C
comatheart
Guest
First, I'm not exactly sure how I found this group and my son does not have any diagnosis but after reading through many of your posts I think this is the right place for me to find support, which I am desperately needing at this moment.
My husband and I have 4 children. Our oldest son is 14 and for the last 2 years he is slowly going downhill. We keep trying to tell ourselves that it's just hormones or normal teenage rebellion but I'm really starting to get worried that there is much more going on. Frankly I don't know where to start!?
Around 12 he began showing signs of depression. Our once bubbly kid was withdrawn and stopped playing outside with the neighborhood kids. Teachers started complaining that he never talked. Ever since preschool he'd always been the one getting in trouble for talking when you're not supposed to, so this was a red flag for us.
Then came the talk and thoughts of suicide. His younger brother told us and we immediately took him to a Doctor (psychiatric? I can never get the terms straight) who diagnosis him with depression said he wasn't getting enough sleep and prescribed a sleeping medication and a depression medication. We met with him once a week for a couple months, upped the medications, decreased the medications and finally stopped them altogether because it didn't seem to be doing anything anyway. He denied ever really wanting to kill himself. We stopped seeing the psychiatric.
His grades started slipping and he began lying and sneaking. He waited until we were asleep and he'd go online and look up porn, order PPV x rated films and eat all the food in the pantry. We started locking everything down at night before we went to bed and invested in software for the easy child. He was forced to go earn money to replace all the food that he had snuck out of the pantry (we counted wrappers and boxes found in his room and it was well over $100 worth) My husband took him to the store and made him buy all of the things he took with the money he earned so he could see how much it costs and why we have to limit his consumption because we have a family of 6. Did it work? NOPE. The very next week he'd snuck several more food items in the middle of the night once again.
At 13, during a random room search, my husband found a rolled up baggy with a white powder inside. We were very alarmed and took him to the Pediatrician thinking it was drugs. It turned out, it was prescription drugs he had gotten out of the medicine cabinet, crushed up and he had planned on sneaking it in his brothers food "as a joke". He has this particular hatred towards this brother who is special needs and requires a lot of our attention. We knew instantly his intentions were not so pure. The Doctor spoke with him alone and came to the conclusion that he wasn't a risk to himself or others and told us to take him home and lock up our medications. We did and have lived on lock down ever since. He urged us to get our son into counseling and we did. The counselor suggested we get him back on Antidepressant and so the pedi prescribed Celexa. It seemed to help a little and so he takes it daily. He goes to counseling weekly but unfortunately, won't open up and after 7-8 months they've gotten no where.
A couple weeks ago we discovered that he had stolen 2 sets of headphones from the store. We talked to an officer who agreed to come to our door at 6am and barge in and scare the living daylights out of him for stealing. It seemed to work and we saw him cry for the first time in years so we thought finally we'd gotten in his head. We forced him to return the headphones to the store and apologize to the manager. Then we find out he straight faced lied to the officer, us and his therapist that it was first time he had stolen. In fact the list is growing by the day of things we find that he has stolen!! It has been a major eye opener!!! He would most certainly have a felony charge on his record if he had been caught by law enforcement. He was put on restriction from all electronics and going to friends houses until he can repay what he took.
It's been just over a week and if it weren't enough that he's stolen hundreds of dollars worth of things from the store, he stole my cell phone right below my nose after I had plugged it in to charge and fell asleep on the couch So now when we go to bed the house has to go on full lockdown again! medications locked, computers restricted, house phones and cell phones in our room, pantry locked etc etc.
He doesn't seem to have any remorse. He's obviously not learning from his mistakes and our house is slowly turning into a prison for everyone else in the family. We're scared that he's getting progressively more daring and will soon be into drugs or stealing cars.
I've researched Military School and there's no way we can afford the tuition. What do we do to get him back on track???
I have an appointment at the Pediatrician Monday. I'm going to ask that they drug test him but I honestly dont think he's using. He doesn't have any money to purchase drugs and he really only has one friend and he seems like a good kid. At any rate, I'd like to be able to be 100% certain.
My husband and I have 4 children. Our oldest son is 14 and for the last 2 years he is slowly going downhill. We keep trying to tell ourselves that it's just hormones or normal teenage rebellion but I'm really starting to get worried that there is much more going on. Frankly I don't know where to start!?
Around 12 he began showing signs of depression. Our once bubbly kid was withdrawn and stopped playing outside with the neighborhood kids. Teachers started complaining that he never talked. Ever since preschool he'd always been the one getting in trouble for talking when you're not supposed to, so this was a red flag for us.
Then came the talk and thoughts of suicide. His younger brother told us and we immediately took him to a Doctor (psychiatric? I can never get the terms straight) who diagnosis him with depression said he wasn't getting enough sleep and prescribed a sleeping medication and a depression medication. We met with him once a week for a couple months, upped the medications, decreased the medications and finally stopped them altogether because it didn't seem to be doing anything anyway. He denied ever really wanting to kill himself. We stopped seeing the psychiatric.
His grades started slipping and he began lying and sneaking. He waited until we were asleep and he'd go online and look up porn, order PPV x rated films and eat all the food in the pantry. We started locking everything down at night before we went to bed and invested in software for the easy child. He was forced to go earn money to replace all the food that he had snuck out of the pantry (we counted wrappers and boxes found in his room and it was well over $100 worth) My husband took him to the store and made him buy all of the things he took with the money he earned so he could see how much it costs and why we have to limit his consumption because we have a family of 6. Did it work? NOPE. The very next week he'd snuck several more food items in the middle of the night once again.
At 13, during a random room search, my husband found a rolled up baggy with a white powder inside. We were very alarmed and took him to the Pediatrician thinking it was drugs. It turned out, it was prescription drugs he had gotten out of the medicine cabinet, crushed up and he had planned on sneaking it in his brothers food "as a joke". He has this particular hatred towards this brother who is special needs and requires a lot of our attention. We knew instantly his intentions were not so pure. The Doctor spoke with him alone and came to the conclusion that he wasn't a risk to himself or others and told us to take him home and lock up our medications. We did and have lived on lock down ever since. He urged us to get our son into counseling and we did. The counselor suggested we get him back on Antidepressant and so the pedi prescribed Celexa. It seemed to help a little and so he takes it daily. He goes to counseling weekly but unfortunately, won't open up and after 7-8 months they've gotten no where.
A couple weeks ago we discovered that he had stolen 2 sets of headphones from the store. We talked to an officer who agreed to come to our door at 6am and barge in and scare the living daylights out of him for stealing. It seemed to work and we saw him cry for the first time in years so we thought finally we'd gotten in his head. We forced him to return the headphones to the store and apologize to the manager. Then we find out he straight faced lied to the officer, us and his therapist that it was first time he had stolen. In fact the list is growing by the day of things we find that he has stolen!! It has been a major eye opener!!! He would most certainly have a felony charge on his record if he had been caught by law enforcement. He was put on restriction from all electronics and going to friends houses until he can repay what he took.
It's been just over a week and if it weren't enough that he's stolen hundreds of dollars worth of things from the store, he stole my cell phone right below my nose after I had plugged it in to charge and fell asleep on the couch So now when we go to bed the house has to go on full lockdown again! medications locked, computers restricted, house phones and cell phones in our room, pantry locked etc etc.
He doesn't seem to have any remorse. He's obviously not learning from his mistakes and our house is slowly turning into a prison for everyone else in the family. We're scared that he's getting progressively more daring and will soon be into drugs or stealing cars.
I've researched Military School and there's no way we can afford the tuition. What do we do to get him back on track???
I have an appointment at the Pediatrician Monday. I'm going to ask that they drug test him but I honestly dont think he's using. He doesn't have any money to purchase drugs and he really only has one friend and he seems like a good kid. At any rate, I'd like to be able to be 100% certain.
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