Category Archives: Mental Health

Articles relating to mental health are in this category. Typically they will fall into one of two categories. Yours, or your child’s. Yes, your mental health is important.

Mental Health – a personal struggle.

I have been struggling for a while.  It seems like some days are very dark. Snappy and snarky comebacks are my friend regardless of the context of the conversation.  So I approached my doctor about it. I talked to her about: Insomnia – the lack of ability to sleep. Loneliness. – feeling alone, yet needing to be alone and preferring the isolation that comes with being a disabled stay-at-home dad even though I spend a lot of time advocating for others and supporting families. Anxiety. – I don’t know how to describe the overwhelming panic, the racing heart, the rapid thoughts and their impact on life. Fear. – of my son. and that he might attack me with a shovel again. Memory issues. – forgetting things, remembering things that didn’t happen…  conversation issues. So I am not crazy. Not in the traditional sense.  I underwent a battery of tests with

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Fifteen Days Post FASD Camp

So fifteen days ago David had the opportunity to attend FASD Camp.  Summer camp. The day I dropped him off, I snapped a selfie of the two of us. Minutes after snapping this photo, he was off meeting new friends with the same disability that he has. The Disability Yes. My son has a disability.  You can’t tell it by looking at him.  That disability is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).  It is not the only one he has, but it is the focus of this post. We learned last winter of this camp called fasdcamp.  It is just for kids with FASD. Thus began the process of applying for camp which began before he came home from care in January. In mid-April, we learned that he had been accepted. This was after a rather lengthy telephone conversation with the camp medical director about David’s condition.  See, they want to

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Symptoms v. Behaviors

Symptoms. Behaviors. What is the difference when you are speaking about a child? Since, I like to be clear what I am talking about, let’s go to the dictionary site merriam-webster.com to see what they say about the word symptom. Definition of symptom 1 a : subjective evidence of disease or physical disturbance; broadly : something that indicates the presence of bodily disorder b : an evident reaction by a plant to a pathogen 2 a : something that indicates the existence of something else symptoms of an inner turmoil b : a slight indication : trace Then we look to meriam-webster.com to see what they also have to say about the word behavior. Definition of behavior 1 : the way in which someone conducts oneself or behaves (see behave 1) We were grateful for the gracious behavior of our hostess. The children were rewarded for good behavior. Be on

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