Uma adolescente em situação de sofrimento emocional: a busca espontânea por ajuda em um serviço de saúde mental

This study aims to present the case of a socially and familiarly vulnerable adolescent who spontaneously attended a mental health service. This case study with a 15-year-old teenager was based on three interviews at different appointments. At the first time, it was performed an open interview, with a script of semi-structured questions. In the second one, a photographic album of her family and her experiences was built to punctuate the young woman's moments and memories. In the third appointment, the lifeline technique was applied. It consisted of a participant's lifeline, marking the positive and negative points of her trajectory. The 15-year-old teenager is actually in the ninth year of elementary school and at the first meeting she reported being  lesbian. She attended the Municipal Mental Health Service in a rural city at the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, in July 2020. With parents divorced, she has randomly lived with her grandmother or mother along each stage of her life. Her mother then left home five months ago and lives in another brazillian state with her girlfriend. The adolescent had traumatic events in her life: family disorder, domestic violence, lack of support, absent family reference, sexual abuse, self-mutilation, and even attempted suicide. This study shows that family structure is very important in the lives of young people, as the lack of support impairs their healthy development and growth. The young woman's family did not allow her full development and acted as a risk factor for her emotional suffering, as it did not provide a good biopsychosocial development, or qualified professional support that could help her in understanding her needs and faceing the problems.