Are these mood swings normal?

[worries]

I am guardian of a 16 year old girl. She is bright and caring most of the time. She was the victim of a lengthy sexual assault/torture and has never dealt with it. Recently she experienced suicidal thoughts and was self harming. She was brought to the Adolescent Mental Health Unit at our local hospital and was eventually put on 10 mg Prozac which seems to have stopped the suicidal thoughts etc. She is also in therapy now. However, she still has these mood swings where she will be fine one minute and then she will be whining and ranting about something and nothing we say will deter her. Sometimes she will start out complaining about one thing and then int he space of 5 minutes she is winging out about everything going on in her life - school, lack of friends, exams, sports practice, competitions, basically everything and nothing i can say will soothe her. If I try not saying anything she starts winging out about me not talking - like damned if I do/say anything and damned if I don't. Then she will walk away and come back 20 minutes later and all is fine. I'm left vibrating with frustration and the effect of being basically yelled at and she is all good. I have addressed her yelling/rude way of talking and also her whining whenever i hear it but that just causes more problems. I've tried addressing it when she is not winging all over the place and that doesn't help either - she says she isn't yelling and says she is just venting. I don't yell back at her but address her behaviour in a clear way saying that I don't appreciate being yelled at or I'll tell her that if she can't speak civilly to me please don't talk to me until she is calmer. It doesn't help and, in fact, makes it worse. When she rants I respond with as calm a voice as I can and try to speak reasonably. I'm very careful to not say anything I don't mean and to be polite and calm at all times. It doesn't help.
They seem to happen without any warning (although there is probably something that leads up to it going on in her brain that I am not privy to).
Sometimes she gets into this "I'm fine now and don't need the medication anymore" attitude and is determined to talk the pediatrician into weaning her off it despite my telling her that it is the medication that is allowing her to cope with all her baggage while she is in therapy. My worry is that she will be successful in talking her way out of taking them when I know, positively, that she is not ready to deal with things on her own yet.
So my question is this... not having had a girl before (my boys are very placid) is this normal teenage mood swings, being dramatic or is she not stable? Should her meds be increased?

[Thirteen]

Well honestly, it sounds like it could be either hormones, or the mental health stuff.

If she's already on the medications, have you considered therapy as well? Medication can only do part of the work, especially when a past traumatic experience seems to be affecting it.

[LeapOfFayth]

Originally Posted by Thirteen

If she's already on the medications, have you considered therapy as well? Medication can only do part of the work, especially when a past traumatic experience seems to be affecting it.

She is in therapy

As for the mood swings, what is she diagnosed with? Things like major depressive disorder or PTSD can sometimes include mood swings, and possibly a change in dose or medication could help, or they might resolve themselves after therapy.
It could be hormones but it wouldn't be out of the question that her behaviour is directly linked to what had happened to her. When something like that happens to you nothing is really normal to you for a long time. Try talking to her doctor about all your concerns, they would have the best idea about what might be going on.

[Thirteen]

Originally Posted by Fricky Ricky

She is in therapy

Oops, I must've missed that . I answered this after work, so I probably wasn't at 100% on my cognitive scale.

[PSY]

Unfortunately, it's hard to say if these mood swings are normal or abnormal. On one hand, most teenage girls go through severe mood swings, where they have a very difficult time being "reasonable" or "calm," no matter how "reasonable" or "calm" their parents/guardians are. It's mainly due to immaturity - as she grows older, she'll be able to look at situations from multiple points-of-view, which will help her rationalize her feelings and deal with them in a more constructive manner. On the other hand, she IS dealing with some mental health issues, so we can't exactly take this lightly. It could be a symptom of a mental illness (has she been diagnosed with anything?) or a side effect of the therapy and/or medication (the therapy is going to bring up some unpleasant subjects that she'll need to deal with, and the medication could be affecting her hormones/mood).

I think the most important thing you can do is to keep in touch with the therapist/psychiatrist who is prescribing the medication, and to continue to show love and support to your child, even if she's being very aggressive toward you. I think it's great that you calmly explained that being yelled at doesn't feel good for you - it's helping her to see the situation from multiple points-of-view, something that becomes easier to do with increased maturity (as stated above). Unfortunately, that won't always work - immature, unreasonable people will continue to act that way no matter what you say or do! So something else you might want to do is give her "tools" to cope with the feelings - a journal or sketchbook, for example. This is something you could also talk to the therapist/psychiatrist about. You want to give your child an outlet for all her emotions, while also rewarding her for making good decisions, ex. venting without having to yell at you.

[Dream]

1. It would be good if you put spaces in between sections of your writing. That was hard to read.

2. You certainly should let her decide whether or not she wants to be on the medication. Ultimately, stress related to these sorts of issues are about having a sense of control over your life, and medication is very controlling. The issues with feeling controlled are very acute in girls who have been abused sometimes.

3. She sounds overbooked, and so she should probably drop some activity and focus more on getting good sleep and eating well. Sleeping well and eating healthy will help more with mood swings than anything else. Moderate exercise helps too, but if she is in gym class, sports, or whatever then that is covered. I don't know if the mood swings are normal or not, but in any case these things should help with them.

4. As for her being rude, don't come down on her for it. Instead, tell her how upsetting it is for you (without being accusatory), and see if she will empathize and adjust accordingly. Basically, just be supportive, understanding, and open to talking to her and make the suggestions I put above for her, and I don't know what else you can do.