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Daughter with Social anxiety disorder, self harm and possible asd

kerrie02

Hi, I'm a new member here. I don't really know where to start...My 17 year old is taking antidepressants for anxiety and depression but to no avail, she's been with CAMHS for over a year now, and yet are still waiting for her asd testing as she scored above the cut off for it. She has a psycologist, occupational therapist and has had cbt...all of which haven't helped because she just doesnt talk! She does at home to family, and to teachers ( if she has to) but thats about it, she has no friends at all ( by choice) and her self harm has gotten out of control. Can anyone in a similar situation/experience offer any advise? I'm at my wits end

Thankyou in advance

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Sam_Alumni

Hi @kerrie02
Welcome to the community, Im sorry your daughter is having such a tough time.

MIND have some great support around self harm that might help and Young Minds is specifically for young people.

If you or your daughter need to talk, the Samaritans are there to listen, you can contact them on 116 123

As a parent it can be so hard to see our children in pain and feel unable to help them, it's great that you are here to share your experience, I know a lot of other people are in a similar situation.

thefainthearted

Hi i found 'young minds' really helpful. my daughter has had similar problems. cbt never worked because she did not want to join in and some people there were violent and that just shut her down...young minds helped me understand bits and pieces about her mental health.
I found cambs wildly lacking in support...to the point my daughter tried to commit suicide and she had told the therapist this...only to be ignored and 2 weeks later...she tried.
i found this ..it might help?

http://www.shared-care.ca/files/Websites_Revised_April_2015.pdf

kerrie02

Thank you so much for your reply, I’ll take a look now at the link. I hope your daughter is on the road to recovery now ?

feir

Also found camhs no good here too. Luckily my son is at a special needs college, and was at a special needs school, so we got most of our support through those. My son has trauma and it takes him a long time to trust people, and he is similar to someone with ASD but i don't think he has been diagnosed with that.

kerrie02

I find that I’m always repeating myself to her CAMHS workers, like they Don’t seem to communicate with each other and so the time is spent telling this person what I just told the last person. She’s had 3 different care coordinators in the space of a year even though she’s socially anxious and has little trust. She has recently moved from the generic to the adolescent team too because I requested that she needs more help. I also want to request DBT as that has been recommended to me by someone who was in a similar mind frame to her once. She will be 18 soon and doesn’t want to go into adult care but in my opinion this last year has only made things worse, not helped at all. ?

RebeccaMHadvisor

Hi @kerrie02

I can hear that things are very difficult for you and your daughter and I can understand your worry and your stress. I find that working with young people their experience of CAHMS is either amazing or they find the whole process a waste of time with very few in the middle. Sometimes the young person doesn't 'click' with their CAHMS worker, sometimes there are staffing issues and sometimes it's budget cuts. I am wondering how being moved to the adolescent team is working for her? I think that turning 18 for any parent with a child with a mental health condition is a worry as it is a whole new team to get used to and sometimes those referrals can take time leaving her without the support she needs and deserves. Perhaps this transition is something you can be talking to them about now?
Self harm can be really scary and hopefully one of the things they will be talking to her about is coping mechanisms.

It is really important to make sure that you also have coping mechanisms in place. What your daughter is going through will have an impact on you and you need to make sure that you are able to be there to support her as you are now and part of that is making sure you keep a check on your own mental health.

Please keep in touch and let us know how the new team is working out.

Rebecca