Gabrielle

I'm so glad I'm not a teenager in this day and age. I think being a teen now is so much more difficult. Gabrielle has really been struggling lately. She's been angry, emotional, sad, you name it, and this is all on the same day. Her grades have been slipping and we had attributed this to her being too wrapped up in her new "boyfriend". I use the word boyfriend very loosely. She sees him at school and at our house. He's a smart kid and an outsider. He's had a tough upbringing but he's finally away from his abusive dad. We have a friendship with his mother and she has been over to our house. From Gabrielle's perspective he is the only one that understands her and she can be herself with. The real problems came when she started becoming a little obsessive. She wanted to see him all the time, talk to him for hours on the phone and on the computer. So of course we stepped in and put a stop to it. She could see him at our house one time on the weekend and talk to him 20 minutes a day on the phone. So we became the bad guys and she stopped communicating to us. Then we got her grades and they were pretty bad. All her teachers commented that she is unmotivated and has stopped trying. We then told her no more Alex, phone or computer until her grades got better.
We sat down with her last night and really had a heart to heart. She resisted at first (how in the world could we ever understand her?), but finally gave in and broke down. We knew it was coming. She's been in a downward spiral lately. She basically feels likes she's drowning, nobody understands her, she can't please everybody, the list goes on and on. Her anxiety is really taking over and she can't breathe. She's a very sensitive girl and has a hard time pretending. She feels things deeply and when kids are mean to her, she breaks down. She told us that she pretty much cries all the time. She kept on saying that all she wants is to be happy. School is definitely stressing her out. As she was talking, my heart was breaking for her. George had some great insights into the situation and I think after our talk she realized that we really do love her and want the best for her.
We are going to start her back on anti-anxiety medicine. It think once her anxiety is lowered, she will be able to cope a bit better. Please pray for her. She's extremely fragile right now so we are treading lightly.