Hi, New Member

Hi, I just wanted to introduce myself and give a probably not very brief intro to our world.

I am a married, 43 year old, mum of three. Our eldest daughter has just turned 18 and has a collection of mental health challenges. Next in line is our son who will be 16 in July and then comes our youngest daughter who will be 10 in June. As a whole they're good kids and we are very proud of them all for the gorgeous humans they are.

I have a few chronic health problems myself (arthritis in my spine and SI joints plus various other joints and nerve pain related to compression in my spine) and some days it's hard to cope with everything that life throws at me.

Our eldest has always been a bit clingy and socially awkward but she's a highly intelligent, caring soul who loves unconditionally and tries to help anyone in need (often to her own detriment). She was bullied quite badly at her first high school and moved to a new one haalfway through year 8 and things settled down for her. This is where she met her best friend and they are still inseperable five years and many issues later.

Nine days before her 15th birthday she attempted suicide for the first time and that was the start of our rollercoaster ride in the mental health system. We presented to emergency where the team spoke with her and then told me to take her home as she was at no further risk of self harm. They gave me a card with the number for child/adolescent mental health and said to call and make an appointment to see them. That was in the March. After many calls and clerical errors she eventually got in to see her new favourite human (her psychologist for the next two years) in the Septmeber. After many ups and downs, self harm, more suicide attempts and threats she was moved to a different psychology team in January of this year because she was turning 18 and needed to be discharged by the psychologist she was seeing. Her diagnosis collection from the first psych team includes ASD, severe depressive disorder, severe generalised anxiety disorder and OCD.

So this year we've had the end of school and start of uni, change in psychologists and a major change in symptoms. She is now having hallucinations on a regular basis, major swings in mood and is almost paranoid at times and regularly misunderstands things and twists them to a major negative. She has an appointment with a new psychiatrist in May and I'm hoping he has answers for her because two and a half years of antidepressants and CBT has not done much to help her. She has been taught many skills and strategies that have come in handy but it's still a very bumpy road for her.

I feel like I am constantly in damage control mode and permanantly on edge waiting for the next thing that triggers something for her. I'm also finding that it's all starting to effect the younger two, but espescially my youngest. She is clingy, constantly cranky and irritable and she's starting to take it out on her friends which she knows is unfair but can't seem to help. She is only 9 so a lot of services won't see her because they start at 12. The advice I keep getting is to love her through it and talk to her lots. We do that and always have done but it's a whole lot less effective these days. I've linked her in with Young Carers so she can see that there's others out there who understand what she's going through. It seems to be helping.

Anyway, that's my world at the moment. I'm looking forward to reading other people's stories, sharing the journey and bouncing ideas off each other.

If you got this far, thanks for reading!