Emotional Issues faced by Caregivers of Children and Adolescents with Mental Illness

Emotional Issues faced by Caregivers of Children and Adolescents with Mental Illness

· The degree and personal impact of widespread judgmental social attitudes of mother blame and family blame

· The problem that parents may unwittingly harbor many of the same stereotypes and prejudices

· The stigma and pain of having what everyone considers a “bad kid”

· The anguish of watching one’s child fail, and having to endure a “spoiled identity”

· The difficulty of getting through the drastic and traumatic behaviors of the child with the illness

· Intergenerational tensions in the family due to the child’s illness

· Relationship tensions due to the common occurrence of parents and other family caregivers reacting from different levels of understanding and acceptance

· Weathering bad and injurious advice from people (relatives, school authorities, doctors) who don’t understand

· Unwillingness and ineffectiveness of school and mental health authorities

· The complex feelings parents have for their own symptomatic children, and guilt over the negative feelings

· Desperation about not knowing where to look for help and resources

· The fierceness of the desire to fight for the child and restore his/ her life, reputation, standing and potential

· The absolute physical and mental exhaustion of this daily toil

· The sense of fall from grace, and an unrelieved core sadness and anger – that one is experiencing is not what one ever expected family life and parenting to be

· The recurring grief surrounding unachieved life milestones such as graduations and weddings of your child’s friends.

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