Jani's at the mercy of her mind

EStewart wrote:

I have no doubt whatsoever this is a very sick child. I'm not condemming the parents for having children-most of us have preexisting medical conditions in all our families. Maybe a mental health expert or someone who knows of a long term care facility that would be able to help her and her family will read this article and offer some assistance to them. Makes me thankful my special needs child isn't stricken with mental illness-after reading this article cerebral palsy seems minor in comparison.

eva wrote:

My husband and I were "in the system" some years ago, attempting to get help for our son, whose behavior baffled nearly every mental health professional we found. There is a huge dearth of resources out there...and, meanwhile, much of our society is terribly under-informed about psychological conditions in children. Ninety percent of the people we met (yes, sometimes including our families) observed our son's behavior and chalked it up to ineffective parenting.(Believe me, if there had been someone out there who could have parented our son better, we were ready to hand him over--so great was our frustration and despair.)
Posters, please don't condemn this family for the illness of their child.

diane wrote:

with their family history of mental illnesses and the parents themselves suffering from depression and other mental issues, I cannot believe they chose to have a child...and after Jani...why would they risk having a second one...Oh, yeah...they must be nuts!

evac wrote:

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Do you have any concept of how pervasive mental illness and depression are? It's the rare family where it doesn't show up. I'd be shocked and amazed if someone in your family wasn't affected by mental illness - and that's not an accusation, merely a statistical observation.
Many severe illnesses have a genetic component. Is it your suggestion that every family with some illness running in them stop reproducing? That would certainly curb population growth, if nothing else.
What this message board reveals, above all else, is the depth of ignorance and fear that remain in this country about mental illness - either people dismiss it as "imaginary" or "spoiled" behavior, or alternatively fear, shun & ostracize the people who have it. I think a basic education about how the brain works & to what degree it controls us or we control it is in order. No one blames or shuns cancer patients, primarily because we have a clue about how cancer works; we need to be similarly enlightened about the brain.

Martha wrote:

I was so moved by this story and totally impressed with these parents' commitment to their daughter. I felt hopeful that this article would perhaps connect them to some resources beyond what they've been able to find so far.
Reading the cruel and stupid comments that mary anne, Wisconsin and diane chose to write, underscores what these people are up against.

VoxAngelicus wrote:

Is it possible that this child has been misdiagnosed and actually has an autism spectrum disorder? The frequent rage reactions, hand-flapping, and precocious intelligence suggest that she might have some form of autism. The article never said whether this girl's doctors considered that diagnosis and ruled it out.

eva wrote:

My husband and I were "in the system" some years ago, attempting to get help for our son, whose behavior baffled nearly every mental health professional we found. There is a huge dearth of resources out there...and, meanwhile, much of our society is terribly under-informed about psychological conditions in children. Ninety percent of the people we met (yes, sometimes including our families) observed our son's behavior and chalked it up to ineffective parenting.(Believe me, if there had been someone out there who could have parented our son better, we were ready to hand him over--so great was our frustration and despair.)
Posters, please don't condemn this family for the illness of their child.

Bankerdanny wrote:

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Except that diabetes is a treatable disease that only in the most extreme cases is life threatening. Child #1 was the clue that perhaps they couldn't overcome their shared genetic weaknesses. Heck, leave aside the risk that any child of theirs would be at high risk for mental illness, how risky is it for TWO people who are depressed enough to require medication, should choose to raise a child. How risky is it for the CHILD that one or both parents could get worse. Sorry, these people should never have reproduced the first time, and certainly not a 2nd.

Bankerdanny wrote:

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Except that diabetes is a treatable disease that only in the most extreme cases is life threatening....

emsmith wrote:

Don't lawyers take probono cases just because they are interesting, where are the highly skilled doctors? Where are the support systems? This case to me is the perfect example of how we treat the weakest, it shows a complete lack of moral fiber.