My son is 16 and suffering from severe depression. He'd been working with a psychologist 6 months for anxiety associated with school ( later diagnosed with obsessive compulsive personality disorder traits) . It built to breaking point late last year where we had an admission to PECC due to risk of suicide- where he spent a week. He is still under suicidal supervision by us at home.
We have the psychiatrist,medication, the psychologist, the mental heath team....but I am still struggling to work out how I do the best for him as a parent. The advice I get from the specialists and he has been told the same, is to try and keep to a routine. If it is a bad day , then just do less and smaller steps, but keep doing. I struggle to work out how much to push him on those mornings he says he can't do it. He enjoys school as a general rule and is academic, has good social connection with peers and staff.
My fear because I have worked with school refusers is that if I let it ride I can be setting him up to becoming a victim to his depression, rather than helping him to dealing with it. We already lost 70% of last term schooling, before medication stabilised his condition a bit and allowed him to get some sort of sleep routine happening.
This morning I know I pushed too much and he got aggressive and had an episode ( the push made him worse) and I wasn't going to get him out....but 2 hours later he seemed perfectly fine . Is this just the way it goes with depression or manipulation??
I get frustrated when he is feeling better that he does not put in the effort to do any of the strategies that are meant to help depression...journalling, gratitude diary, mindfulness/meditation , positive self talk ( he does exercise regularly in general part of an obsession that needs to be monitored) or even research/ read to learn more about the condition and experiences and ways to manage it . He is intelligent and more than capable of all the above when in a better frame of mind , but appears too lazy to bother.
We have removed a lot of stressors /pressures out of his life, but it is almost appears to be making him less responsible and lazier when he is functioning OK.
Would love to get feedback on any of this as I am new in navigating my way through this and don't feel I get any real answers/ support from the professionals on how to best parent a child with severe depression and suicidal ideation. I just want to keep him safe , but not become helpless to his depression.
