Writer, mentor, and speaker Ann Douglas has written several articles and books about health and parenting but a new release proves to be one awe-inspiring piece.
Her most recently published book, "Parenting Through the Storm: How to Handle the Highs, the Lows, and Everything in Between" talks about her firsthand experience as a bipolar parent with kids suffering from mental and psychological disorders.
"There's an advocacy piece to this book," Douglas said, as reported by The Star. "If we're all silent, then there's no public dialogue about the need for greater investment in child and youth mental health."
In a recent article from Simcoe, an online community news in Southern Ontario, Canada, Douglas shares her struggles as a mother and how her experiences molded her to become who she is today - a parenting advocate, writer, and speaker.
Douglas' parenting struggles began in 2003, when she felt that she was the most awful parent, with her life in a mess and her four children suffering from behavioral and mental health problems. Her children's struggles affected their family.
Her eldest child, Julie at the young age of 15, was suffering from depression. She attempted suicide by overdosing herself with Extra Strength Tylenol. Her daughter's life was spared when she was rushed to the hospital. She was eventually registered for counseling but the intervention did not work. Aside from attempting suicide, Julie also became a bulimic and a drug user.
Douglas' second and third children, then 14 and 12, were diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). They had very high energies and disliked authority. Her youngest child, then 6 years old, was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and was thrown out from school.
It was a difficult phase in their lives and it also affected Douglas mentally and physically. She became depressed and gained weight. The good news is that her family survived the challenge by trying out different diagnoses and solutions for her kids.
She sought the help of teachers for her youngest child with Asperger's syndrome. She had to transfer him to different schools that could attend to his special needs.
But her biggest challenge was her daughter's depression, because not everyone understood the situation. Even the crisis nurse in the hospital was unable to help them. "I felt alone and very afraid," she shared in The Star report. Eventually, she sought help from other parents struggling with the same problem and it became her support group.
Today, her kids are in different career fields - her eldest child is now a photographer, her middle boys work in the accounting and the computer industry respectively, and her youngest is into auto mechanics.
