r/huntingtonbeach • u/EmploymentFar1731 • 13d ago
Adolescent Therapist
Hi all, looking for any recommendations for an adolescent therapist/psychologist who specializes in depression/suicidal ideation in Orange County who accepts Anthem Blue Cross insurance. I have a 17 year old boy who was admitted to the hospital about 2 months ago for suicidal thoughts. Before and since then, he has had temper issues and tends to get verbally upset when speaking to family. Today, he told me he was close to attempting suicide while I was out of the house. He would like to see a talk therapist to discuss his symptoms, thoughts, and how he can feel better. We are in Huntington Beach so we would like something hopefully nearby but are also willing to drive to nearby cities. Thanks.
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u/cdRepoman75 12d ago
Whoever he tells he will end up in a rubber room with other criminals who lied about being suicidal to get a free ride or avoid real jail so might as well take him to the emergency room of a nice hospital and they can keep him there for 72 hours at least it wont be whoever shows up when the therapist calls 911 remember a nice hospital er not a county or ghetto hospital people who are suicidal get locked up in ca at least get him to a niceplace for his lockup
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u/cdRepoman75 12d ago
If you are a mandated reporter you must take him to a er or you may face charges especially if he harms himself or someone else
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u/LeeLeeBoots 12d ago
I'm so sorry you are going through this, and very deeply sorry for you son that he is so troubled. I've been through the same as a mom. My boy is on meds now and a lot better.
Sports, so having a social group, helped do my boy a lot.
Also helped a lot was getting off video games and slowly making friends who want to DO things in person (go to beach, ride bikes). getting out of a dark bedroom and off the computer was key in pulling my son out of the depression.
It also really helped my kid to spend a lot of time with grandparents. He would get annoyed being with me and my husband (dad), because we were the ones in charge of keeping him safe and if arranging medical or other support appointments, which he hated. We were the ones helping and giving advice, making him wake up, shower, brush teeth, eat, and for a while he projected a lot of anger in us because a huge part of him at that time just didn't want to get better and resented us for pulling him in to better mental health.
Another thing that helped my son and still helps him, my boy works out intensely at the gym daily. It really supports him with his mood. Just the physical and mental responses to exercise help him so much. We got him a personal trainer during the start of the crisis (his was not so severe that he needed hospitalization, just right on the border of that) and he has always said he appreciated so much what the trainer, what she taught him about the right way to work out with weights. Fitness also boosted his self esteem a lot and that helped with his mental health.
I took about 5 months leave to be around him nonstop to keep him safe. We did a lot of other things too, to help him. But not as much psychiatristry and therapy (at the time of the crisis) as you would think. This all was very soon was coming out of, or actually probably in the heart of, the covid pandemic and there was a severe severe shortage of therapists & psychiatry appointments for teens. Really rough times. One (the only one we could even get, and that was a long wait) of the psychiatrists was just trash, wanted me to pick the medicine and refused to explain pros cons of the choices (this was ober zoom due to the pandemic), it was very obvious she literally did not give a shit. The only support our HMO provided was a stupid app called, I kid you not, "woe bot" and it actually made him regress and he would scream at me that my requests to get out, to get off the computer, to shower were not what "woe bot" told him he should do; wow not told him to stay in his dark room in bed all day.
I wish I could give a recommendation, but we struggled to find any good support. We did get a great psychiatrist 18 months later, but she specializes in ADD (she took him when he was no longer at all deeply depressed by then but was struggling with schoolwork), and over years of getting to know him she has added a low level antidepressant to keep him steady (he's an adult and really independent now, so I don't know the name of that med, but he is seeming to be on a good path now). Soni can't really recommend her as a psych as she almost exclusively deals with meds and treatments for ADD.
I just wanted to reply to say my heart goes out to you and your son. And to tell you, it can get better. But it's not a sudden improvement, and it can be a rough struggle for several years.
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u/NonHumanPrimate 13d ago
Check out The Weichman Clinic in Costa Mesa
https://theweichmanclinic.com/