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Troubling Issues — Comments Off on If Your Teen Refuses Treatment
18
Mar 26

If Your Teen Refuses Treatment

I am not Sick by Dr Amador“In his book, Dr. Amador recommends a method called LEAP.”

It can be frustrating to try and convince a teen with a serious mental illness to accept treatment. Some teens find the idea of taking medicine unnatural and some hope that the symptoms will go away without medicine. Often, the teen is unconvinced that he or she is sick. Forty percent of individuals with bipolar disorder and sixty percent of individuals with schizophrenia have an accompanying symptom called anosognosia. It means that they do not recognize that they are ill. It looks like denial, but it is actually a part of the disease.This can be extremely disheartening and frustrating for a parent because it greatly impairs treatment. Not surprisingly, family members often focus on trying to convince their relative that they have the illness, which only makes the patient feel misunderstood.

Fortunately, being on medicine removes this symptom. But how to get there? You can work around your teen’s disbelief, using a strategy described in the excellent book, I am Not Sick I Don’t Need Help, by Dr. Xavier Amador. This book has helped many families with recalcitrant loved ones, using a method called LEAP. I summarize Dr. Amador’s LEAP method below:

L is for listen:  Listen to your teen’s concerns about medicine. Don’t interrupt, but feel free to ask for clarification if you think you are misunderstanding them. Don’t argue or try to dispute what they say.

E is for empathize:  Forget about your own frustrations and fears for the moment and let your teen know that you understand how they feel. Offer sympathy for what they are going through.

A is for agree:  Try to agree upon something, even if it’s something as simple as the fact that your teen is depressed and wants to feel better.

P is for partner:  Tell your teen you want to help them achieve their goal. If they don’t want to take medicine, what will they agree to do? If the two of you can agree to a plan—any plan—at least you’re working together.

LEAP won’t give you the immediate outcome you’re looking for, but it’s a start. It’s also an improvement over arguing. Sometimes a first step leads to another. The book explains the steps in detail and will give you ideas for how to be effective with each one. It has helped many families get their loved ones into treatment.

Troubling Issues — Comments Off on Making Peace with Partial Recovery
04
Mar 26

Making Peace with Partial Recovery

PartialRecovery“It can take years to reach a state of true recovery, so give it time.”

Sometimes recovery is not as complete as we had hoped. There is the teen who has more or less recovered from depression, but who can’t seem to get motivated to find a job. The girl with schizophrenia who no longer hallucinates but still seems disorganized and confused. The boy with bipolar disorder whose symptoms are gone but who is no longer the outgoing, popular person you remember. Once mental illness sets in, it can change the patient. That’s why early treatment is important and why it’s critical to shut down the symptoms as quickly as possible. Still, even after treatment, you may find that your child has changed. You may even suspect that the medicine itself, which is necessary to control the symptoms, subtly affects your loved one’s personality.

We dream big for our children and we want to see them have as many advantages as possible. It’s okay to grieve the loss of the person you thought your teen would become. Meanwhile, try to focus on the assets your son or daughter currently possesses. You may even find that a new strength emerges. My son used to love reading and it was a challenge for us to find enough books for him. That changed when he became ill. He could no longer read as fast and his comprehension weakened. Even after he was in recovery, he found that he read slower. The odd thing is that he became better at math. He had never enjoyed math because he felt that it lacked room for creativity. But he came to enjoy it and became curious about it. His math grades went up even though he labored through For Whom the Bell Tolls. Think about something your teen does now that they did not do before. They may be motivated by this new ability, and that is something to nurture.

Also, keep in mind that recovery from mental illness is notoriously slow. How long has it been since the medicine and therapy began to make a dent in the symptoms? Six months? Two years? Four? It can take years to reach a state of true recovery, so give it time. I can tell you right now that six months is nothing. Your teen is on the right path and you’re doing all you can. Keep in mind, too, that teens change dramatically even when they aren’t faced with mental illness.

If you suspect that your teen or adult child has stopped taking the medicine, gently ask what is going on with the medicine. Have they run into side effects? Sometimes we suspect a patient of going off of their medicine when, in fact the medicine has stopped working or the dosage needs to be adjusted. If it seems like they have gone off of their medicine but insist they haven’t, go with them the next time they see the psychiatrist. When illness creeps back in due to medicine problems, the patient is often unaware of the changes that have occurred.

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