Kate

> I hope my answers have been helpful...
>
> Kate
>
>
Yes, Kate......and THANKS.
{{{{{{{{{{{{{Kate & dd}}}}}}}}}}}}
> I
>think your willingness to be open in discussing the issues will be of great
>benefit in coping. And I must say, I'm impressed with your dd's level of
>insight to realize her feelings and behavior were beyond what's usual for
>most people.

Thanks :)
Actually I owe that to my daughter as well, ever since she has found herself with the help of medication, she wants to talk...to anyone who will listen, its like we have discovered this new , wonderful, happy and brilliant child with so much to say, and she is learning to talk for the first time. If you let her she'd stop you in the store to tell you how wonderful life can be when your not going out of your mind LOL. So I have taken a cue from her. She is fond of saying "Mom if just ONE person gets it, gets how incredible their life truly is because I'm running my mouth, its worth all the people just staring at me like I'm nuts" She went a long time feeling like she was speaking a completely different language that no one else could comprehend, and now she is feeling like part of the human race.

>Now for more complete disclosure on my part.....
>My father was diagnosed with mild shizophrenia in his early twenties. He
>was in the army, and apparently the rigorous, tight schedule and 'lack of
>choice' (IMO) probably triggered his first 'episode'.


My Mother is undiagnosed, and its unlikely she will ever seek help. Simply learning to understand my daughter and how she is suffering has been extremely helpful to me in coming to terms with many things about my own childhood and growing up with a parent that possibly suffers from this.



>Now I wonder what level of risk my children have. I
>sometimes wonder whether my 10 yr old's moods are just
>typical....or....indicative ?
>

Honestly I'm of two minds on this kind of thing...Like I said I avoided all discussion and any intruding thought that there was some mental illness, thank god my daughter was able to reach out, many arent....

On one hand I know from experience the rush there is in our society to label EVERYthing as some kind of disorder....so it was quite unacceptable to me that I should even for a moment stop to think something is wrong that the right atmosphere or enough love or enough freedom or something else ...wouldnt fix. On the other hand...if you did read up on the info I sent to you, and other things...if you think your child is suffering...and suffering this truly is...The BEST thing to do for the whole family is to atleast have her evaluated. All children have different moods, my child didnt just have different moods, my child was in a serious form of HELL and the only way out was help or death, and she would have gladly accepted either exit...trust me.

> I don't know, but I hope I've got the heart
>to live with this illness again if it's presented to me.
>Susan

I have faced three seriously life altering situations in regards to my children in the last 14 (almost 15) years. I truly believe that we are handed nothing we cant handle, but it sure helps to have eachother along the way. I've got some pretty decent resources :) If your interested let me know. Feel free to email me offlist too, about anything.

Kate


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