Hello, My 15yr old daughter has recently been behaving uncharacteristically and I'm worried about her, whether it's a combination of being in lockdown, teenage hormones and naturally wanting to seek her independence but she's going about it in ways I'm worried about and how it's affecting her mental health. The first thing that happened last week was she snuck out from our house while we were asleep at home to catch a bus by herself in the middle of the night to meet up with a boy who lives on the other side of the city. She got lost and was unable to contact anyone due to her phone running out of battery and finally got help whereby the police called us at 2am to pick her up in the middle of the night. I had no idea she had snuck out and didn't know she was that desperate to start experimenting sexually. Even though she was distraught she didn't want to call us to help her, but rather called her friends to try and get herself out of the situation. I am concerned that she didn't think that she was putting herself in any danger by doing this or what the risks were about meeting someone under these circumstances. The other incident was that she met up with one of her girlfriend's to catch up and hangout in the park/picnic for a couple of hours. Her friend brought alcohol and they drank about 1/2 a bottle of spirits straight between them. She was extremely drunk and unable to stand or speak properly - I was so worried and thought she had possibly concussed herself I had to call an ambulance. She is struggling with not being able to see friends from school, and is feeling pretty isolated socially despite having a small group of friends, some of whom she has had some issues around trust and typical girl's talking behind her back. But I am concerned that she typically hasn't acted out like this before. She also is keen to start being sexually active and we've found that she tried to join adult dating sites and also that she has been on various social platforms like Winc, Snapchat etc... We have taken her phone and are monitoring her messages for now and making sure she is not accessing these sites. However it is the way that teenagers are connecting now especially during lockdown, and she is worried that she will lose connection with her friends while we are showing her 'tough love' and not allowing her to use these social platforms. I have recently made an appointment for her to see our GP to discuss taking the pill - however I'm not 100% comfortable with this as i don't think she is ready mentally, but I don't want her to feel I am not supporting her. We have made an appointment to see a psychologist but I'm just still feeling overwhelmed and confused about it, if this is at all 'normal ' teenage behaviour or if it's something to be more concerned about?
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