How do people usually react when their child is given a diagnosis of bipolar disorder?
Janet Wozniak, assistant professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston: “I think people cling to the idea that children’s brains are somehow protected and that serious mental problems only afflict people who are older, or that if they do affect children, it’s because of trauma. I’ve been thinking a lot about why people have such a hard time understanding that children could have a serious mental illness. I think it’s because their hearts and lungs usually work well. Most kids’ checkups are well checkups. But the brain is the most complex part of our body. It only stands to reason that it could have problems. … There’s no parent anywhere who could stand up to the scrutiny that these parents will have to endure. Everything they do is scrutinized. I routinely talk to parents who are blamed for being too lenient, too strict, over-involved, under-involved. I usually start out by telling them, ‘you know that as a parent of a child with this problem, you’ll feel like you can do no
