Oh look, life has exploded again.

Things had been going pretty well, still some fighting between stepdaughter and her mom but not much spilled over to us anymore. She wasn't even seeing a psychiatrist anymore, because she acted out at the last one until she got kicked out of the office (which is what she wanted, stepdaughter never wanted to be seeing a shrink to begin with.)

Granted, she had also recently informed us that she planned to "take a gap year" instead of going to college, and worse, that she planned to continue living with her mother indefinitely after turning 18, both of which we thought were terrible ideas, but we acknowledged that we don't really get a say in it, if that's what she had decided to do.

But then somehow a fight with her mother, which started out being about grades, escalated into all the ways that my stepdaughter hates her mother and brother, and she did dramatic things like open her second-story window and act like she was going to jump out of it, because she would "rather have a broken leg than continue this conversation." And her mother responded to this as if it were a serious threat, things escalated further, so stepdaughter pushed harder about how she was bigger than her mother and could easily overpower her, and later made a feint toward the knife drawer to prove her point...

Long story short, by midnight my stepdaughter's mother drove her to the psych hospital and had her committed.


She's been an inpatient for 3 days now. I don't know when they plan to let her out. I don't know if she actually finished taking her finals before this happened, or if she's not going to pass 11th grade because of this.

What I am, though, is super, super pissed at my stepdaughter. Because she actually had called us in the midst of this escalating fight, unbeknownst to us, and said some cryptic things about the ends justifying the means. Basically she used a vague line of questioning to secure my "permission" to do what needed to be done (i.e. threaten to harm herself and others) in order to get what she wanted (i.e. out of her mother's house.) Except as I've told her a hundred times, all she actually has to do to get out of her mother's house is say she wants out of her mother's house, and not back down. But that's not what she freaking wants. She wants to change who her mother is and create a utopia where she is now, which is impossible. And now she's gone and fucked up the foreseeable future for herself because she can't just calmly stick to her guns about what she wants, she has to manipulate her way into it.

Christ almighty.

Oh. Dear. So sorry you're having to deal with all this. BIG HUGS.


Sent by thought transference

You do not deserve all the shit that happens to you. It must be happening because you are strong enough to deal with it. If rough shit didn't happen to you, you would never level up.

Really sorry to hear this. I hope your stepdaughter gathers herself and decides that her future is what matters to her, and then goes after it. Threatening self-harm and/or harm to others has a predictable outcome. It's not too late for her, though - I hope she decides to vote for herself in future. She can still go to college, study what she wants, and succeed. But this is so frustrating and upsetting for you - I'm sorry.

Maybe a little time with the real freaks will help get her back on the straight and narrow? Maybe dad and mum need to sort it out now and just let her come stay with you instead? Not really up with all the ins and outs of it, but the lifestyle you guys lead might be better for her anyway.

ugghhh... so sorry.