Today is not a terrible day, but one of neutrality. I’m not feeling great nor am I feeling bad. It feels like my body is going through all\u00a0my day to day tasks, but my brain is on autopilot.<\/p>\n
My daughter has been experiencing depression for the last few months, which\u00a0is a complex enough matter\u00a0for any adult to comprehend, let alone a 12-year-old child. Needless to say to those of you walking in similar shoes, repetition has not been only “the word of the day” for weeks now,\u00a0but my nemesis as well.<\/p>\n
By the word\u00a0repetition<\/strong><\/em>, I mean I must repeat the same answers over and over again. When she asks “When will the doctor call back?” my answer is “I don’t know for certain, but I trust it will be sooner than later.”\u00a0When she\u00a0asks “When will I feel better?” \u00a0I answer “I don’t know for certain, but I trust it will be sooner than later.”\u00a0 When she asks “When will I notice an improvement from the increase in my medicine?” I repeat the same thing, knowing its not\u00a0the last time.<\/p>\n Out of curiosity I googled\u00a0\u00a0mental health of parents of children with special needs<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>to see if I was alone in my emotional exhaustion.\u00a0I found this article written by Seth Meyers and Katie Gilbert entitled\u00a0“Pity the parents of special needs-Part one”<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0(The demands of having special needs children have a definite effect on parents.) What an insight it was to hear my emotions mirrored in, not only a parent of a child with special needs, but a clinical psychologist none the less.<\/p>\n This\u00a0excerpt\u00a0from his article put a bit of wind back into my sails.\u00a0It also\u00a0reiterated\u00a0the importance of\u00a0 training mental health workers to sympathise, empathise and better understand not only the emotions of the youth they are attending to,\u00a0but those of their caregivers as well:<\/p>\n The moods of the parents of SN (special needs) kids suffer in a major way because the daily home\u00a0environment<\/a>\u00a0is so demanding.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Elgar and colleagues (2004) found that being\u00a0the mother of a child with mental illness is associated with high levels of distress and\u00a0depression<\/a><\/strong>. In addition, Barkley and colleagues\u00a0(1992) found that mothers of children with mental illness were two to three times more likely to be depressed than mothers of healthy children. Well, this research\u00a0comes as no surprise to me. Half\u00a0the time, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m exhausted, frustrated or depressed\u2014I just know I\u2019m not myself. When you are a working adult without kids, you have the ability to come home after work and unwind. When you work and come home to kids, there\u2019s always work to do. But when you come home to SN kids, there\u2019s rarely a moment of peace until it\u2019s time for bed\u2014if you’re lucky.<\/p>\n How true.<\/p>\n Read the full article here:\u00a0http:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/blog\/insight-is-2020\/201310\/pity-the-parents-special-needs-children-part-one<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n