Hi,
I am new to these forums but have started searching for like minded parents of teenagers with mental health issues.
My son is 14 now but has had anxiety his whole life. It was never picked up on or diagnosed until the beginning of this year. We have had zero luck with every medical professional we have seen.
He manifests his anxiety with stomach aches and nausea and extreme tiredness. It is very lucky he has that as otherwise he is a seemingly well adjusted happy teen on the surface but sadly not on the inside.
I have taken him to two Emergency rooms, three different paediatricians, three X-ray facilities, one Gastroenterologist, one Cardiologist and 6 different GP's - all referred by the GP's we have seen. He has had all the tests for why he is periodically nauseous and the diagnosis from the Gastro and the GP was to buy a Nutri Bullet and eat more vegies. The extent of looking into a diagnosis of mental health issues was a "are you going ok at school?" When he answered yes, the idea that it was an emotional cause was disregarded.
I was also told to give him daily enemas to help with his constipation which they thought was the cause of the illness. To give a 12 year old boy daily enemas was very difficult for he and I.
So I finally figured it out that his attacks were from anxiety and had increased to one a week over the end of Year 8 to none at all over the summer holidays. I got a referral to a Psychologist who was an absolute crack pot and got him to do meditation to his happy place and drink water slowly when he is ill and if he is struggling with a maths question, then leave it for the next one. Total waste of time but I found an amazing mental health OT who has been fantastic.
My son has zero self worth and is numb inside and cannot identify emotions as he has blocked painful ones his whole life. It will build up and become a stomach ache every once in awhile - lasting up to a week of not being able to keep even water down.
We are now going down the pathway of medication to help ease his mind so hopefully the counselling can start to help him.
It's been a long and painful journey to get to this point but the sheer uselessness of the medical profession has been what staggers me. And of course the massive guilt that we as parents, didn't see the signs that he was struggling.
This is a long post and I am sorry for writing so much. I guess I had no questions really but just wanted to get it out. Although I would love to hear from any other parents whose children also got stomach aches and nausea from anxiety?
Many thanks if you read this
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