I recently joined NAMI and took a wonderful class called NAMI Basics designed for parents and caregivers of children with or at risk for developing a mental illness. It was a wonderful class with tons of information and support, like our forum only live and in person! The president of our local NAMI chapter asked me to help her come up with ideas to reach the parents of young children struggling with mental illness. I thought of some places that we could offer flyers like the psychiatrist/therapist offices, Mental Health Association, fostercare and adoption unit of DSS, school counselor's, etc... I then realized that there have been NAMI pamplets at our psychiatrists office the entire time that I've been taking difficult child. I've even read it a few times. Why hadn't I joined sooner? I realized that until recently, I did not consider difficult child to be mentally ill. Not that I was against the term, it is just that no one ever said it to me. difficult child had a behavior problem. The school uses the terms behaviorally challenged and emotionally disturbed but never said mentally ill. difficult child's diagnosis was ADHD for years despite the fact that he had a terrible reaction to stimulants and was being treated with bipolar medications. It wasn't until I needed the information on a form to help get services for difficult child that the psychiatrist officailly diagnoised bipolar disorder. Even at the psychiatric hospital, no one used the word mentally ill. It wasn't until I was absolutely overwhelmed by difficult child's behaviors and made a desperate call to the adoption unit of DSS for answers. They suggested I call 211 which got me in touch with the Mental Health Association. I got hooked up with some behavioral intervention programs offered by a program that serves the mentally ill population in our area. Duh, it hit me, difficult child was mentally ill. I never realized it despite the psychiatrist, therapist, psyciatric medications, and psychiatric hospital visits. I'm really not stupid, it's just that people used terms like behavioral issue, mood disorder, emotional problem and never said mentally ill. Because of this, I never went looking for help in this area sooner. Our school system refused to hand out copies of a booklet published by NAMI entitled Parents and Teacheres as Allies to appropriate students because they did not want to insinuate to parents that their child was mentally ill. Why is it a bad thing? In googling a list of metal illnessess I came up with the following:
Anxiety
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Bipolar Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder
Dissociative Disorders
Dual Diagnosis and Integrated Treatment of Mental Illness and Substance Abuse Disorder
Eating Disorders
Major Depression
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD))
Panic Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Schizoaffective Disorder
Schizophrenia
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Suicidal Ideation
Tourette's Syndrome
These conditions vary in degree or severity and I'm sure there are other conditions included in the term mental illness that are not listed above. Yet, when I thought of mentally ill, I thought of crazy. I thought metally ill people were not able to function in society. That identifying a mentally ill person was obvious by there outrageous behaviors. Now I realized that this is not the case and there are many mentally ill individuals that mange their illness and function very well. I still have trouble describing my son as mentally ill to family members because of the negative connotation of the term. I hope that in time, public awareness will help develop a more accurate portrayal of mental illness and parents wil be able to seek out the severices offed by NAMI and local mental health agencies without negative stigma.
Do you feel that your child is mentally ill?
Can you think of ways to reach parents in the local community struggling with difficult child?
Christy
Anxiety
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Bipolar Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder
Dissociative Disorders
Dual Diagnosis and Integrated Treatment of Mental Illness and Substance Abuse Disorder
Eating Disorders
Major Depression
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD))
Panic Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Schizoaffective Disorder
Schizophrenia
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Suicidal Ideation
Tourette's Syndrome
These conditions vary in degree or severity and I'm sure there are other conditions included in the term mental illness that are not listed above. Yet, when I thought of mentally ill, I thought of crazy. I thought metally ill people were not able to function in society. That identifying a mentally ill person was obvious by there outrageous behaviors. Now I realized that this is not the case and there are many mentally ill individuals that mange their illness and function very well. I still have trouble describing my son as mentally ill to family members because of the negative connotation of the term. I hope that in time, public awareness will help develop a more accurate portrayal of mental illness and parents wil be able to seek out the severices offed by NAMI and local mental health agencies without negative stigma.
Do you feel that your child is mentally ill?
Can you think of ways to reach parents in the local community struggling with difficult child?
Christy