Local NPR affiliate WBEZ is launching a new series focusing on mental illness in youth.

Out of the Shadows will explore everything from defining and coping with childhood mental illness to the economic factors affecting the way our society deals with mentally ill children.

Tune into WBEZ 91.5 October 17-28th to get the facts and hear stories from parents, doctors, legislators, and the children who suffer from mental illness and the stigma attached to it.

I’ve spent the last several hours reading the saga of Maryanne Godboldo, the Detroit mother who had her 13 year old daughter removed from her care and was taken into custody by police after a long stand-off between her and the police. She wasn’t being pursued because she was a criminal or was abusing her child.

Bipolar disorder takes a family on a roller coaster of brain-driven moods right along with their child. In addition to the depression, the anxiety and mania, there are other symptoms that raise their fearsome heads and go after our children.

Parents of children under the age of 18 are responsible to manage the many aspects of this illness and to help their adolescent move into adulthood with the skills to do this on their own or to have a support team in place for times when this is not possible.

I got the call last week I knew would come around this time. Tim’s not having a good week. He’s not sleeping much, easily agitated, and lashing out. He has a new caseworker and she wasn’t sure why. But I knew. It’s Fall. 

Book Review by Susan Resko, Executive Director

Susan Resko, M.M.
The Balanced Mind Foundation Executive Director

I’m often asked how I can both raise a child with a mood disorder AND work for The Balanced Mind Foundation.  My answer is that I compartmentalize my life, which includes delegating the dozens of book reviews The Balanced Mind Foundation is asked to do each year.  I cherish my 20 minutes each night before I nod off to sleep and save that time for books I want to read that have nothing to do with psychiatric illness.

I made an exception with Judith Warner’s We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication. The New York Times best selling author’s newest book premise intrigued me. Warner set out to write a book with the working title, Affluent Parents and Neurotic Kids; the premise of which was that today’s helicopter mothers are overanalyzing, overpathologizing and overmedicating their kids in order to boost their performance, get them into better schools and avoid the unpleasant parts of parenting. 

However, when she launched into the project, Warner discovered just the opposite.