Lisa, it was very courageous of you to be one of the first to be so upfront about sharing your story. And, yes, you do look like a regular family. I had been planning to write about an article I read in the NAMI Sacramento newsletter, and your story jogged my memory about that.
Click here to read Lisa's story >>
A front-page story, “Helping Kids Live with Mentally Ill Parents,” in the NAMI Sacramento April 2004 newsletter deals with some of the issues you raise. That article says that children with a mentally ill parent face challenges to which most of their peers will never be able to relate. “They have a 40% chance of experience major depression by age 20 and a 60% chance by 25. Also, 61% of the children with parents who have a major depressive disorder are likely to develop a psychiatric disorder before adulthood.”
The article is helpful in a very specific and educational way. It states that:
“When mental illness runs in the family, it is likely to cause lack of communication, organization and proper functioning, fewer clearly defined goals, and little or no guidance to children for performing even the most routine tasks, according to Ronald Seifer, Ph.D. and professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University. ‘It’s those everyday activities that families have to engage in to make sure that their lives go smoothly. That kind of stuff doesn’t seem to work as well when there are mental health problems in the family.’ Dr. Seifer says.”
And, surprisingly, offering help to children of parents with mental illness is not always that complicated. “A study by William Beardslee at the judge Baker Children’s center in Boston found that a brief, group therapy prevention program can reduce the risk of depression in the adolescent children of parents with a history of depression.”
Lisa, group therapy prevention programs for children of parents with a history of depression, or other mental illness, is the type of innovative program that the initiative can fund. Thank you so very much for sharing your story and helping raise awareness.
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