Wall of text: A few months ago we found that my daughter was talking with a "14 year old boy" online, that boy turned out to be a 22 year old man. She believed him to be 18 and she kept it well hidden. We've gone to the police for help, that's another story. After we discovered this, we took away all electronics and tried to find some therapy to help us all through the situation. After a few days, she melted down, threatened to hurt herself and us and we took her to the emergency room. She spent 10 days in an inpatient children's facility and came home with medication and a therapy plan. She was disruptive, defiant, manipulative, full of blame towards us and still very intent on self harm. A few weeks after her return, we had a situation where she was asked not to skateboard inside of our home and she went wild, waiving her skateboard around at us, screaming so loud the neighbors five houses down could hear her. We finally managed to get the skateboard from her and she then pulled a big kitchen knife out and came after us. We called the sheriff and he came, she went back to inpatient and after two weeks came home with new medicine and diagnosis of bipolar 2. She has been mostly well behaved and improving over the past two weeks until today. Today we were having a good day, I thought...she needed some help with a school essay, but she really wanted us to actually sit with her and write the whole thing. We have two other children, both toddlers, and while we can certainly help her, we can't sit with for several hours at once and write it for her and our gentle suggestions of ideas for her outline were not even being entertained. We had helped her source her information the day before, but it was becoming more and more apparent that she didn't want to help herself through it...We asked her to take a break and we would regroup once we had the littlest one went down for a nap and she had calmed down a bit. This resulted in her screaming and screaming, like blood curdling screams that can't be calmed. She woke my little one and had both toddlers were scared to death and miserable, covering their ears, confused at what was happening.We tried everything we could to talk her down, we asked her to go to her room or the guest room and try to calm down, go for a walk, take a shower, etc. instead she took my husbands phone, said she needed to call the crisis counselor and called CPS instead to tell them we were hurting her. I overheard her giving our address to someone and went to see who she was talking to...I ended up speaking with them and they agreed that they were not needed and ended the call.We have never hit our children, our household is peaceful and loving, and she was not in any danger from us. We remained calm and watchful, hoping it would end, then she started searching for things to cut herself with. We have almost everything locked up and hidden, which is so difficult because my work requires sharp tools, and if I turn my back when I'm working with them (I work from home) they end up in her room, hidden until I search them out and take them back. Exacto knives, scissors, rotary cutters, and recently she has been referencing my hand gun that I carry (I am fully permitted and I always make it safe and inaccessible to her...I don't even carry anymore as a precaution since this started really) Last night she burst into my room and insisted that someone was in our home, she was terribly scared and upset and she insisted over and over that I get my gun and check the house. In hindsight, I believe she was doing this to find out how to access my gun, as today she threatened to shoot me with it.We finally called the sheriff again, they came and took her to the hospital again....I have two difficult situations to navigate, the first, there isn't much psychiatric help available, despite us having terrific insurance coverage, there just isn't help locally available outside of weekly appointments, so we've been doing our best with what we can access and it's just not enough, it's not helping, and she's escalating. An inpatient facility is an option, but really that's just a few days of "stabilization" before they cut her loose and we are at square one and even further behind in school. The second situation is that whether she can help it or not, she's making my home a dangerous place for everyone. My toddlers have found the knives that she's stashed away and I've discovered them walking around with them, she acts violently and it takes both my husband and I to manage her, trying to make sure she doesn't access anything dangerous, which leaves my little guys so fend for themselves while we are monitoring her and making sure she isn't trying to hurt one of us...either physically or by lying that we are trying to physically hurt her. So far the police, doctors, and other personnel are always kind and understanding, they have been in our home and they can see that we are doing our best for her and they know she isn't in danger....but they are starting to discuss charging her for acting so violently towards us. This does not phase her at all.I seriously don't know what to do. She doesn't use her time in the inpatient facility to take stock of anything, she puts all of her energy into trying to manipulate us with the healthcare personnel, they see through this immediately, but no one ever tells her "enough is enough", they just say "well she's feeling so overwhelmed, so it feels real to her". While I understand that, the truth is that she has two daily chores (empty dishwasher, pick up after the dogs in the yard) and an expectation of school work, she has an adult around all the time (myself, hubs, or our nanny) and she is constantly passing the buck on to everyone in an attempt to get out of her responsibilities, when we try to hold her to them, she goes into screaming mode as a way of control.I have not been able to work a regular schedule since this happened and I've had to cancel major business trips...for a few months this was manageable, but it certainly isn't sustainable much longer. To top it off, I haven't been feeling well and it was discovered that I have a large tumor that will need to be removed in the next state over and that is just coming up in about a week. I will be off my feet after that for four weeks and unable to lift my little guys at all and more time out of work. It's already going to be incredibly difficult to handle this and I'm at a complete and total loss. I'm not some pushover, we are very consistent and we have a routine, we are gentle, but firm, clear with our expectations and always ready to be there and support her...and it's only getting worse.Parents with troubled ones? What worked for you? I'm just can't figure this out at all. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2pb1fSF
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