Depression in Children Support Group

My 14 year old 'child' (She is actually my niece, I have been raising her since August, and am fighting for custody of her from her abusive mother) has been using self injury to deal with her emotion issues for years. I don't even know how long, she didn't let us know until a few years ago. She struggles every day with feelings of wanting to self injure. Unfortuanatly this is not something that is just going to go away in the blink of an eye. Sometimes people stuggle with the demon of self injury for their entire lives. I should know. I have been self injuring since I was four. My Niece never knew I self injured until she started talking about her own struggles.

If you every want to ask me any questions let me know. If I can help I want to.

G et al.

Thank you for your response. I hope you will be able to get custody of your niece. I am also glad she is talking to you about her SI. It helps tons for it to be out in the open. Are you getting your niece any help now? I do know that it is an addiction. You probably understand better than me. I only am going by what I have read. I am fearful knowing that it may never go away. I pray that for my daughter she will recover. I just want to help her. I try to be there for her when ever she needs me. Last night she had a bad night. We were able to talk it out and she was able to get through the night with out SI. I told her in the morning I was proud of her. If you have any other advice on how I can help I would appreciate it. Thanks for the hugs too :)

I am not a doctor, just sharing my personal experience as I have had depressions and anxiety for sometime. The best way to get over anxiety and depression is to take a break from your regular schedule, go out, and take good sleep. This helps in clearing the mind and try consulting a specialist who can suggest you as how you can get over your problem. You can have all necessary information about this on http://www.xanax-effects.com Rather than going on drugs, one should look for the reason behind there problem . Keeping your self busy and changing the schedule also helps sometimes to get over stress and depression.

Thanks Ballmic for your advice. I will check out that website. I am always open to checking out any info that will help. I probably could be a doc by now. Only kidding. As for an update My daughter is in an up swing. We have a good therapist now and she is finally making some head way. She hasn't self injured in 2 months. She does practice distraction methods and that seems to help. She is off some of the medications too. We found out through a new doctor that she has a thyroid problem. This thyroid problem can cause depression and anxiety. I am praying that when we get her thyroid up and running like it is supposed to she may find some relief there. She gets way too wrapped up in her friends problems too and that also causes her mega stress. Luckily she does talk to me so this way she can relieve that stress by talking to me. Lots to shoulder for me but I won't give up on her. thanks again