[vaporcobra]

A friend (13.5 years old) who I care deeply about and love is going through some major troubles lately. She's been raised by a single mother. She also has been abandoned by her first love and her closest friend within a month of each other, attempted suicide in the last few months, been suicidal frequently,is addicted to self harm, hears cruel voices she can't stop telling her to do bad things, has extremely bad depression and social anxiety, experiences panic attacks regularly (usually at school or alone in her room), and several other things.

But the even that has led me to seek help on a forum is this:
I was messaging her on Facebook and this happened.

I am indeed placing a lot of trust in my friend (A) by assuming that this was completely genuine. She has a history that lends credibility.
To put it lightly, this terrified me. We'd been talking about the voices she hears and she was truly scared and very confused and I was just trying to give advice and support. But then she apparently fell asleep and started talking as if one of the voices she told me she hears had taken over and typed messages and sent them to me. Those 12 messages were sent in the space of 2 minutes, so it was also unusually fast.

She's also told me that she is not sure if the voices she hears are real or not. This led me to worry a bit about the possibility of schizophrenia. But alas, I am a 17 year old guy and I have an AP Psychology course of knowledge so I am no expert.

By coming on here, I am simply hoping to get other's opinions on what I should do in this situation (if I should force help upon my friend or alert those who can do more than I can to the situation), what could possibly be wrong with her, and what more I can do to make sure that she stays alive and sane.

[Leed]

Hello ~ First, I want to thank you for being such a good friend to this young girl. I hope this isn't a "girlfriend/boyfriend" situation, because you're MUCH too old for this young girl !!!

Secondly, this young girl should be talking to her parents about this. But I know a lot of parents think their kids are faking these things to get attention. I would HOPE that her parents wouldn't think this. But if this IS the case, this girl should talk to her school counselor. The counselor can help her. He/she can listen and advise her as of course that's what counselors are there for. And if the counselor feels that this is something serious, then the counselor will get involved and contact the parents with his/her recommendations. This could and would probably include therapy.

So have this girl contact & talk to her school counselor. It is kept confidential until the point the counselor feels he/she needs to speak to the parents. I wish you the best of luck. Thank you for caring. God bless and please take care. Hugs, Lee

[Sometimes psychotic]

So voices are pretty characteristic of a psychotic break, that doesn't necessarily mean she has schizophrenia. Sometimes you can go through a rough patch and then pull out of it within a month or so. That doesn't mean she doesn't need help. There is a concept called duration of untreated psychosis which means that the longer you stay off the meds the sicker you get and the less likely you are to have a full recovery. Frankly this is an emergency and you should get her to either a psychiatrist or an emergency department that has a psychiatric ward or at least a psychiatrist on call. If you call 911 they should be able to help you figure it out. But being 17 and just a friend the best thing you can do is call her parents because you will not be able to admit her and she will need her insurance. If money is an issue see if you can get an appointment with a psychiatrist first, the ER is pricey even with insurance. I only suggest an ER because usually there is a psych on call so you can get in to see them faster, but be aware that not all ER's have psychs, usually a university hospital is your best bet for this.

Good luck, keep us updated.

[anon61514]

Your desire to help does you credit. It's fair that you approach this assuming honesty on her part. I'd ask her to document the voices and her daily life as much as possible (and not to try 'resist' documenting 'as' the other voices, if that compulsion exists) so that you two can start establishing, in more detail, their exact nature and power over her.

Could also come in handy if you eventually take it further, with a P-doc.

(Leed! I wouldn't say he's too old - but rather she's too young! After all, age difference is ok when you're a bit older.

4/5 years isn't too bad (in my eyes, at least) - the girl I'm currently involved with is 17.5 and I'm 22, so I hope it isn't. In my defence, I didn't know she was 17 when I met her. She was at an 18-restricted concert. -_-

Originally Posted by Leed

Secondly, this young girl should be talking to her parents about this. But I know a lot of parents think their kids are faking these things to get attention. I would HOPE that her parents wouldn't think this. But if this IS the case, this girl should talk to her school counselor. The counselor can help her. He/she can listen and advise her as of course that's what counselors are there for. And if the counselor feels that this is something serious, then the counselor will get involved and contact the parents with his/her recommendations. This could and would probably include therapy.

This sounds good upfront, but from experience, most school counselors do absolutely no counselling anymore. In Florida, they've passed a rule/law that they are not allowed to! Their only job is standardized testing and student placement. See if the school has a social worker. Social workers often go between several different schools, but they are the ones who generally do the listening now and have access to the community resources that could make a difference.

You can start with either one, counselor or social worker, I suppose. Just providing a little tidbit of info, and it may not be true everywhere.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by vaporcobra

A friend (13.5 years old) who I care deeply about and love is going through some major troubles lately. She's been raised by a single mother. She also has been abandoned by her first love and her closest friend within a month of each other, attempted suicide in the last few months, been suicidal frequently,is addicted to self harm, hears cruel voices she can't stop telling her to do bad things, has extremely bad depression and social anxiety, experiences panic attacks regularly (usually at school or alone in her room), and several other things.

But the even that has led me to seek help on a forum is this:
I was messaging her on Facebook and this happened.

I am indeed placing a lot of trust in my friend (A) by assuming that this was completely genuine. She has a history that lends credibility.
To put it lightly, this terrified me. We'd been talking about the voices she hears and she was truly scared and very confused and I was just trying to give advice and support. But then she apparently fell asleep and started talking as if one of the voices she told me she hears had taken over and typed messages and sent them to me. Those 12 messages were sent in the space of 2 minutes, so it was also unusually fast.

She's also told me that she is not sure if the voices she hears are real or not. This led me to worry a bit about the possibility of schizophrenia. But alas, I am a 17 year old guy and I have an AP Psychology course of knowledge so I am no expert.

By coming on here, I am simply hoping to get other's opinions on what I should do in this situation (if I should force help upon my friend or alert those who can do more than I can to the situation), what could possibly be wrong with her, and what more I can do to make sure that she stays alive and sane.

being a teen ager isnt fun, not for the teern who is having this kind of problem and not for the teen watching their friend go through this...

unfortunately theres not much you can do because of your and your friends ages...

one thing you can do is tell your parent or your friends parent...yes I know teens have an unwritten "code of silence" about "ratting out their friends" but if you feel this friend of yours is in such a harmful situation that warrents you coming to a mental health website for opinions and help then thats when you need to talk to the adults in your life so that they can help you and your friend....

you see online we cant do anything to help. all we can do is read what you post and say whether we are in the same situation and tell you what we do in those situations, and what our own doctors and therapists tell us to do.

what we do to help ourselves in this kind of situation is supervised by our own doctors....but what we do may not be what is right for you and your friend..

let me ask you a question....what if this friends problem is because they need a medicine that their doctor can give them..but thje doctor cant give then the medicine because their friends are going on line instead of telling the people that can take the friend to the doctors... and what if this friend dies because they did not get the medicine...

this what if actually happened on another website. Someone came on a mental health website trying to find help for their friend thinking their friends problem was mental. the friend turned out to be diabetic and just needed a new diet and a shot to make their voices go away and get them back to normal.. the friend died while in a diabetic coma. it could have been avoided had the poster on line had put the teen age "code of honor" aside and told their parents who would have told the friends parent so that the friends parent could take the friend to the doctors..

if this situation is how you have posted and you feel your friend really is having a problem to such a degree that you would need to take time to f ind an online mental health website then this friend doesnt need our help. this friend needs real time help of their parents and their doctors..

do whats right for your friend, go tell your parents your concerns so that the friends parents can get them to the right doctors that can help them..

[lostinbooks]

She needs help. If she won't go to her parents then take her to the ER. A forced ER visit when I was a teen probably saved my life. And I got over the anger of being brought there.