Help needed re: false accusation

My daughter, who tried to kill herself last Saturday, was being treated for depression. In talking to her and the psychiatrist I think she is suffering from PTSD and was molested. She describes the person in her memory as her stepfather but the situation she describes is impossible as he was not in her life then. Could she be remembering inaccurately? How do the memories come back? And how will she be able to recover if the memories are incomplete?

I think that it would be best to just continue seeing the psychiatrist with regard to this. I am not the most tactful/knowledgeable when it comes to PTSD, but I don't think any answer a user gives here is going to be accurate. It would just be speculation. I'm sure that the psychiatrist knows how to approach this, and the best that you can do is encourage your daughter to continue seeing him/her.

What were the events that led up to the suicide attempt anyway? She must have a long history of problems, right?; or was this a surprise for you?

Kevin

You are right. It is not up to me to sort out her memories. I know that these things take time but it is scarey/frustrating. Her health has only been bad for about six months.

Then patience is what is needed, but I know how difficult that is to be that way (i.e. patient). These things just take a long time. IT can be difficult for a person to open up to another family member too, by the way, and you should try to be more a general support for her, rather than ever trying to be her at-home therapist/counsellor. It's ironic that people are like this (i.e. they cannot open up to those closest to them), but that's just the way it is apparently.

Look after yourself, and your daughter,
Kevin

You are absolutely right and thank you for your patience with me. As a mother I want the best for my daughter. I've got to stop posting on and reading this forum because I have to concentrate on just looking after myself and her and letting the doctors do their jobs. She has a very thorough psychiatrist and her family doctor inside her head...she doesn't need me there too! I want to thank everyone for their insight and wish everyone the best.

...Just acknowledging what you said, my friend, and I want to wish you good luck.

take care,
kevin

Look, you never know he may have been in her life then. Chances are her memories are so foggy that she is assuming who the person is due to lack of clarification in memory, maybe the person was like her stepfather. Well, anyway about how the resurfacing of traumatic memory actually resurfaces is different for everyone some people will after years get memories back in big huge clarifying chunks and some get memories back in fragmented, foggy, confusing bits.