Books or other resources for parents of children with mental illness

August 24, 2017 2:43 PM

I'm looking for books or other resources for parents of children with mental illness. Some parameters: Books for parents of school-age children preferred. Less interested in diagnoses like ASD or ADHD, which are pretty well covered here and elsewhere; more interested in major depression, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and others.
posted by chesty_a_arthur to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

For more generalized anxiety:
Freeing Your Child from Anxiety by Tamar Chansky.

Seven Steps to Help Your Child Worry Less by Sam Goldstein, Kristy Hagar and Robert Brooks

Your Anxious Child: How Parents and Teachers Can Relieve Anxiety in Children by John Dacey and Lisa Fiore

Helping Your Anxious Child: A Step-by-Step Guide for Parents by Sue Spence, Vanessa Cobham, Ann Wignall and Ronald Rapee

SOS Help for Emotions: Managing Anxiety, Anger and Depression by Lynn Clark (geared for kids with parent support)

Worried No More (for parents) and Up and Down the Worry Hill (for kids) by Aureen Pinto Wagner

For kids with more externalizing difficulties (tantrums, arguing, aggression)

No More Meltdowns by Jed Baker

The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children

For Depression:

Freeing Your Child from Negative Thinking: Powerful, Practical Strategies to Build a Lifetime of Resilience, Flexibility and Happiness by Tamar Chansky
posted by goggie at 3:00 PM on August 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I Am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help by Xavier Amador, Ph.D. is especially relevant for caretakers / family / friends of anyone with serious mental illness who doesn't think they need treatment.

Its examples tend to focus on people with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other conditions where the person's sense of reality is affected — but its advice and insights are solid even if that is not the case.

NAMI (an organization that the parents in question should be involved with if they aren't already) has most of the book (197/253 pages) online as a PDF here: I Am Not Sick excerpt

And Amador's imprint, Vida Press, has links to buy it in many different forms.
posted by D.Billy at 4:30 PM on August 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Seconding I Am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help.
posted by MexicanYenta at 6:27 PM on August 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: It's time to follow up on this question, since apparently I can. I've read all the books, or I did until they started blending together and all the advice seemed impossible to implement because he was too ill to latch on to anything anyway. A year later, we tentatively think we might have hit a medication cocktail that lifts his burden a little bit.

I think what I was really looking for was a book for parents of children with MI about being parents of children with MI. I don't know of any book like this -- like a combination of Operating Instructions and Your Spirited Child or something. The closest I've come has been a closed (not secret) Facebook group which is heavy on moms of kids who have gone to the peds psych ER telling one another that we are strong and can do it. If anyone needs this group, drop me a line and I will hook you up.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:26 PM on July 24, 2018