Here at Mental Health Notes, I try to write about happy things as often as possible.
Sure, I gripe. I’ve been known to tell off Representatives and mental health care workers I don’t know from states I’ve never been. And yes, I even poo-poo on progress for the sake of progress sometimes and roll my eyes at strangers and remind folks that – statistically speaking – stigma is stupid.
I mean, come on. I hand out A.S.S. Awards.
I admit that, when it comes to the world of mental health, there are still so many hurdles to jump. It’s enough to make a girl cranky from time to time. But, I’m not moody all the time. I have been known to spread some applause around where it’s warranted. Remember LiveJournal? Remember Boston Legal?
Remember Wentworth?!
Yeah, who could forget him.
So, now I’m asking you, lovely readers: What kind of good mental health news do you have to share? It could be anything from learning how to better manage your anger to finally finding the perfect therapist. Whatever it is, I want to hear about it, so feel free to share your happy mental health news in the comments!
Image: SXC
@ Mrs. J – Excellent! You can email me at crypticquill AT yahoo DOT com, or, alicia AT writingspark DOT com – I’ll receive it at either place.
As for a format, it doesn’t have to be anything formal – just an account of your experiences. I’ll explain it better when you email. Thanks!
I don’t know your email, Alisha. Sure, I’ll post about our experience with Amen Clinic. (Pronounced with the stress on first syllable and a long A, if anyone cares.)
If you give me a format and what you are looking for I’ll type it up.
I work in special education in a public school, and I am back to work Aug. 19th. AFter that I am soooo busy and it would be hard to do. During the summer I have off, so this is a good time to do it.
@ Mrs. J – Oh! I know someone who’d probably be really interested in the Bipolar Parents group, and I can’t find her email address for the life of me!
This Amens Clinic information is very interesting. I’ve never heard of it, but now I’m thinking about looking more into it and maybe doing a post about it. Or…*sheepish grin*….maybe you’d consider writing a guest post about Amens Clinics? If you’re interested, shoot me an email!
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/BipolarParentsT/
Sorry…here’s the link to support groups:
You are welcome!
May I suggest a wonderful online support community? The support group for parents with bipolar teens was a God send. I could vent, get sympathy, get information, and share my successes! You can go to this group’s homepage and find out how to sign up for a different group, if another one is more appropriate to your needs. It says:
“Our group has several lists to serve you:
BipolarParentsT is support parents with bipolar teens/tweens.
BipolarParents2 for parents diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.
BipolarparentsY for Parents with Pre-school and School-aged children with mental health concerns.
BipolarParentsA for Parents of college age and Adult children with Bipolar. BrighterDay for Significant Others of people with bipolar.
Bipolar Kids 2 Kids for Peer support for children with bipolar.”
I also recommend the Amen Clinics for getting diagnosis and treatment options for brain-related disorders. Lots of info. at their website, too. We took Nate there for brain scans and a treatment plan, even though the nearest clinic was 6 hours away and it took 3 days for everything to get done!
http://www.amenclinics.com/
@ Mrs. J – I want to thank you SO MUCH for sharing your family’s story here! It is truly inspirational. I think many times people become so overwhelmed with hopelessness, frustration, fear, etc. that recovery (and answers!) seems impossible. But, as you and Nate (and all your family) know, it’s certainly not impossible. Honestly, I really do appreciate how you’ve contributed to this story, and the contributions you’ve made the the conversation over at the Cymbalta post. I think they’ll both help many readers.
I’ll go first! I want to offer a story of hope.
I am married with 2 boys, now 7 and 16. When the older son (Nate) was 13 he started to become more hostile, anxious and depressed. We thought maybe this was normal for a teen. We both took a parenting course, which did help in some ways, but Nate continued to feel worse.
The family doc put him on Zoloft and told us to call a psychiatrist for a visit to be sure the med was okay for Nate. It was 8 months to get in! In the mean time, Nate didn’t tell us that he had started to hallucinate. As his anxiety increased we increased his Zoloft; he’d feel better for a while, but he’d then start to hallucinate more and be MORE anxious…etc. But Nate didn’t tell us about hallucinating!
One day at school he “wigged out” in the guidance counselor’s office. She called me at work and said Nate told her he was hearing voices and seeing things. WHAT?! I think I spent the next 6 months crying. My son lived a hellish existence, and so did we. I was so heart broken, too! What a cruel fate for him! He was diagnosed as Psychosis Not Otherwise Specified (Psychosis NOS), but the doctor thought he was schizo-affective; halfway between bipolar and schizophrenia. Johns Hopkins Hospital diagnosed him with childhood schizophrenia.
The next year and a half was hell for all 4 of us. The school district made things so bad, we had to hire a lawyer. Our finances were shot (I missed a lot of work), we were all totally frazzled and miserable 24/7. But we wouldn’t give up on our son. He ended up staying at the psychiatric ward at the hospital twice. He did a couple different day-programs for teens with psych. problems. It was so heartbreaking. But we wouldn’t give up, ever.
We dealt with some pompous and stupid doctors. One diagnosed Nate as AUTISTIC, even though I argued that he you have to have autistic behaviors by your 3rd birthday to be considered autistic, and Nate had a normal childhood. This doc also wrote in his report that Nate had been abused during his childhood and that brought on his psychosis. THAT IS SO FALSE. How absolutely insulting to me, his mother, who breastfed him, bought organic foods, limited TV, was very protective, and did the best job a mom could do! This doctor prescribed a med (Buspar) that made Nate try to jump out of windows and moving vehicles, and he would fly into rages.
I want to tell you that we took him to a lot of clinics and professionals for consultations, to leave no stone unturned. I wanted to make sure he didn’t have Psychiatric Lime Disease, or a metabolic problem instead of (or in addition to) his psychosis. It took a while, but we built a team of people to help us. We found the right child psychiatrist (who got him on the right meds), the right cognitive therapist for Nate, a behavioral consultant for us parents, got the lawyer to straighten the school out, my parents helped, and little by little things got better.
Nate was back in public school full-time for 10th grade last year, with excellent attendance. He had mostly B grades (he was mostly flunking the 2 years before that even though his IQ is in the gifted range). He never hallucinates, ever. He takes his meds on his own because he wants to feel normal and well. He has felt totally normal for a full year now, and he was 90% normal the year before that. He lost the weight he gained when he started his meds and he’s a normal weight. He has friends. He’s going to make Eagle Scout before he’s 18, and he just got his learner’s permit and is learning to drive.
No one thought Nate would make this kind of recovery, given how very unstable and ill he was. Of course we, his parents, wished for it. But we didn’t expect it. No one ever suggested to us that it could happen; that he could be totally stable and normal even with meds.
I think it’s important for parents to not give up! Keep finding the right people, the right information, until you get what you want. Keep a notebook with meds taken and the dose and what happened. Keep a list of names and people. Try to get your child Medical Assistance (MA). Bug your insurance company to pay for specialists. If your child isn’t doing well, don’t settle for the meds he/she is on. Keep asking parents to recommend facilities and check them out so that when/if your child needs to go in-patient, or to a residential facitiliy, you already know a place.
And never stop hoping.