Huge setback for daughter

Many of you have been kind enough to help me with my 15 year old daughter, offering advice and encouragement.

Yesterday she was discharged from an inpatient program at 3:00 and by 5:00 we were back in the emergency room with her threatening suicide again. We moved her to a different hospital in that has an excellent reputation, and the first thing the psychiatrist did there was change the medication (taking her off the zoloft slowly, as many of you observed ought to have been done earlier) and upping the seroquil.

Complicating things now is that she has formed a strong emotional attachment to a boy she met during the last inpatient stay. The staff there said under no circumstances should any of the kids start hanging out with any of the other patients once they are discharged. Now she's obsessing over seeing this boy. I'm not sure what to do.

Hey Dayton52,

I am so sorry your Daughter isn't doing too good. Is she ok???

How you coping as a family? You guys ok?

I hope your daughter is doign better and maybe the change in med will help?!

dayton52; I'm glad the new pdoc is decreasing her anti-d. Being inpatient is highly stressful and it's natural to want to bond with others. Add to it that you are both experiencing mental health issues and he or she may feel understood. In saying that at 15 she needs to concentrate on getting well and not chasing after a boy. This is easier said than done and I'm sure as a parent it's a very tricky situation on how to deal with it.

If you haven't considered it already I would suggest counseling for the family. The therapist will most likely have suggestions on how to support your daughter and the family will also get the support they need.

so so sorry sweetie, I hope she is doing better soon on the upped Seroquel!

Hi dayton52, so sorry this has happened. Beth is right on the mark; family counseling is the best thing you can do right now. My guess is your daughter feels like she is the only one being "punished". Family counseling will not only give you the tools you need to cope, it will show her that you are all in this together. I was a teenager the first time I was put into therapy (ran away every chance I got) and my parents refused to go to family counseling, even though it was strongly recommended. I felt like I had been abandoned and left for good the day I turned 18. It was a long time before my relationship with my parents healed. I hope you can avoid having to go through that.

Its never good to get into a deep relationship when your not in the right mind mentally. But i understand that having someone going through the same thing that understand exactly wht your saying and doesnt judge you can be amazing (thats why we're all HERE right?)

i'm not a parent but i did have mental health issues at 15 so i'm not trying to advise you what to do, but if i was ever in your situation i would suggest monitored meetings with the boy once they had both been out of hospital for a while and doing well, to see if they still had the same things in common.
Talk to her about the fact that a relationship based on mutual depression isnt healthy and that its more likely to last if they're both happy.
On the other hand, say she was an adult, she could have a relationship with someone who had no mental health issues, they would have no idea what she went through, the other boy would.
I know i would struggle to have a relationship with someone 'normal,'.
its difficult, but its best not to make any decisions until she is feeling a bit more stable.