My teen sister isn't herself, depression or something more?

[alexb9045]

(This is quite long, so forgive me)

For the past week now my sister, who is sixteen years old (we are the same age), has been going through a mental struggle of some sort. We were up north in US on a roadtrip when this first happened, as of now, we are back home.. but things, have gotten worse.

So she's always been very quiet, my brother and I are quiet, generally introverted people, but she was more so. She would sit outside all day, meditating, staring, and then, by day's end, she would come inside and do the same. What differed between her and my family was that she didn't share the same interests as my brother and I. We played video games, watched the same TV shows, read certain books. In school she was always more occupied, and that was good, but to me, she didn't do much else other than keeping her grades up, which was expected from each of us. I know she did things, I often spotted books that she read in the house, which were about spiritual topics; miracles, energy, crystal healing.. chakra, astrology. She is into these things, she believes in them I think. But as time went on, she was reading a lot less too. She never touched her phone, never touched her laptop. Didn't interact with much.

In the past year she had become very spiritual, I wasn't sure if it was religious, maybe it partially was, but she didn't talk much about it. The only times she talked was to my mom, and this was often in private  flustered moments of exchanged emotion. She was very defensive as I understood, often thinking my mom was out to criticize what she was into. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Earlier this year, about four to five months ago she had some pseudo seizures which the doctors say were emotional but those soon stopped after a couple of weeks and didn't appear after that.

I should mention that it is clear we both have anxiety and are not very social, so it is possible that she was depressed before the problem, but I don't clearly recall her saying it explicitly.
..

But, I will get on to what worries me. Right now, where she is now, my parents are hovering over her like a toddler, a child. She seems so disconnected from everything, so rarely will she respond to a question you ask. Her sleeping patterns are irregular, and sometimes she doesn't sleep through the night at all (she has sleeping pills from a previous ER visit, from the beginning of all this), and I have often seen her walking through the halls at night, waving her hands in some energy trance or muttering incoherently. She talks to herself, she shouts out phrases and questions that are unbalanced from ongoing conversations that my parents try to initiate. When she speaks, she makes references to mythological gods, such as Gaia. A few days ago she was speaking, "Gaia? Gaia? Gaia?" very frequently. She was talking more then, speaking in ways we didn't understand, which didn't relate- but at least she was talking more.

Right now she is more silent, almost violent in her speaking, she seems angry. I've heard her slur out curse words, direct anger towards my mother, and we think, possibly subtly pointing the middle finger at some of us, but we don't know because it is very similiar to her energy hand signs (which I have very limited knowledge of). She is actually very compassionate, and before all this, really more gentle and fragile than the rest of us, goofy, funny..

At her worst, you can only touch her to get her to follow you. We left the car once and had to come back to get her because she hadn't responded at all. It is so difficult to get her to eat and drink sometimes and it makes my mom cry. Just a couple days ago she was drooling wide-eyed and blank faced across the dinner table, she didn't mind it at all, so my parents had to wipe her chin and pester her to eat. The staring is the worst part, her pupils seem so dilated all the time. We know she isn't on drugs and there is nothing wrong with her physically, except for being somewhat underweight (this was cleared in the hospital, they did scans). Often she'll be laughing one moment and crying the next, which we think is a clear sign that she is depressed..

Now, she had been in the ER while we were on vacation for two days, but now that we're back home she seems worse. She seems to be growing more violent and more silent, and when she does speak it doesn't make any sense, deluding to mythological references. Earlier today she said, "Please, all of you, could you just tell me I'm a demigod?" I was the only one around and I told her she wasn't, in which she replied something incoherent. I don't know if that was the right thing to say, but I am slowly growing more agitated and saddened as this drags on.

The soonest we could get physiological help was an appointment in a few days, and even so, I wonder if it will be enough. We haven't sought professional help before, but I feel she is so far down the rabbit hole right now that maybe, possibly, she can't be helped. I really hope this isn't the case.

The only good thing I can say is that in some peak moments she has told my mom to help her eat three meals a day, to help her keep her body healthy. She asks for help to be herself, to meet the physical reality. The last time she said this was maybe a day or more ago, but the time since, she has shown very little interest in self-care except for wanting to eat sometimes or accepting food that is given. I do think she wants to be better when she can say it, but most of the time, she is just so disconnected..

I know this is a bit complex but we did hear the doctors mention clinical depression, but I've wondered if it is more, considering we cannot communicate with her. Everything feels different now, the entire atmosphere of the house. It is all about watching her, making sure she doesn't hurt herself or someone.. So, I don't know if this is worth it, and this may be the wrong category, but if anybody finds this familiar or knows anything that can be done and hasn't been, it would really be appreciated. We just got back and town and we haven't seen a doctor here yet. Thank you.