What we don't know could fill a bucket !

Not a very reassuring start is it. Sorry but have to be ruthlessly honest here. If anyone tells you anything is 100% absolute then start running for the door because they're leading you down the wrong path.  As a professional I strive to give my patients everything I know about a certain drug therapy, mental health disorder, outcome, side effects, etc., but one thing I can tell you for 100% is we don't know everything.  Every day is a new lesson learned. My goal for this blog is just to keep addressing common issues that have question marks for a lot of people. My hope is that this will provide some guidance in understanding what a mental health diagnosis is, symptoms, recommended treatments, medications most often recommended, side effects and other services that are available.
Anyone who picks up a newspaper or goes online or listens to the news knows that we have a big crisis out there related to mental health. Not enough people to treat the mentally ill, and a severe lack of access to care for uninsured, or under-insured patients should make this a number one priority for our state and federal government. I know, I know, they talk about it and advocate for it but so far here we are, stuck in the middle of huge crisis that only seems to be getting worse by the day.  I would like to see more early intervention in the school system to help stem the tide of "behaviorally and academically challenged" kids making their way slowly and unsuccessfully through their school years.  We need to "put a cork in it" as Archie Bunker used to say.
Recognize the early warning signs in children. Evaluate them and set them on a path for success rather than wait around and "see what happens".  I have heard this so many times in my practice. Things like "well let's give it another year and then we'll see where they're at".  Why wait? Each day is a lost day in a child's life. Each semester that passes without proper evaluation and treatment is one more semester they have to try to catch up with.  This just leads to more opportunity for that child to fall further and further into the cracks, and be labeled as a "behavioral problem", or an "oppositional child", and allows them to lose more and more self esteem in the process.
This leads me to the topic of my next blog "The ADHD diagnosis."   See you then.