Cynthia remembers her daughter as a bright, thoughtful and athletic young girl who had always done well academically until she began suffering from mental health problems aged 14. Her struggles led her to become suicidal and begin experimenting with illegal drugs. When Erica was admitted to hospital and excluded from school, the family felt frightened and out of their depth.
I am reminded of this piece from a few days back:
A boy, his brain, and a decades-long medical controversy
I first began blogging about twenty years ago to write about parenting. That never really gelled and I keep trying and failing.
We seem to have gone wrong somewhere really badly. It seems like you can't talk about the connections between physical health, social stuff and mental health anymore. It's verboten or someone decries it as "practicing medicine without a license" or (insert some other objection) or maybe people just no longer understand the connections.
"A sound mind in a sound body" is a very old saying, yet we seem to now think mental health is some distinct issue from physical health.
I am appalled that the parents thought they could help their child by deceiving her so terribly. I cannot fathom where people get such ideas.
It's crazy making when you can't trust the people close to you, doubly so when they have as much power over you as parents have.
I keep wanting to write about such things but my only real qualification is "I was a full-time mom for a lot of years and I'm a great mom" and how do you prove that? That was a private activity.
My sons think I'm a great mom and say so regularly, but you can't build an audience on that and ...there have been a lot of issues I have been trying to sort out, from how to write well to how to deal with privacy issues while writing about family life.
I don't know how to make the connections I need to make with people in order to get meaningful traction on what to write about, where to promote it, etc. And it just really upsets me to see articles like this and feel like good information on the topic of parenting is desperately needed and not know how to make that happen.
1. There is a connection between physical and mental health and one can ruin the other, but they are not identical. Even a physically healthy person may have mental trouble.
2. If you want to start blogging, the bar today is lower than ever. Choose a name that resonates, and at the lowest and easiest level just get a WordPress blog with a domain. If things go well you can always upgrade to something else.
3. Try rereading your own post and think whether that's something others would want to read. E.g. each (!) of your paragraphs starts with I/my and the entire post is rambling with little coherence. Cut down to what is essential, focus on a single thought and develop it - few authors can pull of an interesting 'stream of consciousness' text.
4. Consider working on your voice and style, e.g. buy the cheap, tiny, excellent & fun Strunk & White book for a great starting point.
You already reach a lot of people with your posts on HN. You are one of the few names I recognise and I always appreciate your comments. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Just want to mention that I recommend the book "Rethinking School" by Susan Wise Bauer. It's a book I recently read that I wish I had heard about several years ago as it discusses the futility of trying to fit a round peg (child) into a square hole (traditional k-12 system) and discusses various strategies for working around that.
The author and colleagues have set up a related website (welltrainedmind I think?) and forum which seems to be fairly active and with a diverse set of viewpoints.
I am reminded of this piece from a few days back:
A boy, his brain, and a decades-long medical controversy
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27509586
I first began blogging about twenty years ago to write about parenting. That never really gelled and I keep trying and failing.
We seem to have gone wrong somewhere really badly. It seems like you can't talk about the connections between physical health, social stuff and mental health anymore. It's verboten or someone decries it as "practicing medicine without a license" or (insert some other objection) or maybe people just no longer understand the connections.
"A sound mind in a sound body" is a very old saying, yet we seem to now think mental health is some distinct issue from physical health.
I am appalled that the parents thought they could help their child by deceiving her so terribly. I cannot fathom where people get such ideas.
It's crazy making when you can't trust the people close to you, doubly so when they have as much power over you as parents have.
I keep wanting to write about such things but my only real qualification is "I was a full-time mom for a lot of years and I'm a great mom" and how do you prove that? That was a private activity.
My sons think I'm a great mom and say so regularly, but you can't build an audience on that and ...there have been a lot of issues I have been trying to sort out, from how to write well to how to deal with privacy issues while writing about family life.
I don't know how to make the connections I need to make with people in order to get meaningful traction on what to write about, where to promote it, etc. And it just really upsets me to see articles like this and feel like good information on the topic of parenting is desperately needed and not know how to make that happen.