My 15yo son's anxiety around school has come to a head lately. My husband and I did the Freedom from defense mode course back in March. In April my son had a panic attack during the all school PSAT. They had to remove him from the room so as not to invalidate everyone's scores. The next day, he spent over 90 min waiting to talk with the school social worker unsuccessfully before going into the nurse's office and banging his head on the brick wall repeatedly (in full view of staff) enough to finally give himself a concussion. He had done similar self harm more than 5 times this year, but this was the first one with full concussion symptoms. I had to take him to the ER for a CT scan that was thankfully normal. Since then (April 13th), he has refused to take any of his ADHD or anxiety/depression meds (methylphenidate/ritalin and escitalopram/lexapro). We have loosened our lives to give him as much relaxation and space as possible. We don't make him go to school unless he wants to. We will take him in late when he feels ready. But still he declines. We are trying to get him out of defense mode, but it isn't working. The week after the concussion, the school agreed that he may need a therapeutic day school environment. He absolutely hates that idea. He just wants to get the social work help he needs at the public high school. In 8th grade, fully remote, he managed ok with two honors classes. Now he is barely scraping by in team taught versions of those subjects (a year younger of the rest of his classmates due to having been in honors). He stayed home most of a week after the concussion, but when he returned (on no meds), he had missed a lot. He was lost in many classes. His anxiety was better for a while though. He toured three autism day schools last week. He wants to be able to take classes that they really don't offer. Pre-calculus and environmental science just aren't on the plan for most there. This year's electives in his grade are art and health. One of the principals asked off the record why the school district isn't just providing more social work minutes. (He used 240 in March and over 300 in April). She said that these would definitely not be the legal "least restrictive environment" situations that work for him. She feels it is probably due to staffing problems. He still insists he would rather drop out than go to any of these schools. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, he had more self-harm in school since returning unmedicated. This week has been horrible with him falling apart at multiple appointments (orthodontist and dentist) so much that the visit could not be completed. He stayed home from school entirely today because his anxiety made his stomach hurt so much. Does anyone have advice on: 1) trying to get him to take his anti-anxiety med 2) discussing his placement with the public high school at tomorrow's IEP We have to decide what to do tomorrow, and he is falling apart. He hasn't had an inpatient stint for depression since one month February of 6th grade. He ended up in PHP during all December of his Freshman year. I don't feel he is in a state to make a decision or give input, but we cannot choose for him. The school district doesn't want him to stay right now. Does anyone have advice on how to help him - either personally, medically, or educationally?

Posted by HyperPippi at 2023-05-11 20:14:37 UTC