Well I'm in camp - I think therapy works......BUT...(and it's a big butt) It takes a LONG time, a ton of trust, and a therapist that knows his business and is truly caring, plus parents that are willing to go as well and work just as hard if not harder than the child - because after all - the child is the one with the problem. At 21 - our son will tell you that he wishes he would have stuck with therapy, and paid attention and not screwed off in it. He's talking about the individualized therapy, not the group approach. He said group was a joke. No one is going to blurt out the stuff he wanted and needed to deal with. And the therapist even told us that some stuff that angers a child to his core - may NEVER come out - or may come out at a time in a childs life when he is older and a trigger causes it to. No rhyme or reason - but my son finally has told me the cause of his - and now wishes he had someone like our therapist to process his rage with.
That doesn't mean that he doesn't have genetic pre-cursors to mood swings - but it does explain a LOT of the What in the H is wrong with you? Why are you behaving like this? What would cause you to act like this? OMG are you my child? You didn't behave like this before...and I can almost pin-point the time in his life when he changed. IT does for us -coincide with the mood behaviors, and once that started? The mood disorder snowballed, and personality took over, and attitudes rolled. And then adolescence took over and everything our therpist said came about - like it did - DID. Dude would like to continue EMDR therapy -but shut down when he was around 16 - because some of the stuff locked away in his mind at age 4 - was too painful and he couldn't deal with it. EMDR therapy literally gave me my life back. But it took years of working with the same guy which if you are or have been working in "the system" you know this is a business where phsychiatrists and therapists have a HIGH HIGH turn over rate and just about the time you tell your all to one? They move or move on, or take a different position - and you're stuck starting all over again with someone new....and after a while - especially if you're a kid? You just get to the point - if you're moved from Residential Treatment Center (RTC) to Group home to Foster care - you figure WHY bother - or like DUDE - it's a game. So he didn't take it seriously and I don't blame him. Eventually he started telling therapists stuff that was so off the wall I think they thought he was NUTS. He was playing with them. Then we found the one guy who was in a private practice, and not going anywhere..is still there - and said as long as he IS still in business if Dude ever wanted to work with him? Come on back - any age. He didn't buffalo so easy and THAT was more of a challenge for Dude than the other QUACKS. The doctor knew it too. Told him flat out -he knew what he was doing. That floored Dude and from there - at least he would go....and the days he didnt "WANT" to - We forced him to go so it would be a habit. Some people disagree with that - we didn't - it formed a pattern, habit - and became a natural course for his life. And now at 21? He'd like to see that doctor again. So FWIW? I'm for private therapy.....I've seen it work ......it may take a while for it all to BOOMERANG - (the logic of seeds planted) but if you get a good enough shrink and you work with them as parents? I think it can work very well.
My .04 cents.
Star