A teenager has been diagnosed with depression after she was hit with a whopping £5,000 holiday phone bill . Lauren Searle , 17 , visited Egypt with her family for eight days and mistakenly thought she had a £120 limit on her contract with O2 . But when the shop worker , from Bridgwater , Somerset , returned home she was horrified when her mother Sharon - whose name was on the contract - received a £4,908.69 bill . Distraught Lauren - whose family ca n't afford the repayments - felt so guilty about the bill she went to the doctors and was prescribed anti-depressants . Lauren Searle , 17 , pictured with her mother Sharon Searle , after she ran up a £5,000 phone bill in Egypt . Mother Mrs Searle , 51 , said : 'My daughter has had to go on anti-depressants since she got the bill . It has really affected her . 'She 's been really upset . She did n't realise that this was happening . The contract is in my name and she feels guilty . 'You do n't expect your 17-year-old daughter to be on anti-depressants . 'Lauren is really worried that we wo n't be able to pay it back and the bailiffs will be round . 'They said we can pay £100 a month . That is too much . We ca n't afford it . We could maybe afford £50 , but that would take years . I think they could do more . ' I do n't know what to do . I 've cried , I 've been angry . What the hell will I do ? The family flew to Sharm El Sheik , Egypt , for a Christmas holiday on December 22 and Lauren thought she was using the hotel Wifi to keep in touch with friends on Facebook . She was sent a text asking if she wanted to increase her bill limit to £120 - or 200mb of data - and she agreed . The family headed to Sharm El Sheik , Egypt for a Christmas holiday and Lauren chatted with her friends . Lauren , pictured with her mother and her mother 's partner Leigh ( right ) , thought her bill was capped at £120 . But when she got a second text later to say she had reached that limit , she agreed to remove the data restriction , mistakenly thinking she still could n't go above £120 . She thought the bill would be more than covered by the £200 she set aside before her holiday , so was astonished to return home to a £3,704.34 bill on January 2 . However , not all data she used on her iPhone 6 to browse the web and Facebook was included in the first bill , and it was upped to £4,908.69 on February 27 . Lauren is now taking anti-depressant citalopram every day and is nervous the bill will tear the family apart . Mrs Searle , an administrator , who was on holiday with her partner and his son , added : 'If I had known I would have told her to stop . Lauren thought she was still within the £120 . She had no idea . ' I just got an email to say the bill was £3704.34 . I was so shocked . 'They put it up in February . They said they had n't included everything in the January bill . When I rang in January saying I needed help they said 'unlucky ' . ' I was ringing them every day . How do you bill for something in January and then again in February ? ' She had set aside £200 for her bill while she was abroad , but the family now face years of paying it off . Since the huge bill was sent , O2 has slightly dropped the cost to £3,191.97 as a gesture of goodwill . A company spokesperson said : 'To help protect customers from higher costs charged by overseas networks we cap data usage at £40 . 'Customers need to tell us if they want to increase this limit and confirm to us again if they want the cap removed completely . 'We received two separate notifications from Ms Searle 's mobile asking us to do just that . 'We are clear with customers on the cost of overseas charges and would always advise customers to think carefully before choosing to remove the usage caps . '
17-year-old used phone while on holiday to chat with friends back home . The teenager was found dead in a park near his family home, just days after he had been reported missing by friends.