My teenager sustained an epidural hematoma 4 years ago which left her with a frontal lobe traumatic brain injury. Her latest neuropsych eval showed that all of her cognitive deficits are gone so that's great news!

But...We are still left with the emotional and psychiatric disorders. She refuses to go to school. It makes no difference whether I try to talk to her about it, insist she go, or take away privileges. She says her body won't let her go. Usually, she starts out good at a school but some frustration occurs, she runs out and won't go back. Even meeting with the school, instituting an IEP, etc does not work. I have tried online schooling (she says can't learn from computer), alternative education programs, and this last time she only had to go to school 2 hours a day and it was 2 classes that were more fun classes instead of earning credits. I wanted her to start out slow and work her way up, since she had insisted on a full day at that same high school, ran out on the first day before classes even started. She only returned after the 2 hours a day curriculum was tried. She made it through 2 days and that was it.

Today, she was supposed to tour an alternative education program that has a mental health component but she told me she was very nauseated and couldn't go and is in bed.. We just started her on Clonidine about a week ago, and she is to go back into counseling. Problem with counseling is that she is manipulative and not realistic about her problems. It could be months before her counselor actually sees her and not the mask-type behavior she puts on for everyone except me. She shows enthusiasm for things in meetings, and then gets sick as soon as we get home and won't follow through.

We have tried stomach meds, antidepressants, you name it. She has seen 5 different specialists (coordinating thru her brain specialist) and there is no physical component that would ber causing nausea, etc. Sometimes the complaint is headaches too. Antianxiety, sedatives have an opposite effect on her.

I don't know what to do to help her, I have missed so much work that its an issue. I have spent thousands of dollars and days and days in order to help her but I don't have an answer. What else can I do as a parent to get her out of this house besides short trips to the mall, etc?

The more you talk to her or discipline her, the worse she gets. Will be in bed for days. I am a single mom and I really need some advice. This is breaking my heart....I am exhausted and no one listens when I tell them she is not responding to treatment, I am with her all the time and you can't depend on her statements as a method of tracking her problems. But, I have attendance records and school documentation to show that what I am telling them is a fact. I gave them copies, but...nothin'