Welcome
This website is dedicated to helping parents and caregivers of troubled children, teenagers, and young adults. Use the search box to explore articles, get support, and find information about how to manage challenging behaviors.
How to manage defiance and oppositional defiant disorder
Troubled children and teenagers who are pathologically defiant have a brain condition with many possible causes or diagnoses. Whether they are overtly aggressive or “passive-aggressive,” parents have options for reducing defiance and limiting the stress they bring into the household. If your child is defiant to a degree that affects their life functions, this is what …
The best vitamins for your child’s brain
The vitamins listed here are absolutely essential for your child’s brain, and it’s highly likely your child doesn’t have enough. People with psychiatric disorders commonly have physical problems that are symptoms of vitamin deficiency. Take digestive problems, for example–low levels of B vitamins cause digestive disorders, especially B12. “One of the most common deficiencies seen …
What hallucinations are like, from those who know
If you care for a child experiencing hallucinations but don’t know what it’s like, these first-hand accounts may help you better understand and support your child. This writer is taking medications, which help, but do not fully eliminate the hallucinations. “The reason my thoughts inaccurately capture existence is because my understanding of existence is different …
Back to School: Tips for the Transition
Starting school after a summer vacation triggers behavioral problems in many troubled children and teens. A rocky start can result in problem behavior for a couple of months. Your child does poor academically during those months, and their behavior primes teachers to treat them differently. This guest article by Eileen Devine, LCSW, breaks down the …
The Silent Suffering of Parent Abuse When Children Abuse Parents
Parent abuse is real and serious. This [edited] article is by Alicia Bradley, LCPC, who lives in the United Kingdom. It is excellent and covers a serious and hidden subject that’s rarely addressed. “How many people have heard of parent abuse? especially at the hands of teenage children with serious social and violence issues? Google …
Unsettling: What psychosis looks like in children and young people
Odd, eccentric, a little weird: people experiencing psychosis are living in dream space. If you haven’t experienced psychosis yourself, it’s a little like the period just before you awake, when you’re in a dream but also aware of your surroundings. Your dream and emerging consciousness weave together in a wonderful or horrible or simply odd …
Welcome to the 911 Club for Parents of Troubled Kids
Let’s start a 911 Club, a community for parents who depend on emergency services for managing their mentally ill child. Our T-shirts would be black and blue like bruises. Only people raising a mentally ill child or young adult could join. Club rules would be simple: 1. No one is ever judged. 2. We keep …
School Shootings, Guns, and Child Mental Illness
Up until recently, news of devastating school shootings swerved to public fights about gun control. I had hoped past shootings would stimulate discussion of mental health treatment (see “Guns and Mental Illness: the Debate from a Parent’s Perspective,” written 5 years ago in 2013). After this recent shooting in Florida, it now is. But be careful …
Your child’s ADHD diagnosis could be wrong, leaving other issues untreated
Inattention and distractibility are caused by many medical conditions and life situations. You child may not have ADHD or ADD if they didn’t show signs when they were young. Children don’t just catch ADHD or ADD If your child has a behavioral change you haven’t seen before, there may be an underlying medical or co-occurring …
