Category: ADHD
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Mental Illness: Why Love and Acceptance Must Be the First Line of Treatment
With love and acceptance – what I believe should be the first-line of treatment for people with mental illness – people like my son feel less isolated, judged and ashamed. Though “tough love” may be the gold standard approach to care for some mental illnesses, it is a risky choice and one that doesn’t necessarily…
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The Truth About The Mask Of Mental Illness
It turns out I haven’t quite finished writing about masks. Today, however, instead of talking about clinical masks, I want to talk about a different type – the mask that society forces people with mental illness to wear. It is the mask of being well – that many of us expect them to wear, even…
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Pity The Parents Whose Boomerang Children Have Been Forced Back Home By COVID-19
One aspect of COVID-19 that is rarely mentioned on the news is the impact on families who – due to recent job losses – have had grown children return back home. Some of you, I imagine, view the bounce back home of our Boomerang Generation as an opportunity to rebuild relationships, fatten them up and…
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The Meaning Of Life And Why People Who Live In Hot Countries Suffer From Depression As Well
Kurt experienced a few personal setbacks a few weeks ago and because I know that many of you follow this blog because you too have young adults who struggle, I thought I’d take you through what we’ve learned from it. Obviously, I won’t go into precise detail about what happened, but suffice it to say…
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You Don’t Have To Fit Into Society’s One-Size-Fits-All Box
As, once again, we compile the memories of twenty-five years together into boxes ahead of our next move, it seems appropriate to have a discussion about them. Boxes. Because I’ve noticed how good society is at putting people into them, as NC reminded me the other day when we were discussing the assumptions people make…
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Why I Cried In A Star Is Born
For those of you who know me and my need to spew verbal rubbish at least twice a week as a means of therapy, you might have guessed that my past few weeks of silence has nothing to do with laziness or writers’ block. However, this time, it is not my story to overshare. Instead,…
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9 Reasons Why Empty-Nesting Is So Much Better Than I Expected
Since Kurt left home – the last of our young adults to leave the nest – friends keep asking us how we are coping with our loss, how much we miss him, and whether we’ll get another dog? Photo by Caleb George on Unsplash And my diplomatic answer is a resounding YES – of course,…
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Empty-Nesting: You Know When It Is Time…
Photo by Mantas Hesthaven on Unsplash The old man and I became empty-nesters this week. Kurt has left the building. I swear he wasn’t pushed. We view our negotiations as closer to a manipulation that made sense – primarily, for him. Not once did we bring up the subject of our sanity in the conversation.…
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And The Progress Prize For Best Father This Father’s Day Goes To…
I’d like to say an early “Happy Fathers Day” to all those men for whom fatherhood hasn’t been quite what they expected, perhaps due to their own issues, the pressures of “toxic masculinity”, or perhaps because, (as in the old man’s case), they produced a square peg. First of all, I should probably justify my…
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I Must Thank My Son For His Mental Illness
The boy turned twenty-one last week, and while part of me wants to scream and holler with excitement, pride, and relief, the other part wants to sit in a corner, rocking and licking my wounds. Many of you will be familiar with our journey with Kurt, our son. It was one of the reasons I…
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Car Insurance, Teens, And Just How Far Parental Responsibility Extends
Insurance is one of those dirty words that you only have to deal with once you grow up – kind of like calories and tax – and as a serial procrastinator, I always found that it was best left well alone until I needed it. But from my perspective as a parent, it is an…
Louisa Simmonds 