A mother in rural Jamaica is at a loss as her daughter fights a losing battle with mental illness.
Vaughnette said her daughter was a quiet, well-mannered child who was among the top five students in her class in high school. But in 2020, when the pandemic began, the girl, now 17, started acting strange, she said.
“It’s been about 4 months and we stopped giving her the medicine because it wasn’t working. When we stopped giving her the medicine, her condition got even worse and she became more aggressive. She won’t go for cuddles. As long as she doesn’t talk, she just starts swearing,” she said. Vaughnette said that when her daughter is in pain, she won’t even admit it. Her distraught mother sought both medical and divine intervention.
“I take her to some churches and they say it’s an evil spirit and I say I’m praying for her etc but she’s still aggressive. Yesterday (Monday) , she kicked herself out. Sometimes she seems to come back and do the next thing, “That’s when she just got really wild,” she added. She recalled the moment she started noticing changes in her daughter’s behavior.
“I was doing housework, so I used to come over on the weekends. I left her with her father and siblings, and then all of a sudden she started walking, talking to herself, laughing. “She started telling us about where she was. “She claimed to have been there, but we know she never went there. I started saying I was crazy, and that’s okay,” she said.
Vaughnette said doctors told her her daughter suffered from anxiety and depression. But she claims the medication she was given did not work and the child’s condition worsened.
“It got so bad that her eyes seemed to be distorted in her head. She had a wild look on her face, and I started crying, and I thought an evil spirit was haunting her.” I started to think that she might have a medical condition. I took her to the doctor and she received the same diagnosis. My daughter. When she started saying that she couldn’t remember anything written in the book, Soumi begins to suspect that there is something wrong with her brain,” she said.
Determined to get to the root of the problem, Vaughnette said she started doing her own research on the internet. Several blood tests and brain tests all came back normal.
“I don’t know what happened to my daughter. She doesn’t drink or smoke, so I don’t know if it’s just stress. We want to find out the cause, so we’re all going to take her to the doctor.” Even if someone was sexually abused and didn’t say anything, that’s not the case. We’re doing everything we can,” she said.
Vaughnette said that as far as she knows, there is no history of mental illness in her family and she just wants her youngest of seven children to do well in life.
“Jesus, I am feeling unusually stressed. I was wondering if it is because of the environment or if I need a change of pace, so I have all moved and lived elsewhere. Nothing works. I just quit my job. “Please take care of her. If anyone can help her, please do so. What else can I do?” I don’t know,” she said.
Psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Wolcott said based on research, mental health problems are increasing among young people during the pandemic.
“Most studies show that there is a 30 percent prevalence of mental illness directly attributable to COVID-19,” he said. Walcott said he had a case similar to the teenage patient, who did not respond to prescribed medication for about two years, but the symptoms later went away on their own.
