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 can'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 didn't realise that this was happening. The contract is in my name and she feels guilty. 'You don't expect your 17-year-old daughter to be on anti-depressants. 'Lauren is really worried that we won'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 can't afford it. We could maybe afford £50, but that would take years. I think they could do more. 'I don'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 couldn'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 hadn'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 . After Christmas break, family returned home to find huge bill waiting . Phone company have reduced amount slightly - but it still tops £3,000 . Mother says they cannot pay and teenager has been put on medication .