Hey Amy,
One very big thing that your sister has going for her is an obviously supportive family. You'd be surprised what a difference that can make. Something else that says there is still a lot of hope is that she doesn't want to be that way and she apologises for it.
My mum teaches 6th 7th and 8th graders with emotional and behavioral disabilites (so a similar age group to your sister). If you don't have a problem with it, I'll copy your post and e-mail it to her and see if she knows of any 'disability' type that matches some of the stuff you've written.
I know one thing that sticks in my mind, and I don't know whether mum was telling me about it or I saw it on TV somewhere or where I got it from. But there was a girl who had outbursts, similarish to your sisters (and from memory she was about the same age as your sister as well), but she got violent as well. Her parents went from doctor to doctor and specialist to specialist and everyone said basically the same things that were said to your mum. Teenagers being teenagers, or she needs more discipline etc.. But she was eventually diagnosed with turrets (not sure if I spelled that right) syndrome. It's the one that causes people to have tics. These are usually just small sounds or movements or whatnot, but they can be more obvious and worse and her tic was these yelling violent outbursts. So she couldn't help it. She didn't want to do what she was doing and she would feel horrible about it after and cry and apologise, but it was literally out of her control. I can't remember if they gave her meds or did brain surgery or something, but basically they 'fixed the problem' and she is now a 'normal' teenager living a 'normal' life.
__________________ ME 32  DH 30  #1 EDD 04/07/10  |