Beginning the mental health journey

[Schmetterlingen]

Hi, I am Lisa. I am a 40 something year old mum of Ms 12 and Mr 15. We have begun our Mental health journey with My15 with sincere gratitude to his school and those he confides in. As a mum I'm finding loads of help in many forms for the patient, but very little for the parent/guardian. We have our first meeting with CAMHS next Tuesday so I'm hopeful that will give me some guidance, but in the meantime i struggle to start a conversation with him. Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself, I will peruse the threads for tips for us. Thank you for making this platform easily accessible.

[quirkywords]

Schmetteringen,

Welcome to the forum.

I am glad you found this forum easily accessible.

It is hard as a parent especially if you see changes in your child that can be confusing.

When I was 15, a long time ago , I found it very hard to talk to my parents as I didn't know what was going on in my head and my life so I felt I could not communicate with other. It is so confusing.

I think just being there and listening . If there is something he likes doing can you do it together? I remember that everything at one stage was about my mental health and I just wanted to talk about other things .

Thanks for introducing yourself , and feel free to post and or ask questions on your thread.

Quirky

[smallwolf]

Hi Schmetterlingen,

welcome to beyond blue.

Quirky has a made a good response. The one thing I wanted to add relates to your child, and you have to know that I when I write this I am writing this as myself, and another person I know in a similar position.... There are some people who whenever they meet you will ask you how you are and then ask "really?" as though I might be fibbing. Multiply that by N people, and sometimes you just want to be treated normally - whatever that is. Don't get me wrong, it is nice that people ask, but if you are made to second guess then it gets a bit much.

Perhaps the best thing I can think of would be if he had a note on his phone that reminded him that he can speak to you whenever he needs to and know that you will listen and respond with compassion. Some links to help you are here...

https://kidshelpline.com.au/parents/issues/communication-tips

https://www.health.qld.gov.au/news-alerts/news/how-to-talk-young-kids-children-mental-health-wellbeing-illness

If you have any questions....

Tim