Hi All,

I'm here for my daughter who is 15 today. She is struggling with adolecence and our family is struggling along with her. She has a twin brother who seems to be a little more centered in himself although he also is stuggling acedemically in school. So the reason I am here is that Tegan, my daughter, my girl, is: using alcholo and pot, past the experimenting stage but does not seem to be too far gone; trying cigaretts; has lost her verginity; hates going to school; skips class; doesn't pay attention in school; feels hopeless; threatened suicide. Her mom and I are married and together, fairly happy, both working decent jobs, bills are paid. Tegan has a counselor who she has been seeing for a little over a year. We saw her last week. She has set us up with a PMHNP (phycological mental health nurse practictioner) for two weeks from this coming wed. When she seriously threatened suicide we call the crisis line and followed their recommendation to take her to the ER where they admitted her, we spent several hours with the social worker and took her home at 3 am. So we have resources and are using them as best as we know how and I hope and pray that we will find a path to keep her safe. I guess I want to find all the resources I can to help. I don't mind asking for help, I admit I don't know anything about raising teenagers, its much different from when they were younger and the pain I am feeling is sometimes almost unbearable but then I get through it and I'm still alive and things might get better for a little bit like this evening when Tegan and I were driving home from the bowling alley where they had a little gathering and we drove through downtown and listened to music loud on the radio and she shared some dreams about what she wants for her 16 birthday party so it is not hopelss even though it seem like it sometimes. I know I am blessed and I am very greatful for many things in my life when I googled for this site, I saw support groups for parents of teens with cancer and only God knows how anyone can cope with that, here I am with my daughter whining about going to school and I feel like I can barely cope. Like I said, the pain when I hear her pain and knowing that I can't really help her directly except to try to show her the way. Anyway, thanks for letting me share and reading all the way to here. I welcome any comments or feedback. Thank you. Daniel