Debbie Gail Zane

If you are struggling because your child has mental illness or addiction, have compassion for yourself.

I know you may be focusing on what is wrong and why what you are doing may not be working, but focusing on your frustration and your inability to fix things is going to make you feel helpless and may lead to self blame.

Be kind, gentle, and patient with yourself.

While you do not have a choice over whether your child implements the actions and steps you feel is best for them, you do have a choice to take responsibility for your own life.

Having peace is a result of your own decisions about yourself and how you live your life. You have a choice to blame yourself for not being able to fix your child’s illness or addiction, or to make a decision to have compassion for yourself, practice self-love and self-care, and discover what you can do to bring joy into your life.

What choice are you making?

Sending love and light,

Debbie

As a parent, it can be so hard to see your child feeling unhappy, anxious, frustrated, angry, or other difficult emotions.

This may happen very often if your teen or adult child suffers from mental illness and/or addiction.

When he or she isn’t happy, maybe it affects your mood and your whole being.

If you feel paralyzed as if you can’t function, you may be internalizing your child’s feelings.

Remember that you are a separate person from your child.

Have compassion and know you are doing what you are capable of to support them during their struggles.

Focus on what you can do for them, not on what you can’t.

Focus on what things are positive.

Focus on your love for them.

Remember you can be the strength and light your child needs.

Sending love and light,

Debbie

May is mental health awareness month. Mental Illness impacts those of all ages and can start very young. According to the National Center for Mental Illness (NAMI), one in six US adolescents aged twelve to seventeen experienced a major depressive episode, and three million had serious thoughts of suicide. One in three US young adults aged eighteen to twenty-five experienced a mental illness, one in ten experienced serious mental illness, and 3.8 million had serious thoughts of suicide.

These are staggeringly high statistics, and I know that if you are a parent of a teen or adult child with mental illness you may be struggling – to find help, to understand your child, to deal with the challenges, to not live in fear, to not feel alone.

It is very special to me that my book came out in this month of mental health awareness. Through sharing my story of the love and loss of my son through his mental illness and addiction and how I turned my pain into my purpose, it is my greatest hope that my book will help parents on a similar journey feel they are not alone, give them hope for peace and healing, and provide the inspiration to go on.

Finding Peace and Purpose Amidst the Tears: My Journey of the Love and Loss of My Son through His Mental Illness and Addiction- now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble’s online, iBooks.

Sending love and light,

Debbie