17 year old daughter failing school/bedwetter/liar/confussed

[gklarson]

We have a daughter who is 17 years old and has seemed very inmature has extreme trouble completeing school work but when she does complete,the work and turns it in carries a easy "A" she loves to read.  Has read all the books in connection to the Twilght Movie.  
She has wet the bed almost every night since she came to live with us 4 years agao and her father says she has always been a bedwetter all her life.  We had her checked out with our doctor and found her ok and so we try to prevent bedwetting with limiting liquid intake after certain time each day and teach her to get up out of urine filled bed to clean and change her beding.  but she will lay in it all night even if she wakes up to find that she has peed.  We have tried all avenues to get her to clean up the mess but she hides her pee clothes and lies everyday about it and we at a loss at what to do.  She has a number of problems in behavior she lies almost everytime she address me or her dad and very often to teachers and school officals.  She has walked home from school just last week and said she got confused and lost and wasn't sure where to go I am very worried about her and fear her just showing up lost one day.  

[Linzer]

Not that I am an expert on this subject but I wet the bed when I was younger and didn't stop until I was a teenager. I was never great at school but somehow managed to scoot by unnoticed. After high school graduation I went to a community college until my grades were good enough for exceptance into a large university- which I graduated from and went on to have a fufilling career and a wonderful family. The reason I'm writing this is because things do turn around. Drawing too much attention to the bedwetting can actually make it worse in my oppinion. I think there is an emotional aspect to it that your daughter doesn't have control over. My parents took me to every expert across the state and never came up with a solution. If you read about enuresis one of the things you will find is hiding clothes and sheets is all part of it- not sure why- I think for me it was shame and embarassment. Good luck! If you have not found a medical reason for the bed wetting I bet your daughter will outgrow it soon.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

It would be prudent to arrange an evaluation for her with a mental health clincian. You might also consider some testing, such as a neuropsychological evaluation. While she is undoubtedly intelligent, there may be some learning obstacle that accounts for her uneven school performance. What treatments have been attempted to address the nocturnal enuresis?