Stubborn teen

[Auntyp62]

My 18 year old grandson is an elite athlete but has lost his spark. He is in remission with ulcerated colitis and sept 2019 had blood tests taken at the hospital.just prior to lockdown my grandson received a copy of a letter sent to his doctor asking the doctor to renew his b12 and folate due to the results being low.

Results were

B12...159

Folate 2.5

Due to the pandemic this was never done. He is typical teenager, hate tablets but has taken a few. He refuses to contact doctor as he says there is nothing wrong. He is irritable and bad tempered and very down. My daughter says she can’t contact doctor as he is 18 but surely she can and the doctor only needs to say he has been checking his backdated notes. Will the doctor have to say she told him. Is this breaking confidentiality?

I feel he is jeopardising his whole future

Thank you for the rant

[fbirder]

Unfortunately low B12 can have just the psychological effects that you mention. Depression, irritability and paranoia are common symptoms. Unfortunately they are quite likely to result in the actions you describe.

I have a friend with a father who has a B12 deficiency. If he misses an injection then he decides not to bother with them as the doctors and his daughter are just nagging him because there's nothing wrong.

Your daughter should contact her son's GP. If I were her I would include a copy of this case study of something very similar (but, hopefully, worse). ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

However, there may not be a lot the doctor can do as your grandson is over 18. Writing to the doc will alert him to the problem. If things deteriorate then he might be able to do something. Knowing the history can only help.

Otherwise your daughter needs to catch her son in an upbeat mood and try to persuade him to see the doc. Maybe play on the 'getting back to sport' side of things. But it cannot sound like nagging. In his mental state he will be easily triggered if he thinks he's being nagged.

It might also be worth while your daughter seeing a psychiatrist, without son at first, to see if they have any suggestions.

I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to see somebody you love going downhill like that.

[Auntyp62 in reply to fbirder]

Thank you for taking the time to answer. Things have moved on today and his parents instead of asking him to get help have now challenged him saying go to doctors or get private test just to prove to them and others that he is right and doesn’t have a problem. Hopefully this will be carried out soon

[fbirder in reply to Auntyp62]

I hope it goes well.

[flosslechops in reply to Auntyp62]

yes,I hope it goes well too

[flosslechops]

my eldest son too has suffered terribly with depression and wouldn't take tablets-I eventually got the better you b12 spray and he will use that ,recently I have persuaded him to take folate and because it is clearing up the cystic acne on his back and chest he is continuing to take it but I understand your frustration as for a few years he didn't want to listen to me

[Auntyp62 in reply to flosslechops]

He has better you spray but does not use it and yes he has acne as well........too stubborn for his own good. Thanks for the reply, good to know there are others just as stubborn.lol