Thanks for your advice. I do plan on getting some counselling for myself, it has been a challenging year for all of us, losing both parents (my sons Grandparents) in a short period of time, family conflict and now my son with a suicide attempt after Christmas and now self-harming. I am lucky to be supported by a wonderful partner and great friends. I have read quite a lot on this forum and the internet about depression and self-harm. The more I read the more I feel like my son is not really following any of these traits or behaviour. (This week I have finally been advised that his suicide attempt did not involve the amount of drugs if any that he said he took. It is SO frustrating as a parent to have privacy thrown in your face when trying to really understand what is going on. I realise that in situations some parents should not be across certain information, but really why not get a background story from the people who know the patient rather than shroud everything in secrecy. Why wouldn’t the emergency department tell me that they didn’t find evidence in his blood that he took the drugs? I have been left spinning and now spinning in another direction to think that he went to such an extreme measure and lie). I fear that in realty my Son does not have depression abut perhaps anxiety. He tells me that he has depression yet I don’t see any signs - finally this week another case Dr read his notes and disclosed to me that the ED team and then his physiatrist also do not believe that he has depression. It’s hard to understand why I have been kept from this important information regarding my 15 year old son. Now with this week’s sell-harm I also see not the behaviour many of you describe, he isn’t regretful, embarrassed and does not want to hide what he did from anyone. He went to school with 100 fresh cuts on his arm to lead peer support at school and thought it was all okay. He denied that he did it the night before and tried to say that it was a few days ago, but it was evident that it had just been done. I am now in a lost situation where my son attempted suicide and is committing self-harm but is not depressed. I assume this is some form of attention seeking or emotional void he is trying to fill? My son is much loved, active sportsman, intelligent and a USUALLY a great communicator. Now he is lying and manipulating continually but not just to me, also to the professionals who are trying to help him. (I can’t even believe I am saying this about my son – all of this is so foreign to me.)
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