What's wrong with this picture?

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

Or better yet, help me to rationalize it's normality.

In the local high school exsists a 16 yo girl who has a history of multiple suicide attempts and more threats than I can count in a day. She is described by many as a viscious, obsessive bully. She is a drug user and a sex fanatic. Her physical violence is legendary.

Many describe her as lying and manipulative. She comes from a large wealth family. She dreams of killing her mother. For what it's worth, she is bisexual. Her grades are very poor. The sentence she uses to describe herself is , "I hate everyone".

My question is, do kids like this occur naturally, or is it necessary for some environmental stimulus to create them. Please, as many opinions as possible. I'm rather concerned. Love you! Jackie

[Merry]

Knowledge is power! And Law is soooooooooo interesting. =-) ((((((((HUG)))))))))))

[Nick Danger]

There are a number of posts that I would like to respond to but there are simply too many so I will try to take (many of) them as a group.

First off, it amazes me that you are all able to come up with a solution to a problem, based on a brief, subjective description of about a hundred words, especially since nobody has claimed to be trained in clinical psychology, psychiatry, or any related field. How prescient of all of you (not to mention judgmental)

To put my comments in some sort of perspective, I live with a clinically depressed young man (She Who Must Be Obeyed's son). You'll have to take my word for it but nobody could have been brought up in a more loving, caring household (and that's before I got there, by the way). Despite years of therapy, consultation, hospitalization, and medication, there has been very little improvement; we measure our “victories” in day-to-day actions that everyone here takes for granted. While this doesn’t make me an expert (far from it), in our experience with this condition, we have come into contact families of all economic and social condition. If I have learned anything, it is that each case has to be evaluated individually. People at the upper end of the economic scale are no less immune to this than those at the bottom; people at the upper end of the intelligence scale are no less prone than people at the other (they might even be more so). Some cases are, indeed, the result of “learned” behavior. Others are genetic and no amount of “behavior modification” is going to have much effect.

Several of you have taken the father to task, since he apparently has a medical degree. I’ve got news for you: unless he has a degree is psychiatry, he probably has little more knowledge of what to do for his daughter than if he was a bus driver. One of the sadder aspects of mental diseases is that they can’t be pigeonholed, like having a ruptured appendix, a broken limb, or an aortic aneurism. Unlike treating such incidents, each case is unique; what works in one case will be totally wasted in another. You can’t just put a cast on it or do a triple bypass. Unfortunately, there have been attempts to institutionalize treatments into definitive categories: Suicidal? Try this. Depressed? Try that. Social Anxiety Disease? Try something else! I have been in enough support groups and spoken with enough trained professionals to know that there is no “one size fits all” solution. A solution that works wonderfully in one instance will have absolutely no effect (or worse, a negative one) on a case that looks, on the surface, like an identical case. I have seen parents do things for their kids that go way above the call of duty – these people are far better people than I – and, sadly, it’s not done a bit of good.

Do any of you have any actual knowledge of what the parents have tried in the way of help? Is the young lady in therapy? Has she had medication prescribed? Is she taking them? (and that’s not as easy an enforcement as you might think) Do any of you know her psychological history? Was there an early childhood trauma? Is she taking drugs? (The description sounds like a possible reaction to Quaaludes, actually). Has she been tested for a chemical imbalance? Are her parents doing anything at all? Many of you have indicated that the parents should "get help." How do you know that they aren't?

Don’t misunderstand me. Jackie has every right and duty to be concerned about her child, as well as the other children in the school. And there may, indeed, be negligence involved here, of several parties (including the parents). While ignoring the problem is certainly not a solution, neither is automatically locking the girl away in an institution. Think how you would feel if it were your child and you had done all you could for her and there was no improvement. Would you want your child classified as “mentally disabled?” On the other hand, what would you do if you had tried to help your child and they went on a homicidal rampage?

As I said, I have some knowledge in this area, albeit as a layman, and I wouldn’t even think of trying to make any snap judgments. It appears that several of you are “talking” though your hat (and a few of you from a lower biological region). Unless you have a lot more knowledge of the situation than can be obtained in a hundred-word description, I would suggest that (many of) you haven’t the foggiest idea of what’s going on, let alone enough to give any advice.

Jackie, I might suggest that you take anything you read here, including my thoughts, with an entire mine of sodium chloride.

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

The input opens minds, and I for one am greatful for that.

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

Nick: My intention is (and I've been working for days) to hand this matter off to school, police and social agencies. Unfortunately, they can be horribly negligent, but cc on multiple levels helps. I've contacted The BOE, Superintendant, Principal, VP's, police. I'm still working, but rest assured, I intend to see that this matter is not ignored by our 'experts'.

As for our opinions, talking about stuff like this is good. Everyone's input provides food for thought . (Including Yours!) Thanks all for your contributions. I appreciate them alot! Jackie Rodzinski (Mother Sanity)

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

I replied to this? Where is my statement?

[Merry]

You raised some very valid concerns Nick. I don't have a problem with that at all. It took me a long time to respond to this post and ultimately I weighed in on responding because to be isolated and banging one's head against the system's wall is a rotten way to spend a week. I hesitated to respond because to this at first because of some of the reason's that you stated and wound up responding in the event that something might be helpful even if the odds were against it . For me, with my PTSD and clinical depression that went with it. How can I describe it other than a ravine that I clawed my way out of. Few people say that it is a life threatening illness and potenially just as deadly as cancer, ect. Only perhaps a zillion times more humiliating and humbling. I think for me the turning point was buying a season's pass and teaching myself how to ski. It made me want to climb back to being a higher functioning person. My husband has PTSD too and clinical depression, although it's stablized, I have to admit how frustrating it is not to have a magic wand and be able to take the pain that he feels away from him. I just keep reminding him>>>Recovery Happens..............................