lorikeetloveCasual Contributor
Seeking advice and suggestions
Hello everyone, this is my first post and I'm happy to have found this forum and am hoping it will be helpful. I am married and our 21 yo son has depression and anxiety. He has been on medication for about 3 years but this was increased last week after he broke down and called Lifeline due to having suicidal thoughts. He is also seeing a psychologist, was monthly, now changed to fortnightly. He left school at the end of year 10 and hasn't worked since then but volunteered at a Salvos store for a short time. He has been registered with several disability employment agencies, none of which proved helpful. He recently registered with a new one and his coach seems so much better than previous ones and has been quite helpful with regards to training options etc. He was due to start a 3 day forklift training course last week but he had worked himself up so much mentally which led to him calling Lifeline. He says he feels hopeless and worthless
which breaks my heart. At age 11 we had him assessed and what came out of that was that he has a short term auditory processing problem. Of course, this was a problem in high school as he struggled to concentrate and remain focused despite working with the school to help him with this. He didn't enjoy school and unfortunately he created friendships that were not interested in learning but rather caused disruptions in class. Since leaving school, these friendships have gone by the wayside, to our relief. My son is also a gamer and has made friendships online and I'm afraid these are the only friends he has now. We also have a 24 yr old son who moved interstate earlier this year and due to the lockdowns, we have not been able to see him. My 21yo says he misses his brother even though they were not that close when they lived together. My son has been getting the Youth Allowance from Centrelink whilst looking for work but it's now getting to the stage that I'm not sure what sort of employment would suit him. He is very socially awkward and a little slow in getting things done. My husband knows a guy who runs a new and used vinyl record store here in Melbourne but of course it is not open at the moment due to lockdown. My son is very much in to music and especially vinyl records so when the shop reopens my husband is going to chat to his friend and see if my son can even just volunteer in there. I think it would help with his confidence and get him talking to customers etc. Another issue is that he doesn't like going far from home and when we suggested he come with us to visit his brother when the borders reopen, he said he didn't want to go. I guess I'm just wondering if there are any other parents here in a similar situation. All we want is for our son is to be happy and right now he's not that happy. Thank you in advance x