History preventing progress

[Daisy_8]

I support my daughter (24yrs) who is struggling with anxiety & depression. She has suffered both physical & mental/ emotional abuse & been very unlucky in choosing ineffective ‘professional’ help.

She is on medication for depression but resistant to trying meds for anxiety due to the difficulty finding the ‘right’ one & not having a trusted GP. Every mental health professional she has dealt with has either been unprofessional (talking about their own problems not hers) or ineffective (focusing on the wrong issue- like pressuring her about her weight and implying she was anorexic/bulimic when she actually had a stomach ulcer). She doesn’t want to keep trying to find the right mental health help due to the pain of seeing many wrong ones. She doesn’t want to go back to the GP or search for a new one for fear of the same mistreatment.

Her family on both sides have been unable to accept her mental health issues & we no longer interact with most of them because of this. Most of them do not know the full details & history & have made judgement based on her leaving school early & not finding work/ keeping a job. She has some friends but most of them are in a different city & the few here do not seem to be genuine. She has had friends in the past who ended up hurting her/using her & now feels very isolated & unworthy.

Being stuck at home has not helped her mental health before the new rules. She is at present overwhelmed with anxiety & won’t leave the house at all. I had an unpleasant interaction with the police when I was out & she sees the police pull over bicyclists in front of our house- so now fears them stopping her.

She has a fear of being ‘locked up’ both by police & by mental health. She has made a few suicide attempts & was detained last time without being told what was happening or why- they in fact lied to her & kept saying she could go soon. They mistreated her anxiety as aggression & were quite hostile towards her, creating a fear of going to hospital/ ambulances & even a GP in case one/ all of them say she needs to be ‘locked up’ again.

All I can do is try to provide a safe place & person. We have a good relationship. I know she needs to want to take steps forward but it seems like there are walls preventing her moving forward or even sideways!
I’m a bit lost & overwhelmed. I have friends that support me & I try to do things that are good for my mental health. I want to help my daughter find the same things & live a better life.

[David35]

Have you tried a psychiatrist, to see if there's any underlying medical condition. I spent years seeing psychologists with no success. But once I saw a psychiatrist, he then could get access to medical records and diagnosed me from there. Which then helped with treatment. My reason was due to a fall I had suffered years previously, which had physically damaged a part of my brain associated with different parts of my personality.

I'm not suggesting this has happened to your daughter, but psychiatrists can often get a more thorough insight as to the cause of the mental problems. Just food for thought anyway.