Hypermobile Spectrum Disorder, possibly Ehlers-Danlos.
I’ve reviewed countless facilities, including Rogers Behavioral (had great hopes for that one), Newport, just so many places and they all get horrible reviews. Many parents saying their kid was worse after the program, patients telling of neglect, abuse, inappropriate behavior of staff. I promised my daughter I’d never send her anywhere without first hand accounts of the treatment program.
We are so desperate, and it seems there is no place to turn. I don’t feel we can do residential when she has serious physical illness issues as well. She deals with chronic pain and fatigue; and we’ve been referred to the Mayo Pain Rehab program but they won’t accept her until she gets help for her mental state first! So very disappointing, she was looking forward to attending the program and now we have nothing 😢
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Thank you for asking! Things have continued on a downward spiral, despite every effort to find help. We did get in to Rogers last March but it was disastrous as they were unable to address her severe sensory issues, especially misophonia. So we spent thousands of dollars and came home worse than when we left.
She did get additional diagnoses of POTS, along with Level One Autism and ADHD, which has further complicated the picture but also explains SO much about her behaviors and issues.
We struggle every single day as she is failing in school (she rarely goes) and has daily severe meltdown episodes that leave us with broken items and broken hearts, and no one seems to be able to help. No one can find a solution to address her “perfect storm” of illnesses, and I despair of ever finding help.
The misophonia triggers the meltdowns, and there seems to be nothing to help. She already uses headphones, ear buds, white noise, music - it doesn’t matter. She’s so exquisitely sensitive that she can “feel” the sound even when it’s blocked, and once she is triggered there is no stopping the meltdown.
I’m heartbroken and desperate, as is she. I just can’t understand why there is no real help for her, no answers, no peace 💔
I will say the only thing that has helped at all is craniosacral sacral therapy but that’s a long process, not a magic wand.
Hey, I'm sorry you are having such a difficult time. I think I read somewhere that your daughter refused all supplements?
That is correct. Part of her psychological profile, or illness, seems to be a strong steak of subconscious self sabotage. She has an eating disorder as well, and has stated to me that there is part of her brain that does not want her to get better. She’s in psychotherapy twice a week and is working with her PCP receiving craniosacral therapy to calm her autonomic nervous system. It definitely helps, but then when a trigger situation arises, the panic and meltdowns still occur, and they are just off the charts.
You mean she feels there is part of her that doesn't want the eating disorder to get better?
Not just the eating disorder, but all of it. Her doc says some part of her psyche is feeling a need to hold on to these conditions, that it is filling a need or desire on some level - but meanwhile she is in misery, and keeps sinking further into depression and her emotional dysregulation behaviors - so obviously it’s not like she’s consciously choosing to experience this hell.
That's an interesting view.
Your mentioning the eating disorder caught my attention because I'm interested in nutrition, and I've read (and experienced) that anemia can predispose me to irritability, and there are a few ways that nutritional deficiencies can contribute to anemias, or a state close to anemia.
Plus, deficits or imbalances of some things like zinc and selenium can lead to 'emotional lability'-- I think that means very changeable or unstable emotions.
Absolutely! She has documented nutritional deficiencies but refuses to take the supplements. Her system is incredibly sensitive so any deficiencies could potentially wreak havoc with her but she just won’t follow through. She has a prescription to help her POTS and ADHD as well, that could possibly really help her but she won’t take it; she’s had so many bad side effects from previous meds that she just can’t/won’t take it. I don’t believe the deficiencies are the “cause” of her problems but I 100% believe they are part of the picture.
In all honesty, I have heard enough horror stories to sympathize with your daughter's distrust of prescription medications. To extend that to something like a simple zinc supplement, though, is further than I would be willing to go. It's too bad that she lumps those all together.
This is just my personal opinion, but I've experienced great improvement in my mental and physical health from getting better nutrition, including supplements.
Sometimes during those teenage years, 'logic' can take some very strange turns. And unhealthy idealism and going to extremes seem to be part of the package, too, unfortunately. If I met my own teenage self today, I don't think I would be able to convince her of anything at all!
You nailed it! Logic is mostly MIA in this scenario, and I’m at the end of my rope. Even her therapist and doc don’t know what to do at this point. She’s such an extremely complex case 😢
Yes, I hear your pain. Parenting is never easy. Partly because all humans are messy and complicated, and partly because especially when we are younger, we often don't even know how to name our own feelings.
Might I ask you what you know about your daughter's eating disorder(s)? What you've observed and how you see it?