Mother Talks of anguish over her tormented teenager
8th Jan 2004
| |  |  | At first, TJ blamed her parent’s break-up for her depression | | Video files are available. Download the latest Quicktime plug-in to view them. |
Sarah Evans has today spoken to GFN about her anxiety over
the health of her 17-year old daughter Antonia Caister (T.J.). Mrs.
Evans (formerly Caister) told us of her heartbreak when her daughter
was found in a deserted caravan, having attempted a paracetamol overdose.
T.J. was taken to an adolescent psychiatric unit, where she was diagnosed
with depression and put straight into an intensive therapy programme.
The treatment seems to have been successful and T.J. is now back at
school continuing with her studies.
“It was heartbreaking seeing my baby like that. I was so worried
about her but felt so helpless. I used to think we were such good friends
and that we could talk about anything, but she just shut me out. At
first, I thought she was just obsessed with that rock star Mickey Mitch
and she was just a teenager trying to rebel. But it became obvious that
there was much more to it than that.
When she went into the unit, T.J’s dad Tony, (my ex-husband)
and I went for counselling sessions on our own and then, when she was
ready, T.J. came in too and we had a good deal of family therapy sessions
to try to sort things out. The first one was the worst. T.J. told us
that we should have stayed together and worked it out. She blamed us
for everything- said it was all our fault. But then she said that she
loved us and we started talking about things together. I’m married
to a wonderful man called Mark now and Tony and I don’t really
get on, but we have all pulled together to try and help T.J.. She seems
to be doing well at school now and has made vast improvements. I think
I have finally got my Antonia back again.
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