Therapy/counseling resources for teens?
I'm a teen who was diagnosed with bipolar at 13 more than 2 years ago. I was on meds and therapy but shortly after I was removed from both. I'm not currently in school and can't access a counselor there to help me, and my parents refuse to put me back into therapy or even to see a psychiatrist/get evaluated despite my wishes. What can I do?
@ManicMars Hi Ellie!
Because of your age, I think it's very likely that you would need your parents to agree for you to see a mental health professional, but this can depend on local laws and regulations in the part of the world where you live. If you're not in school that makes it even more difficult, I suppose.
I wonder if there is perhaps any adult who knows you, other than your parents, for you to discuss the situation with.
There are some resources online for bipolar disorder, which you can easily find by searching the Internet. For example, just now I Googled managing bipolar without medication and found a lot of information.
There are also resources for depression that are based on the approaches that therapists use. The ones I know are Living Life to the Full, MoodGym and e-couch but there are probably others. As far as I know these are free and I don't think there's any age restriction.
If you'd like to chat about your situation in more detail, feel free to click on my profile picture and message me.
Charlie