We moved out of the Charleston, SC area a little over a year ago due to the rising crime in our neighborhood. We found a nice home in a nice neighborhood near my older daughter and her family. Since my older daughter is a nurse and lives in Lexington, SC, I thought it would be a good place to relocate. She loves it here and the schools appeared to be good and a heck of a lot better than Charleston.
It has been a year now and my youngest daughter who is 11 years old did well in her new school. She was diagnosed with ADHD and has been on Strattera since the second grade. This year she entered middle school. I wasn't prepared for what was about to take place.
Jessica began wearing black clothes shortly after the beginning of school in the sixth grade. No big deal, a lot of kids do. Well, she began wearing all black and wearing clothes with skull and cross bone symbols. She also began getting interested in death and anything to do with tribal rituals like you see on National Geographic Channel and Explorer. Her facination also moved towards the Goth scene.
I began monitoring her activities online more closely, not that I did not already. I found a site called Gaiaonline.com which apparently was originally designed for teens, but as with all other sites of the sort, it has turned into a haven for all types of weirdos searching to prey on children.
I found the profile of a young man on her page which lead to his page and profile where I found a picture of someone's wrist which was cut with a razor and bleeding. I called her in and questioned her and found that she was wearing a sleeve on her left arm which was left over from a Halloween costume. I made her pull it off and found self inflicted heavy scratches all over her arm.
Jessica's mother and I sat down and talked to her about this. She promised she would not do it again. We restricted her access to the site , but did not want to shut her off completely as most of her schoolmates had profiles as well and for the most part it was OK. We would not allow her online unless we were there to monitor, though.
The next Saturday I again checked her arm when I discovered her wearing the sleeve again. This time her arm was marked with a black marker in multiple places. I discussed this with her again and we discussed punishment if it continued or possibly talking to a counselor. I checked her arm every day after that.
The following Friday her mother called me at work to say she found bloody tissues in Jessi's bathroom and called the school to see if she was alright. Jessi said she was fine and had a nose bleed before leaving for the bus. Jessica has nose bleeds quite frequently during the winter when the air is dry. The doctor said it's because she uses a fan constantly and it dries out her sinus tissue.
Jessi's mom works weekends and I stay home with her. That morning I was double checking the parental controls on the computer and discovered a remark she had placed on someone's comment section of their profile. She said her arm was messed up.
When Jessica woke up I called her and sure enough, she was wearing the sleeve again. When she pulled it up there were about 30 to 40 cuts from a pair of scissors on her arm. I was shocked! That was where the bloody tissues came from.
Jessica and I went to see a child psychologist today. After talking to the psychologist she told me Jessica needed to see a psychiatrist because Jessica did not appear to exibit any of the symptoms which are normally associated with this sort of problem. She said Jessi was in total denial there was any problem at all.
We are currently awaiting a call from the mental health association in our county to see if there are any other cases of this sort of thing with a child so young and to have her refered for more help.
Jessica calls herself an EMO. I urge all parents to get familiar with this term. You might want to see what sites your children frequent as well and just have a look around this Gaiaonline site. Just Google this profile http://www.gaiaonline.com/profiles/?u=10317591 and it will get you in. You won't have access to everything unless you make a profile yourself, but you will get an idea of what I mean.
