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Hope is Real
I had the immense pleasure this weekend of having dinner with several folks of BringChange2Mind. They’ve all changed my life – our family’s lives – in some way. The CABF team helped pull us out of the fear and confusion we felt when Tim was first diagnosed. Susan Resko, Executive Director of CABF – without…
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Shameless Request for Donations
Hi there – Tim and I are walking on team BringChange2Mind at NAMIWalk Milwaukee on May 15th. We’re walking to fight the stigma of mental illness. If you have the ability, I’d really appreciate if you could sponsor Tim. All funds raised are split 50/50 between NAMI and BringChange2Mind. Click here to go to Tim’s…
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Body and Mind: Taking a Break
I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post that my son Tim is in long-term residential treatment. He was admitted last August, and right now, his estimated discharge date is sometime during the summer of 2011. It’s incomprehensible to me that he will be gone from our home that long. I can only digest it in…
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Adopt and Abandon – the Parents
As I write this, the news is on fire with the story of Torry Hansen “returning” her seven-year-old adopted son to his birth country of Russia via one-way airline ticket. As the adoptive mom of a mentally ill child (albeit domestically), I’m interested in the story. But I’d rather blog today about the Westcotts. The…
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The Doctor Search
Someone asked me in the comments of a blog post I did on the CABF website how we found a psychiatrist who works well with us – that we feel a partnership with. It wasn’t easy. We started when Tim was four, with a neuropsychologist that said – and I quote – “I’d say he’s…
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Managing
Timothy has had rages since he was two years old. I remember the first time I realized he was raging out of frustration or anxiety – he was a tiny little thing, with a head full of brown curls. He didn’t have very much language yet; maybe a word here or there, and he was…
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Al
I couldn’t bring myself to wear pantyhose today. I just got home from saying goodbye to a friend I’ve had for nearly 17 years. A friend I’ve shared a lot of good and bad news with, good and bad times with. A friend who was so unhappy and depressed that he thought his best option…
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If We Knew Then What We Know Now…
Every once in a while, someone asks me if we knew Tim was going to have a mental illness, would we still have adopted him? It’s an interesting question. Maybe I’m just used to being asked all kinds of questions about my two youngest children, since Tom and I are white, our oldest biological child…
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Lost and Found
** I’ve been asked to be a regular blogger for the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation. Here’s my first blog post for CABF: “My best suggestion to you is to give up your parental rights to the state of Illinois.” A doctor told me that. A child psychiatrist my son Tim had been seeing for…
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A Strange Sigh of Relief
I remember the day my mom saw Jani Schofield and her parents Michael and Susan on Oprah. Jani is a beautiful young girl who suffers from childhood onset schizophrenia. Mom called me the next day, after watching the show off her DVR. I expected my mom’s tone of voice to be one of sorrow, or…