More Trish. I reckon there are millions of mothers who want to put it in the too-hard basket! Who can blame you, you really do put your entire heart and soul into your kids, so when you can see them struggling and you've tried everything that you know to do and it still isn't helping, where do you go from there? I wish I had a magic answer for you!

Spring has given a great suggestion, I've heard of others that have done a sport or martial arts and it really helped lift depression and give self esteem.

I was thinking about you and Brandon this morning and remembered back to when I was his age. It's that age where you are hitting puberty and you start becoming more aware of the reality of life. My parents divorced when I was 3 1/2 and my dad had very little to do with us kids, he moved to a different state and we barely saw him. I held out hope for years that he really loved me and wanted me and one day he would come and rescue me (my mum was wonderful btw, but I was a little girl who just needed her daddy). When I was 14 it just dawned on me one day that my dad didn't really want me (he didn't) and he never had. I think I'd finally gotten to an age where the penny dropped and it hurt really bad. I felt a lot of anger and hate and I went into a dark depression. I rebelled in my own way (I was pretty tame at rebelling LOL) for a couple of years. It took an older friend who was a trusted mentor to speak to me and helped guide me out of my depression. I never went back after that.

I'm sorry if I've bored you with my own personal story! I just was thinking about your son and realised he's around the same age as I was when I went through a rough patch. I have no idea of his situation with his own dad and it probably isn't even similar, but not having your parents together can really affect you. Even if it is better off not to have both parents together (my mum was MUCH better off without my dad!), it still affects kids.

Anyway, I'm not much help, but I just thought it might help you to know that it is most likely an age thing and that with the right guidance (maybe martial arts, a sport, a close friend, etc...) he can change his path. All you can really do is just continue to love him and be the stable parent in his life. He will always remember that and will have a great deal of respect for you (even if he doesn't show it right now).