I'm really sorry to hear about your troubles. I have been going through something very similar with my 14 year old son. His problems started with beginning high school and a breakdown of the relationship he had with a close friend of his who also attended the same high school but no longer wanted to be friends. My son ended up being bullied at school, feeling like he had no friends and being completely overwhelmed by the schoolwork and school in general. He ended up with severe depression and anxiety and has been suicidal. Like you our son became very focussed on gaming and we struggled for almost a year to find a psychiatrist that would see him. We are now two years later and whilst things are by no means fixed we have got him to a better mental space and we have hope that things will keep improving. Everyone's situation is different and different things will work for different people but in the hope that you might find something useful or even of comfort here are the things that we found most helpful. 1. Keep calling psychiatrists for an appointment. I would google psychiatrists every couple of days and spend time calling them trying to find one that would take him on. Get a good referral letter from your GP that explains the situation in detail so if they ask for a referral letter to consider whether they'll accept your son as a patient they have an idea of how bad things are. Try contacting psychiatrists interstate. Some states have better availability and will be willing to teleconference. Be willing to travel if you can afford it. Most importantly don't give up. 2z whilst trying to find a psychiatrist, take him to a psychologist as often as you can. This provided our son with someone he felt understood him and wasn't judging him. It allowed him to offload some of the burden he was feeling. I would often sit in on my son's sessions which was really helpful as in that setting he would sometimes disclose information he otherwise wouldn't. There were also many times when he sat there and didn't say anything, or just talked about gaming but even that helped as it was someone there to support him. 2. Try not to worry about how far behind you think he's falling with learning. Yes he is going to fall behind but the best thing you can do to limit that is get his wellbeing in a better place. If he's feeling very depressed and anxious he is unlikely to learn much anyway. Take the pressure of yourself and him for a bit. One of the best breakthrough's we had with our son was when we stopped trying to get him to school. We told him he didn't have to go, we didn't make him do any learning at home and instead focussed on trying to build some good relationships for him and ease the anxiety. One day he said he didn't like that school was optional for him and he said he wanted to go back. We have eased him in. He attends for only a couple of hours a few days at week and there is zero focus on school work. We are focussing solely on him feeling safe and comfortable at school with the hope that once that happens he will be able to engage with learning again. 3. I have never been a big fan of gaming however it became a lifeline for my son. He explained it just the other week so well. Gaming provides him with a sense of belonging, he has friends that accept him and that he can interact with, he feels in control and that he can accomplish things. It is the only thing in life that made him happy. Basically everything he didn't have at school. I think on many occasions it was the only thing that stopped him from giving up on life entirely. At first we had so much conflict with the gaming. We tried to limit the time spent, the games played etc. That conflict did more harm to him then spending every waking moment gaming. We became his enemy. He felt he had to hide what he was doing and that we, like everyone at school, didn't accept him for who he was. So we gave up with trying to restrict it. We embraced it and were grateful that it provided him with social connection and enjoyment. We started playing with him, we learnt about the games, talked about what was happening in them, a friend gave him a PC which he spent time upgrading and rebuilding etc. and after a while of not fighting with him about gaming and letting him control it we were able to gradually introduce other activities. A 15 minute walk on the beach, he started karate classes, he would come and eat dinner with the rest of the family. And most importantly he spent time playing with kids from school online and that gave him the confidence to be able to go back and try school again. Obviously this is very much just our experience and your situation is entirely unique but I spent a lot of time feeling like we had to get him back to school, we had to focus on learning and gaming was bad and ultimately the exact opposite was what was important for our situation. I hope things get better for you and your son. Whatever works for you and your son is the what is best. ... View more