I thought of your blog as I was reading this and was hoping you would post it. It is a real eye-opener and shows very clearly the real problems this poor young girl faces. Plus, it gives a heartbreaking sense of what her parents' and sister's lives are like and how her illness has become a central point for all of them.

Each of their reactions is understandable and tragic. The stoical mother, the initially-denying father and the suicidal-gesturing sister.

While we can read it, put the paper down and go on with our lives, they must all continue to deal with this. I can't imagine what it must be like to have something like this take over your life.

It was a very touching and heartbreaking article indeed one that points to the undeniable reality of these conditions. But, to simply accept it along conventional psychiatric terms in this case I think is a real mistake.

If nothing else though I hope that these parents see that there are more options than just the psychiatric drugs. Though they say lyme was ruled out, it is often very hard to test for and can still be a viable issue.

And then there are all sorts of alternative interventions notably in diet (does Haley have a gluten intolerance perhaps? what would cutting out gluten, dairy and sugar do for her?) that they should try. It may not solve the problems but I hope people get in touch with the family to try some alternative treatments that may provide some relief.

i wasn't skeptical, but my wife was. she is an msw with experience with childhood mental illness. her first question was, "what happened to her?" by that she meant, there must have been some precipitating factor(s). i got the same sense as you from the article. these folks have done and will do whatever they can for the girl.
my wife has me thinking, though...

That's interesting, Dennis. I actually thought the same thing your wife did initially, but it is possible for someone to have mental illness without precipitating factors, right? It would be great to hear more of what your wife has to say on this subject. Think she'd be willing to chime in?

I empathized with these parents. My parents went through a similar process with my sister when she was a teenager and now my sister is having to go through similar 'everyone else has the answer' problems with her autistic daughter. The most annoying thing that my family has had to deal with is the perception from other people that the problems must somehow be the parents' fault. People constantly say (or imply) that they're beating their child or aren't making correct diet changes.

This is not something that happens solely in regard to mental illness, either. When my brother-in-law got cancer as a child, my in-laws were constantly faced with people who told them that their parenting choices were to blame! While I agree that diagnosing (and medicating) children with mental illnesses happens far too frequently in our country, I'd love it if people could be a little less blame-oriented when it comes to health. I think that's something that all of us adult mental health consumers would appreciate, too,

I wrote directly to Pam Belluck (who I have an odd Six Degrees connection to -- she is married to one of my old professors at the University of Maryland) when this article came out.

It was an extraordinary story -- and one that struck (and strikes) me as having implications for diagnosing adults as well as children under the DSM.