Somewhere, sometime, we decided that physical illnesses that presented with behavioral symptoms aren't important. We treat heart attacks invoked by stress. We treat diabetes caused by issues with food. These are emotional problems that invoke physical symptoms. But if the physical problems evoke emotional symptoms...well...sorry. You lose.
As a country, we have classified mental health symptoms as second class illness. We have come to a point where we would be appalled if a child was left to die because we wouldn't provide dialysis. But everyday, we leave children to die because we do not provide proper health care if they have the audacity to present with behavioral problems. Ironically, where the patient with kidney failure "conveniently" dies at minimal cost if we refuse treatment, our children suffering from mental health manage to survive for years. We readily pay the cost of reactive response - social services, imprisonment, lost income, and the legacy of pain by those who survive long enough to procreate. But we do everything we can to avoid paying for therapeutic treatment that can heal these people
This blog is our story. It is my story, as I've watched my son descend into hell and as we've fought together to pull him out. It is my best effort at telling his story. My dream is that someday he will be able to tell his own story. He would tell it better - not just because of the compelling nature of his story, but because he is a wonderful story teller. I have seem rooms fall silent to listen to him, as a little boy of 8 telling his little brother a story to keep him entertained during boring adult events. I don't know if he knows that the adults would stop and listen. That gift is still there, hidden behind this awful illness.
Our story is neither worse nor better than the pain of thousands of other families. It is just us. I tell our story simply because I need to tell this story. I need it all to make sense.
