- Such a comment could only come from someone who hasnt experienced what the article expressed. Otherwise you are a rude and thoughtless person in your own right. - JULIE
- I have tried walking several distances with other people. It is called empathy and along the way I have learnt a lot doing this. As I understand it from short grabs on the radio, the DSM5 also expands the category of post traumatic stress too. - ro.watson
- Medication has its place in treating mental illness. Unfortunately long term therapy is simply too expensive for most people. I go twice per week, I am out of pocket $200 per month until the medicare safety net kicks in. "Talk" therapy needs to be made more accessible and affordable. My dr charges $180 per session and believe me, that is cheap. You also need to be able to pay the bill upfront and then claim any rebates. I don't doubt that many people who need therapy are forced onto medication instead; unfortunately it's the cheaper option. Shame. Thanks to therapy I am now able to be without medication . - missjones
- So true! You took the words right out of my mouth with this article - all the things I think and say to my 21 year old daughter who somehow makes me feel as if I am the only parent on this planet who could make such impossible demands. I somehow feel so much happier in reading that I am not alone in my "old school ways". What's wrong with manners and showing that you care, I say! - liz2064xb
- ....Bonobos have a matriachal society and like sex with each other..see Wiki, and citations for animals who like "same sex"(what a put down term for everyone!!).... - ro.watson
- Big assumption Aunty Honey and gilly62. My father died when I was 7, my mother almost four years ago. Up until her death I saw her at least once every weekend and often also during the week, had dinner at her place regularly just as she did at mine. I drove her to my sister's place on the coast many times every year, thus spending numerous weekends in her company. We spoke almost daily, I was with her every day for months during her final illness and was there when she died. So no, no guilty feelings at all. So, lol all you like, but don't presume that you anything about my situation. - Sly Place
- Hi concerned....my youngest son was diagnosed at 3 with ODD. So I am very much feeling your pain. Everything you've said brings back the frustration and mental and emotional pain of being able to do nothing but just have enough energy to get through the next day....and the next, and the next. Every day is like being in a war zone where everything from getting them out of bed to eating the same as everyone else in the family is a battle to be fought and won or lost....mostly lost. It effects your marriage, your other children's life at home, your relationship with them and theirs with their sibling. It's heartbreaking to watch them not be able to have normal peer relationships, to be the child that other parents don't want their children to play with because yours is a 'bad influence'. I stopped going out for coffee because he was so disruptive, no more going to my other children's school for assembly or on excursions. He also had a severe attachment disorder and trouble sleeping. I left my husband when my son was nine because he blamed me even though we'd had an official diagnosis from one of the best children's behavioural psychological clinics in Australia. For the last twenty years we've been begging social worker's, psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health units, doctors, schools and the police for some kind of help and support but there just wasn't any. All my family are interstate, I lost my friends and any form of a support network. I read everything I could get my hands on, scoured libraries and bookshops because it helped me when I could understand some of what he was feeling, how he thought and the simple fact that his behaviour was out of his control. From the time he was about eleven the anger and violence started to escalate to the point where he was being suspended at least once a week and when he got totally out of control that he started threatening me, the police were regular visitors. I would watch as he was taken off in a paddy wagon, drive up to the police station, have a counselling session with their liaison officer and then take him home again with the words 'We wish we could help you, but our hands are tied', ringing in my ears. I was suffering severe depression and anxiety and on medication for it. I slept with the phone under my pillow with triple 0 on speed dial. I was ill for years, mentally and physically and now that he is twenty I'm left with PTSD as a result of the relentless abuse I dealt with for years by myself. And that is the main problem, the sheer relentlessness of knowing that tomorrow is going to be just as hard as today if not worse. Then there's dealing with the ignorant who think a belting and a swift kick up the arce is the answer to bring them into line, because they have no idea and don't believe children can have a Mental Illness. I wish I could offer you some answers to help you with what you're all going through, the best I can offer is my personal support as someone who has been through it to talk to. Some days, it's the thing that helps the most. I must tell you the most amazing thing a highly qualified social worker said to me in our local hospital after my son physically attacked me with a knife. She told me to "You need to relax dear, why don't you, when you get home have a nice lavender bath?"......I was beyond gobsmacked and asked her if she would like to come home and look after my twelve year old son so a could do that. "Oh no" she said, "We don't do that". Bahahahahaha! I thought, another one who has absolutely no idea how utterly bad the situation is. I don't know how but we must be able to make personal contact some how. My offer of support is real, I really do know how much you are all suffering. Take care. - Tracey
- What an awful letter. Please don't send it. - rebecca
- Gabrielle , I'm luvvin the imagery . " the Chucky Doll of benign face & dubious intent " declaring , " I'll be your friend to the end Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrgh . Watch out Jules ,he's still out there !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ". - Carole/m
- I'll second that Aunty Honey! - gilly62
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