I have a 17 year-old son who has been mentally abused by a 16 year-old girl. Whenever he wants to be with someone else she threatens to kill herself. There were several occasions where she had a knife and started to cut herself over the phone. We called 911 and sent the police over to her house and this didn't change anything. They only know how to react to physical violence. Recently she puts some bumps on her head and showed up at my son's friend's house and accused him of beating her up! She called him out to her car and because there was a minute when they were alone, the police arrested him! This has been in the newspaper but no one has bothered to ask his side of the story or about her family violence history and pychotic behavior. Help!

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002

Answers

First of all, you shouldn't have called 911. That may have been your way out.

Second of all, this isn't "mental torture and abuse." Please don't blow it out of proportion. It is a well known fact that about 1/4 of all female teenagers are psychotic, he just got a bad one.

Bottom line, get a lawyer, file a restraining order. File police reports, even if they don't investigate, having those reports may help later (based on her calling the police and claiming he beat her up).

And finally, tell your son to stay the fuck away from her. He is 17. Where I'm from, as long as you live with your parents, they make the rules. It's time for you to lay down the law. He can't see or talk to her anymore, period.

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002