The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

MingVase

My youngest son was a wee bit prone to panic attacks and recently decided to try pills - very reluctantly. To his surprise they have worked wonders. I hope they help your son too VJs.

MollyWindley

VJ's Mum - My middle son has struggled since adolescence with his mental health. He got a small amount of group therapy which didn't help him and then was offered anti-depressants. The first drug he took was sertraline ( hope I spelled that right) which he reacted badly to, he is now on venlafaxine which seems a bit better.  I really hope anti-depressants work for your son, mental health issues are horrible and the help available seems incredibly patchy or non-existant.

boultdj

Hope the tablet's help him VJ's Mum.

monnagran

It's an awful situation VIs.  I think mental health issues are notoriously difficult to tackle.  The good side seems to be that if the right medication can be found, and it seems to take a while to get it right, the results are good.  It's a difficult time but my thoughts will be with you. x

camelot1001

Thinking of you and your DS VJsMum, it's a worry. 
I think accepting help is the first step, hope it helps very soon.

pollyanna_26

MingVase said:

Anybody else getting repeat email notifications that are days old?

If you mean bits of posts from various threads either via email or pop up you can turn those off.

Click on your user name to go to your profile. There's a bell at the top of the screen on the right hand side. Click on Notifications then click the 3 lines to the right.

Scroll down and you'll see various options and a box to tick or not.

pollyxx

pollyanna_26

MollyWindley said:

I think I am now on my third attempt to work out this site. And it looks like I just need to post from my sons Dell laptop instead of my very old ipad that like me is rather past it's best but still has lovely visuals    Thank you for those who waved hello last time I posted, I'm stuck at home as the weather is terrible and two of my sons who are in their twenties have decided to catch a childhood illness, hand foot and mouth disease!  We are a family of late developers.... I too love your avatar Burtha, and that sounds like a wonderful holiday.

Molly I've noticed many posters with phones or Ipads seem to have more problems than those with laptops and desktops. Some have mentioned having to turn the phone etc sideways.

Hand,foot and mouth disease is one of the nastier memories from teaching as is headlice and umpteen other things including a family with scabies. Only a teacher can have a pregnancy confirmed, the news her dd has headlice and told to start treating the family and herself.in one doctors appt.

Hope your sons feel better soon. My son had mumps in his early 30s but went on to father three children.

I'm totally fed up with the weather. We're on our third weather warning at the weekend apart from all the other weather through the last three weeks.

polly.

pollyanna_26

VJs As you know my youngest has both physical health and mental health diagnoses. Agreeing to engage with services and medication is the biggest step of all so I'm pleased your youngster has done that. Sometimes things can be worked through easily sometimes not. Both our adolescent and adult mental health services were in decline 20 years ago and caused nothing but damage. With a wrong diagnosis from a child  psychiatrist at 13 we had to battle for nearly 20 years for the correct one.

I agree the NHS is struggling far more than I ever recall so it's good you can get private counselling . That should speed things up.

Dd had many different meds over the years . At one point she was on Venlefaxine . As she has 19 repeat meds for both physical and mental health our Dr had to change that a few years ago as he recieved a notice it couldn't be prescribed with one of her important meds. She tried one or two but they had side effects. He found what we call the game changer when she recieved the correct diagnosis and it has changed her life.

She'd had some counselling CBT but what she needed was DBT. She'd tried so many she didn't want to go over the past again with more CBT. Then he said he could bring in a young counseller to the surgery and asked her to give it a try. It changed her life. They hit it off at once and gently worked through all the locked boxes in her mind . Her counseller was trained in both CBT and DBT and officially using the first but really it was the second.

I hope your son finds someone like that and the right medication. It's like kissing frogs one day the right one will come along.

For anyone either struggling themselves or concerned for a family member I would say never give up. There are some amazing GPs who will go the extra mile.

Getting used to meds isn't always pleasant sometimes it takes trial and error. Dd and I have had many a laugh along the way. A few years ago I bought a beautiful stainless steel mixing bowl. I went to get it the following day and couldn't find it. Dd had decided it was the perfect sick bowl for the after effects of her immune suppressant and some new meds. Needless to say no cakes were made in it.

I'm glad your son has taken  help Mar. Hope all is well with you and yours. I've had the cough from Hades for the past two weeks. Two hours sleep last night so hoping to crash out tonight cough permitting. I built a pile of pillows up on the bed but wake up lying on the mattress with back ache.

Roll on a real warm spring.

Take care all

pollyx

VJsmum

Thanks so much for your responses and sharing your sources.  Polly I have looked up DBT and am wondering if that might be good for him.  THe counsellor says he is 'outcomes based' i.e. finding techniques and tools to help but I think some acceptance of himself will be required.  I will keep a close eye on it all and J knows that I am going to do that.  He scared himself as well as us, which is probably good..
Poor boy - sobbing in my arms... breaks my heart.

But we are onwards and upwards now

Nargleblast

I am glad to see the Garden Fence chugging along again, a valuable support network for those with troubles. The whole MSE forum lately seems to be a depressive place in general, what with the upheaval of the site change, the horrendous weather, large parts of the UK being flooded, the spread of Covid19 as well as our own personal trials.

With that in mind how about we cheer things up and have an OS Garden Fence party? A party like some of those that went down in OS history? If we all bring umbrellas, parasols and tarpaulins we can construct an awning along the Fence. Music-wise, disco or live band? Food-wise, I am sure Madarthur won't mind contributing some of her jelly baby stash to go with the chocolate fountain. I could bring cheesy pineapple on sticks, for that retro feel. And who or what can do a cabaret turn? And don't mention the elephant. Or invading France. Or (whisper it) Nursie.