might need to see this and talk to their kids.
To make a long story as short as possible:
On Jan 13th, I came home from work to find my 14 yr old unconscious in a pile of vomit. Thought maybe it was the flu or something at first.
I got her into a bath to clean up and
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she was incoherent, slurring her speech, and not really in control of her body. I put it together and realized she was drunk.
She had never done anything like that. Ever. She then started babbling about being so lonely and wanting to go to sleep and not wake up.
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My heart and stomach dropped.
We took her to the ER for alcohol poisoning and told the triage nurse what she’d been drunkenly mumbling about.
It took almost 24 hours to get her BAL back to normal, then she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital.
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They kept her for 6 days, and we weren’t allowed to see her. Just one 10 minute phone call per day.
They started her on two medications for depression, anxiety, and sleep. She seems to be feeling a bit better since coming home, and now knows that she needs to talk
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to us, regardless of how she thinks we’ll feel. We keep reminding her how much we love and support her, no matter what.
Now a part of this has been about the isolation due to this covid shit, but another big part has been her anxiety due to being bisexual.
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She came out to us quite a while ago, but hasn’t told the rest of the family because they’re religious and frequently talk bad about gay people and make awful comments while inserting scripture into the conversation.
After all that has happened, I felt that I HAD to tell
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the family and asked them to keep their opinions to themselves and shut up with the scripture crap and just love and support her.
When I told her the family now knows and that they told me they love her anyway, the look on her face and change in posture was like
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a huge weight had been lifted. She cried in therapy last week when I told her counselor that part of her anxiety should be better now that she can be “out” and not worry that she’s unloved. And I made sure to find her a young female counselor who’s gay, so my kid will
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feel like she can relate and get some real advice.
Knowing just how desperately depressed our daughter has been, we are trying our damndest to make her see that we love and support her.
She needs your prayers.
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My husband and I need your prayers too. We’re not only worried sick about our baby girl, we’re now faced with 20k in medical bills for the ER, ambulance transfer, and psychiatric hospital stay. We don’t have that! 😫
We are scared. Unbelievably overwhelmed.
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This has been one of the worst times of our lives. An excruciatingly long nightmare for a month now, and it’s not over.
It’s going to take time for her to get through this crisis, to get through bad days using new coping skills she learned in the hospital and in therapy.
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So please, take this to heart and take special care to make sure your kids know how much you love and support them no matter what.
And DO love and support them no matter what. Spend time with them if you haven’t been. Hug them if you haven’t been.
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And for gods sake, if you’re religious and your kid comes out as gay, or bi, or whatever, don’t be THAT person who makes them feel unloved.
My kid was apparently going through a mental hell because of my other family’s vocal disapproval of homosexuality.
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Just love your children. Believe me when I say we truly had NO IDEA she was so depressed and heading for a terrifying breakdown. She likely would have died that night had I not found her when I did.
I feel like a shit mom for not knowing.
TALK TO YOUR KIDS. ❤️
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