Over a year ago, my preteen girl was diagnosed with mono or a malady very like it. It was almost impossible to wake her for school. I had to dress her like a doll and still often couldn't wake her afterward. Every day felt like the improv game of dead bodies where I had to manipulate a floppy person who was almost as tall as I am. I finally just let the school know she was not coming or coming late every morning we couldn't wake her. Summer couldn't come soon enough. Over the summer, she got better but not all the way. She showed every sign of chronic fatigue.
Recently, I called the doctor's office to get some ideas of how to help my girl through these symptoms, which still haven't faded entirely. I figured she still had the mono, which I had heard could become chronic. When I talked to the nurse and told her my perception of the situation, she suggested good vitamins and getting her walking in the sun for vitamin D. But the doctor said these symptoms are psychosomatic, that they have their root in psychology. He recommended we get a therapist and/or have her work through a kids' therapy workbook. There's no pill to fix her. There's no easy fix. And it all started with the early trauma and tragedy of losing her sister on which the trauma of a bully, of a teacher that created an emotionally damaging environment, and other life events have only built to change her from an extreme extrovert who trusted the world to an extreme introvert drained by too much "peopling."
On one level, she's done a lot of healing since her traumas. She's gained a lot of confidence and self-assurance in her gifts and abilities. On the other hand, it's hard to know how far she has to go and what being healed looks like. All I can do is be there for her, give her those workbooks the doctor recommends since she has no interest in therapists, and help her turn toward God for the healing the atonement offers.
