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A mother in rural Jamaica is at her wits' end as her daughter is fighting what feels like a losing battle against mental illness.

Vaunett said that her daughter was a quiet, well-mannered child who was among the top five students in her class at high school. But in 2020, during the onset of the pandemic, she said the girl, now 17, began acting strangely.

"About four months now mi stop give her the meds because it is not helping. It a make she get worse and more aggressive. She nah talk unless yuh go to hold her and then she will just start cuss," she said. Vaunett said that her daughter does not even acknowledge whenever she is feeling pain. The distraught mother has sought both medical and divine intervention.

"I bring her to several churches and they are saying it's evil spirits and they pray for her and all of that, but she still aggressive. Is yesterday (Monday) she kick offa mi. Sometimes she look like she a come around and a next time she just gone really wild," she added. She recalled the moment when she started seeing a difference in her daughter's behaviour.

"I used to do housekeeping so I used to come in on weekends. I left her with her father and siblings and all of a sudden, I noticed she start walk and talk to herself and a laugh. She started tell us about places where she claimed she went but we know she never went there. She start say her head nuh feel right and dem tings deh," she said.

Vaunett said doctors told her that her daughter was suffering from anxiety and depression. But she insists that the medication she was given did not help and that her child's condition worsened.

"It got so bad where her eyes seem twisted in her head. She was looking wild and I started crying and mi start wonder if a evil spirit a trouble her. Mi bring her back to the doctor and she got the same diagnosis. Mi daughter start tell mi say she can't remember anything that in her book, suh mi start wonder if something wrong with her brain," she said.

Determined to find out the root of issues, Vaunett said she started doing her own research on the Internet. Several blood tests and brain examinations all came back normal.

"I do not know what happen to my daughter. I don't know if it's just stress because she don't drink or smoke. The way mi want to get to the root of it, mi all carry her go doctor to find out if she was sexually molested and nuh talk and that was not the case. We are doing everything we can," she said.

Vaunett said that to her knowledge, there is no history of mental illness in her family, and all she wants is for the youngest of her seven children to have a good shot at life.

"Lawd Jesus, I am stressed out to the point where it nuh normal. Mi all move and live elsewhere because I was wondering if it's the environment, or she needed a change of scenery, but nothing works. I have stopped working just to take care of her. I am putting it out there that if anyone out there can help her, to just please do. I don't know what else to do," she said.

Psychiatrist Dr Geoffrey Walcott said that based on studies, there has been an increase in mental issues among young people during the pandemic.

"Most studies have indicated that directly from the COVID infection, there is a 30 per cent prevalence of mental illnesses," he said. Walcott said he had a similar case to the teen in which the patient did not respond to the prescribed medication for about two years, but the symptoms spontaneously resolved later.