My 14 year old daughter, I think is having anxiety or panic attacks. She feels like her throat is closing up and her heart is beating our of her chest. She wants to go to the doctor and gets meds, but I tell her lets try this program. How do you tailor it to fit a teenager?
My husband ordered it originally for himself.
Thank you for your time.

Tracy

Tracy,

I would say that the program does not need to be tailored to someone based on their age. I personally have suffered from anxiety and depression since I was about 10 years old (25 years ago) and I can speak of my life experiences and the effect that the program has had on me.

There are certain kinds of people (sometimes we are described as perfectionists, hard to get along with, highly intelligent, etc) that start out young in life on the path that leads us to depression and/or anxiety. We start out with some scary thought(s) and these become the core of our thinking process. Because the core of our mind is negative, we become negative people as we grow older. These negative thoughts are as natural to us as breathing. It is precisely this reason that it is important that we realize our minds are filled with negative thoughts and that we must fight this by replacing them with postive thoughts. This simple, but effective, method (cognitive behavioral therapy) will have profound effects on anyone who is able to implement it, regardless of their age.

I encourage you to let her try this program. If she feels she still needs meds (independent of this effort), then take her to the doctor and let the doctor decide. The meds might be what she needs to stabilize herself and give her a place to start some form of CBT (like this program). That is the exact path I took last year and I couldn't be more thankful for where that path has lead me.

The worst thing that you could do is nothing. Trust me, I know. A last thought - maybe she should get on this forum and look around to see if anything is familiar to her. It was discovering that there were other people that suffered the same way I did that was the best thing that ever happened to me. Best wishes to you and your daughter. I consider myself to be recovered so know that this can be overcome.

Hi Chuck,
My son at the age of 12 experienced anxiety attacks. He would have scary thoughts about killing himself and/or harming others. As you can imagine, my husband and I panicked. We took him to a psychologist referred to us by an employee assistant program. Wrong idea. The psychologist was as warm as a porcupine and just had my son fill out a form that asked more scary questions. When he left my son said, "He thinks I'm nuts." We tried one other psychologist who tried cognitive/behavioral therapy. By this time my son was LOOKING depressed and anxious. Finally his doctor gave us the name of a great psychiatrist. She was/is wonderful. My son responded to her right away. She put him on prosac and he became better and better. Within 2 weeks he was back to being a kid again. This was last spring. He is thriving now. Just this past month he started to slowly reduce his dosage (he takes the liquid form...he had the choking sensation as well and he does not swallow pills). He is doing just fine.

He is able to express his feelings more. My son is very bright academically, very inquisitive in general. This "condition" is common for children that have been labeled "gifted and talented". He is now able to use his intellect and sensitivity in very positive ways. People that know my son love him.

I wish you all the best with your daughter. I know meds raise fears within US. I am glad my son used medication. These precious adolescent years can have such an impact on a persons self-esteem/confidence. I know that the anxious I felt at this same age limited my life. I became afraid to take risks and pursue education, career and life goals that "caused" me to feel anxious. I refuse to let my children has such limitations.

God bless!

i didn't know where to turn to on this subject so i am coming to this one.ok here is my problem.although, some say, it isn't my problem so why take it on? here goes,forgive me if i have previously mentioned this.
i have a boyfriend, whom i was previously engaged to but no longer am engaged to.anyhow, he has a 14 year old daughter who has bipolar.she lives with her mom and stepdad and stepbrother,she spends weekends with her father,(my boyfriend).when she is 'home'her mother opts to send her to her grandparents most of the time, stating 'i just can't deal with her!' she reacts the same way when there though.she hardly has any friends.and she has at one point been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, which i cannot understand as she use to be a high honor student.i know, that with all of the bouncing around she may feel that she doesn't know where her 'home'is or where she 'fits in'. for that reason when my boyfriend lived with me in the past (for a year) i immeditely set up a bedroom specifically for her and tried to let her know this was her as i put it,'second home' a place for her to fit in and feel loved.but she didn't like that i have rules in my household and have raised my two children under these rules and i feel kids need rules and guidance so therefore i offered the same upbringing to her but, i am resented for it.?? for three years i have tried to help him to help her.she obviously suffers from the bipolar, depression,anxiety and lack of self asteem.anger management and lack of proper guidance in both homes. she spends most of her time sitting in a bedroom in front of a tv not socialising, not wanting to do anything with anyone.she hardly speaks and is very sarcastic and discourageable when she does. she is very hateful to me.although i have tried to give her the best attention and love and guidance i could.she has refused to accept me or come to my home in over a year now.the parents have been told by her school on more than one occasion that she needs counciling and proper medical guidance and medication to overcome these issues. yet, they choose to ignore the situation and allow her to continue in these hurtful patterns.my brother also has suffered the bipolar for most of his life so i do understand the illness.also i have researched it and tried to offer guidance to my boyfriend on this but yet, he keeps trying to act as if it is not happening and he can do nothing about it. i am afraid for his daughter as i know she needs the help and statistics show a teenager with this illness that doesn't get the help they need may at some point attempt suicide. i can't reach any of them. it disturbs me so. i want to help but i feel so lost in the situation as my boyfriend thinks my attempts at helping her are like i am putting her down and her family down. that is not my intention. anyone have any advice on this? our relationship is seriously falling apart because i cannot mention any of his children to him or spend very much time with them as he is still not accepting the thought of combining our families and making a total commitment.this relationship use to be like a great medication to me and helped me overcome so much.now it is really dragging me down and sometimes i swear i am just going backwards instead of forward.all of my friends and family suggest the best thing for me is to walk away from this relationship altogether and save myself while i can.but it is easier said than done. what should i or shall i say what can i do>????