Keeping Young Minds Healthy

AUTHOR: Jeffrey Kluger

PUBLICATION NAME: Times Magazine

DATE OF PUBLICATION: October 21, 2010
SUMMARY: Bethany was a young girl that developed a mental illness by the time she was in fifth grade. She began to question whether or not she truly was attracted to boys. Most children who begin to question their orientation eventually accept and embrace the fact that they are gay. However, Bethany was not homosexual; instead she had a form of OCD that feeds on uncertainty. Even when she instinctively felt that she was attracted to boys, she obsessed over the question of her onrientation. This constant doubt was fed from the fact that there is no scientific way of proving whether a person is attracted to men or women. When Bethany was thirty, she found a website for an OCD institute and found that she fit one of the expressions of this disorder. Once diagnosed, she was able to begin therapies to could cope with her uncertanity.
Studies show that there are high numbers of children who have emotional or behavioral disorders. About one in five children in the U.S. suffers from some sort of mental-health condition, and fifty percent of adults with these conditions were diagnosed before the age of fourteen. The good news is that most of these codnitions can be improved through early intervention. One way for these disorders to be diagnosed in time to be treated and resolved relatively quickly is for parents to notice behaviors that could be signs for a condition such as OCD or ADHD.
ARTICLE: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2026672_2026712_2026677,00.html

SUBMITTED BY: Ginevra Scherini