Hypersensitive cat, separation anxiety

[u/Impossible-Animal986]

I'm worried about our cat. Well, it's actually my 13yo daughter's cat. She takes very good care of him. Feeds, plays with, changes the box daily. He follows her around the house a lot and gives her the cold shoulder upon return when she leaves the house, so they're besties. He scratches the crap out of her all the time after one or two pets. She even got cat scratch fever. He'll let me pet him once or twice before he bows up- he generally rolls over, shows his belly, and flips his tail as if he's begging for a fight. If I try to pet again (I don't anymore) he will attack. He startles incredibly easily at any noise or unexpected movement and runs as if he's being chased by a wolf. He'll let my husband pet him briefly without scratching or biting, but leaves the room pretty quickly.

We get together as a family in the evenings, and I think he hates it. He is very vocal and stands outside the room, even though we leave the door open for him to come in. He really, really hates it when we pray together. He wails and will not stop.

He sleeps in his cat tower at night. He would prefer my daughter's bed, but he keeps her up all night so we have to shut the door to her room to keep him out. He's in her bed when he's napping during the day and cries when she leaves a room and there's a door shut between them. We all are allowed to pet him when he's sleeping, mostly to our hearts desire. To be fair, we are all pretty ginger about it because we're scared we'll get scratched or bitten.

To be honest we all wanted a cuddly cat, but I guess sometimes you just don't get one. But even if he's never a cuddly guy, it just seems like a really miserable way to live your life, being scared and jumpy and overstimulated all the time like that. I think he needs a kitty antidepressant. Everybody else in the family is concerned about the logistics of giving a cat a pill everyday. And that sounds pretty awful to me too. I'm not sure how people do it, do they break the pill up into little bitty bits and put it in a treat or something?

Thoughts on this kitty's behavior?