In the area I used to live in, they closed the psychiatric hospitals and essentially released all the patients to halfway houses or the streets. For the most part, closing of the mental hospitals and 'mainstreaming' the severely mentally ill has been disastrous and they do belong in a hospital or long-term psychiatric facility. Now these patients are in and out of the ER and the jail system. When they get really bad, they get short-term admission to the psychiatric hospitals. However, there is nothing in place to prevent them from continuing to cycle from crisis to crisis in the first place. They are often a danger to themselves and others and they cost the taxpayers millions. It seems to me it would be cheaper to the taxpayers and better to all involved--including the patients--to bring back the long-term psychiatric hospitals.

DaisyDuck--The counselling I referred to in my previous post was NOT for religous based counselling such as a pastor or priest would provide. The link I posted is for a consortium of professional, college-educated licensed therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists that also happen to be part of the catholic faith and bring some of that perspective into their work. There is also a consortium for catholic physicains, by the way.

I agree that church-based counseling services are certainly NOT for a person with a professionally diagnosed psychiatric disorder. However, I do resent the implication that all catholic priests have some sort of perversion or mental disorder. That's like saying all nurses marry alcoholic husbands because they all have a disordered 'need to be needed.' This logic has no basis in fact.

When my husband's daughter was pregnant with her third child, she was doing everything -- meth, coke, heroin, you name it. I searched and searched to try to find out the long-term effects of a mother's drugs use.

When we first got our three grandchildren, we went through hell as the kids adjusted to their new lives. If they back-talked, I looked up symptoms of oppositional-defiance disorder. If they wouldn't concentrate on their homework I looked up ADHD. If they had outbursts I looked up bi-polar.

I spent hours -- days -- trying to find some indication of what could happen to the children of drug addicts, and what we could expect.

While there seems to be plenty of literature on fetal alcohol syndrome, there was little on the long-term effects of drugs. Even medical journals couldn't seem to come to any conclusions. The only concrete information I could find was that, if a mother did meth while pregnant, her child would never get a "free trial" of meth. In other words, one sampling as a teen and the child would become addicted.

This is why I'm amazed at the number of grandchildren on this forum who are diagnosed with drug-related problems. Could it be that they are just suffering from anxiety related to their chaotic lives?

I don't ask to start an argument. I just wonder if our healthcare system finds it easier to label and medicate than to spend the time needed to properly evaluate the stress issues that would be a natural result of parents who not only abuse drugs and alcohol, but live totally chaotic lives. In other words, are we over-medicating our children?

I guess I am cyncial on the religious based because of things I have seen. In general, people tend to trust the wrong people at times. You bring up some very valid points. It is so important that we grandmothers seek this knowledge for our grandchildren. I tend to agree on overmedicating the children. We went through that with our gs. The teachers wanted him medicated so they could "control" him. He was hearing imaired so he spoke loudly and had problems hearing things even with a hearing aid. His behavior was affected by that and the abuse at an early age from bio dad and whacko step mom. School psychologist had a degree in administration. Social workers were ignorant on what to do. This is why I say we have to educate ourselves and see if we can't handle the problems within the family. This, by no means, is suggesting we avoid professional help. Gaining knowledge on the subject allows us to ask the right questions. My gs went to a summer workshop for 9 nines each summer from age 12 to 16. It was in the mountains away from tV and everything else. It was highly structured and their diets were strictly organic. He came home every year a different kid including being happy with himeself and confident. By Thanksgiving we were moving back to the old ways. It sure made us think and he is certainly more careful about what he eats. btw, our situation is that our daughter died of a malignant brain tumor when her son was 14 mos old. I read yesterday there is now proof that if a mother has Cancer when she is carrying baby the Cancer genes are passed on to child and they usually develop Cancer. I have not even told my husband about this yet. I am so impressed with all of you in your attempts to gain knowledge for your gc and sharing it here at ds. I'm sure we always learn from each other.

Thank you DaisyD. It's very impressive that so many people on this forum have so much knowledge and sources of information. It's so much easier to find information--most of it is at our fingertips--literally.

I think we are all better parents than we think--most of us just don't want to trust our instincts when that is exactly what we should be doing. After years of reading parenting books, researching psychological conditions, I finally found 1 parenting authority that made the most sense to me. He is a psychologist and parent of 10 adopted children. Dr Raymond Guarendi. He does a talk radio show and has written several parenting books. His website is drray.com

Go to this link: http://www.examiner.com/x-16128-Chicago-Grandparenting-Examiner - I did a little research on bipolar and especially in children. There are links to follow in the article for more information.

HI,

I haven't read all the posts but I just wanted to say I am taking a Pharmacological drug abuse class because I am studying to be a drug and alcohol counselor. The latest studies is that the scale shows that drug abuse and mental illness are at different stages and are not occured at the same ups and downs of the population.

I was taught that if someone has a mental disorder it will happen on its own sometime in their life with or without drugs. the drugs may induce the behavior and I suggest getting the bipolar for dummys book and be sure to have him tested so you can know for sure.
I hope you seek help before he is a teen as it can come out the most during this time and early 20's. I knew someone who wasn't even diagnosed until they were 42 because they had a minor type. But they were using alcohol as medication for there moods without knowing. Once they were dx'd and started the process of getting the right med cocktail it was not to late to stop drinking because they had their symptoms aleviated.
This is not the case with all people sometimes they have to be treated for alcohol or substance abuse at the same time as the mental disorder.

I hope this helps.
Its great you are seeking advise.