Homeschooling?

My son is 15 years old. He has always been anxious and the last 2 years has also battled depression. He has always been a loner and kept to himself. This past December he began getting debilitating migraines with dizziness (vestibular migraines). The florescent lights in the school and all of the loud commotion just made them worse so while trying to get him better he has been doing his work at home and turning it in. Still enrolled in school but not going. Well a bigger issue has evolved. His anxiety has turned into agoraphobia. The only place I can get him to go out of the house is to doctors appts and even they are tough to get him to. He spends most of his days locked up in his room only to come out to eat with us. We have been working with a psychiatrist and he is in the process of changing his meds to a different antidepressant that will also hopefully help with some of the anxiety. We are currently seeing his psychologist twice a week. It just seems that he needs more intensive therapy. The next step is outpatient intensive therapy for 4 hours a day which is going to be very hard for him. My question comes with the next school year. Is it more detrimental to home school him- will it just make his problems worse? I am just worried that we are going to be in the same place next year and his school is not going to allow him to continue on like this. I am heartbroken that this is happening to my son and cry daily for him. I miss him. I miss his smile. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Blessings.

Hello.

I understand your dilemma. It can be detrimental for your son to be homeschooled since he won't be facing his agoraphobia. At the same time though, if he gets debilitating physical symptoms while at school, it makes it hard to justify him going when he can't function properly over there.

For agoraphobia, I suggest talking to his doctors about desensitization therapy. I took it myself when I had agoraphobia and the various steps I went through allowed me to be able to go from a total hermit to being able to go into supermarkets and shops so I can buy what I need.

If your son does need to stay homeschooled due to physical ailments, he should receive the proper help. The danger with his agoraphobia is letting it fester for too long, unchallenged. Over time, fears and anxieties get stronger and stronger and if he's homeschooled and not allowed to face his fears, he'll feel worse as time goes by. I'm speaking from personal experience too, as the same thing happened to me.

School itself can also be difficult for someone that is a loner and has anxiety, so there's that too.

It sounds like a difficult situation overall. What's best is to keep seeing his doctors and talk to them as much as possible about any and all concerns you might have. Get as many opinions and information as possible so you can take the best decision possible. Bottom line though is to keep your son engaged so that his agoraphobia doesn't get worse with time.

I hope this gives you a bit of insight. Like I said, I dealt with the same issue myself so I know how these things work, I was told many times by the therapists I saw