Tag: mental health
-
It’s Okay To Keep Walking Away…A Letter To My Middle School Aged Kids
Dear O & K, Yesterday, I watched you both walk away from me and toward your middle school. Together you walked for the first time toward a shared experience that is all yours and not at all mine. As you walked away I was reminded of another time I watched you walk away from me,…
-
Head, Heart & Hating…Why Parenting is HARD!
Fair warning – I doubt that this is a legitimate and coherent blog post. It’s likely going to be more of a brain dump. But a brain dump that will make my heart feel better. So that’s a good thing. Right? This parenting thing? I am so not enjoying it right now. I actually kind…
-
Finding His Voice
When describing our son, my husband often will talk about his incredibly strong “justice meter’. Our boy feels deeply and intensely. There is right, and there is wrong. There is fair and there is unfair. There is equity and there is inequity. And he will always point it out. If the injustice is one toward…
-
The Year of Possiblity
I almost didn’t write this blog post. I intended to write it on January 1st…but I was seriously dragging and since I am trying to be better about listening to my body and self-care, I didn’t write it that day. Then I thought I would write it while we were in Mammoth this past week. There…
-
Lessons from a Ghost of Christmas Past
We had a truly great meeting with my son’s psychiatrist yesterday. For the first time in the 18 months he’s been under the care of this doctor, my son actually looked him in the eye while he was speaking. And he smiled. And he laughed. And it was amazing. It’s still not a place he’d…
-
October 10th…World Mental Health Day…Also My Son’s Birthday Eve
On this day in 2005, I was 37 weeks pregnant. It was one of those 90+ degree October days we sometimes get in Southern California, and when I entered the doctor’s office for a routine weekly checkup I can remember the receptionist asking me if I had walked up the stairs because I was apparently…
-
The “Aha” Moment
About 10 months ago, we made the decision to start my son on medication to help manage his anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. Since then the type of medication has changed, an additional medication has been added, and the dosage on both has been increased several times. It’s been a process. At the beginning of…
-
If Not Here, Then Where?
I’ve lost count of the number of hours I have spent in the waiting rooms of doctors, therapists, and specialists in the past 2 years. I would wager that the total number is well into the hundreds. Hour, upon hour, upon hour has ticked away while I sat waiting for my son. Some of those…
-
Once Upon A Time…
Once upon a time, there was a 10 month old baby boy who took his first assisted steps up and down the aisle of a church during Vacation Bible School week. The hands he held were those of a sweet little girl who would grow up to be one of his favorite baby sitters, as…
-
It’s Not a Phase…and 4 Other Things I Want People To Know About My Son’s Anxiety and Panic
I get it. People mean well. They are trying to be sympathetic and make us all feel better. Anxiety disorder and panic disorder are big, scary, frightening ideas. Nobody wants to know that somebody they know is struggling with something like anxiety and panic, especially not when that somebody is a child. So out of a desire…
We're All A Little Broken 