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Homework is difficult for most children and it’s even harder for children with ADHD. But there are ways to handle homework problems and keep the frustrations and hassles to a minimum. It’s all about planning ahead and being organized. If you start out early and set the ground rules, your child doesn’t need to endure the usual homework frustrations and problems. Keep reading
A chance meeting with the pastors of an Internet church resulted in me being given a book called “The Hallelujah Life” by Richard Propes, an Indianapolis-based children’s advocate who has paraplegia and spinal bifida. While there is some triggering material in this book due to descriptions of the sexual abuse he survived and his suicidal episodes, this is a book I can not recommend strongly enough for people with borderline personality disorder (BPD). I learned much from this 117-page book of poetry and short stories, but perhaps the most important lesson was that abuse is confusing. Keep reading
“I feel like I have AIDS man! Everybody’s scared of me!”
I recently heard these powerful words from a client who struggles with adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Keep reading
(Ed. Note: Patricia Lemoine is writing the blog while Jess Hudgens is away.)
I’ve been using my experience as an eating disorder survivor as a springboard to have a larger discussion about mental health. Looking back, I can trace the beginning of bulimia to a specific set of events and triggers. Years before, there was already a problem with food anxiety, striving for perfection and body image issues. I didn’t know what bulimia was at the time but I certainly understood hunger, binging, purging and over-exercising. I also didn’t know my mind was slowly developing an eating disorder. The condition, however, was becoming very real. Keep reading
When I speak to kids about my experience with bipolar disorder, really, I have a series of failures to explain. I tell them how treatment after treatment failed. I talk about drug failures, the failure of the vagus nerve stimulator and the failure of electroconvulsive therapy. I lot of my sentences have the word, “unfortunately,” in them.
And after one of my presentations last week, one person asked what I would say to someone who was going through a similar experience. I thought that was a very important question.
So here’s what I would say to someone who’s experiencing treatment failure.
When first diagnosed with a mental illness our lives–and the lives of those closest to us–change drastically. For lack of a better cliche: like night and day; black and white. We know, instinctively, that our lives will never be the same. Sometimes, we fear they will become more difficult, or we will forget who we were prior to diagnosis. It often feels as if we are losing a part of ourselves–our “self.” And that’s scary. Let’s explore why we may feel this way.
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Sitting in class, I drift sometimes. There are days when attention is just not something that I can find in the recesses of my brain. I look and look, but it eludes me. I need to know the content being presented in lectures, though, so what do I do? I multi-task.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I feed the hyperactivity monster list-weasels and friend-weasels when I get super hyper. I handle my inattention in a very similar way – I don’t try to ignore it, I get myself down and dirty in it.
I recently finished an 8-week mindfulness meditation course. I went into it not knowing why I was there, other than the fact that my doctor had recommended it. I went in not knowing what the outcome was supposed to be. When we were asked to write goals for the course, mine were blank. I had none. I really just wanted to see if there was any benefit to all this mindfulness meditation stuff.
Turns out, I believe that there is benefit in mindfulness meditation. And here’s some of what you might find in a course.
Beach season is upon us. This is the time of year where body image problems really come to the surface. The warm weather brings less fabric and more of our bodies are revealed. Bathing suits and sundresses are the catalysts for packed gyms and portion control and if one is not careful, possible eating disordered behavior. In the past, I worked as a therapist in an outpatient eating disorder hospital and late spring our busiest season. As you can imagine, insecurity, lack of confidence and body dissatisfaction were triggered as the summer months approached. So what can you do to get body confident? Keep reading
What drives me the most nuts is when something happens that bugs me.
I feel sad, scared, or worse, angry.
Then, I judge myself:
That was stupid. It is not as good as I wanted. It’s my fault. No it is theirs. Keep reading
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