'I was told to lock away the kitchen knives. My own daughter became a stranger': A terrifying portrait of the secret lives of today's teenage girls from a mother who went through it all - and the signs you MUST watch out for
'I was told to lock away the kitchen knives. My own daughter became a stranger': A terrifying portrait of the secret lives of today's teenage girls from a mother who went through it all - and the signs you MUST watch out for
Share:
Christie Watson started to suspect something was wrong with her 16-year-old daughter when she found her in bed, smoking cigarettes, at two in the morning. Rowan was propped up on her pillows, puffing away, when Christie stormed in, trying to find out why the house suddenly stank of smoke.
![[Christie and baby Rowan. She says she carried on loving her daughter unconditionally]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/29/16/94644861-14338767-image-m-8_1738168402768.jpg)
Rowan, who had just passed her GCSEs with flying colours, seemed not to understand what the fuss was about. To her, it was the most normal thing in the world to be wide awake in the middle of the night, chain-smoking, in the home she shared with her mother and younger brother.
Christie, a nurse turned award-winning novelist, was furious. 'I said, 'Have you lost your mind?' And all she could say was, 'Why are you so stressed? Stress is not good for you.' I thought it was bad behaviour, but looking back, I can see it was the start of something major.'.
Christie confiscated the cigarettes and put it down to teenage recklessness. But over the next few days, her previously joyful daughter was moody and snappy. A few days later, she went into Rowan's room to find she had painted a six-foot skeleton on the wall during the night. It was, notes the writer, a little bit different to the unicorns and rainbows that Rowan had previously loved to paint.
Christie Watson and her daughter Rowan have an incredibly close bond. The very next day, she received a call from Rowan's school. According to the pastoral care team, Rowan was 'manic', and when Christie arrived to pick her up, she found her daughter 'altered' – wild-eyed, fists clenched, a girl seemingly possessed.
