Belated update

So, the meeting with the lawyer never happened. Two hours before our appointment, the law office called to say that the 16-year veteran we were to meet with would not be able to make it, but the 5-year newbie could talk with us. Same price, of course. We cancelled.

We then tried to find another lawyer, followed a couple of references, only to find that no one we found really wants a case like this and one even went so far as to end with a parting shot of, "I don't know what to tell you, but you know, she is your child." Thanks! Thanks for your unsolicited, uneducated opinion about a case in which you know nothing. We are going back to the first one and waiting until she is available again.

In the meantime, we signed up to take some parenting training, and today we went to an assessment at a local psychiatric hospital for intensive outpatient therapy. The drag is that it is three hours a night, four nights a week for 5 weeks and we must attend two nights a week. Nobody ever cares about the rest of the family, the impact of such a schedule, just the "best interest of the child." There is more cost associated with this, of course, and the first part of the intake is all about the money. The intensive therapy will consist of group family therapy with yet another therapist--not a psychologist, or psychoanalyst, another therapist. I am a bit burned out. No - that is an understatement. I am beyond cynical at this point. They have an uphill battle to overcome and I know that this will suck beyond all other options we have tried. Maybe a year ago I would be more open to this, but the system and her behaviors have worn me out.

The intake person kept us waiting in a dark, silent waiting room for 45 minutes, without any communication before our intake began. We got off to a rough start, to say the least.

I am also meeting with a couple tomorrow night who know all about reversals in this county and who want to consult us and provide us with names and possible resources. It may seem schitzophrenic to be pursuing therapy and a lawyer or reversal at the same time, but I need some kind of progress to start happening, one way or another. I don't want to waste another year of my family life with no progress. Either we will get help or we will get out.

I guess what is really destroying me is that we had nothing but the child's best interest for so many years, only to be denied help, to be dismissed as having no real problems since she isn't suicidal or homicidal, to be accused of being the root of the problem, to having a therapist suggest that I be medicated. The root of the problem is her disorders which NO ONE has really addressed. They've either drugged, dismissed, or blamed.