Thread: Tough Love
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Old Apr 10, 2012, 07:52 PM
summeryoga summeryoga is offline
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Member Since: Dec 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by justforher View Post
I haven't spoke to my 13 yr old in three weeks, tough love. Everyone is supportive but they dont feel the pain i am feeling. I am having trouble eating, having nightmares, crying constantly, I feel week and I just want to crawl up in a ball. She is in a residental program because she needed help (at 12 her to do list included lying, stealing, drinking, drugs, sneaking out at night, abusing me and her sister and the list goes on). Last time she came home she went to Dunkin Donuts and came home stoned, I immediately brought her back to her residental. They promoted her to an upgraded status that week because she was eligible before she left, even though she broke the rules at home. In anger I said that is great you can do what ever you want but that doesnt mean I feel comfortable bringing her home when she puts herself at risk. She did more wrong that weekend....she always does. When she is home though, I can see her, I can talk to her...I know she is ok and I am ok. Now, I dont see her, I haven't spoke to her and I am dying on the inside. I wonder if she knows I love her and support her STILL....I am scared she hates me and feels like I abandoned her, like she feels her dad did. I also think she is refusing to call me to prove to me who is the boss and who has control. I know she has problems, she is official diagnosised with ADHD, but now that her counselor has even said she think there is more to her than that, I was looking around and Histrionic Personality disorder fits her completely. All the people helping her are ok with things being done in a week or maybe me talking to her next week...a day is just a day no big deal. A day to me is 24 hours, 1440 minutes I wait to hear something about her. I am so confused and sad, I am not sure how much more I can take.
I don't know your daughter, and I am a parent of boys not girls, so I can only speak from my own experience as someone with HPD, but if she has HPD, then, I am sorry to say, not speaking to your daughter may be enforcing the feeling that she already has that no one loves her. At the heart of HPD is an intense feeling of never having been seen or loved, and the silent treatment - or sending her away - is only solidifying that 'truth' for her. You may love her, but the message she receives by being ignored or sent away is that you don't. You said, "She did more wrong that weekend....she always does." - Teenagers are incredibly intuitive. She knows that you expect her to do 'wrong'. Please, change your expectations, offer her tons and tons and tons of love and encouragement and forgiveness and apologies for not having been the parents she may have needed. And please get help together if you can.

I am sorry to offer advice where perhaps is was not warranted, but I see myself in your daughter and felt the strong need to speak up here. I apologize if this sounds judgmental - I don't mean it to be.