I worry about the trend towards therapeutically treating children for everything from a lisp to a bit of rebelliousness. For example, shyness isn’t pleasant, but many children really do grow out of it (I did).

In truth, the fight against the stigma attached to mental illness has been global for awhile, but in many places, serious stigma remains.

Faith-based therapy, nutrition and mental health, children’s therapy, therapist best-practices, and more mental health trends we hope to see in 2012.

“People with life threatening mental illnesses are being abandoned,” said NAMI’s Mike Fitzpatrick. “The more that mental health care is provided by Medicaid, the greater the risk exists that uninsured or under-insured individuals won’t receive the help they need.”

“I have a name for all of you—“Poopologists”.

While I cannot give 100% of the credit to fermented food, for pulling my son back from the abyss of schizophrenia, I believe that powerful components of properly-fermented anaerobic lacto-fermented foods all contribute to improving metabolism, digestion, and mood.

Why, within minutes of eating did he leap off his chair, screaming, clutching his legs, grabbing his upper arms, screaming “Hurt! Hurt!”? Later, when he learned more words beyond “tree, fire, and wheel”, he described the feeling in his head, “like ants crawling in my brain.”

Can dietary changes really improve some symptoms of autism, childhood onset schizophrenia and related problems?

We first “met” Kathleen over the Internet because of C.R.’s interest in healthy eating. C.R. began to explore the Pickl-it web site in order to write about natural fermentation for her natural foods blog. What she found was an extraordinary story about a boy variously diagnosed with autism,  schizophrenia, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (in other words, an atypical autism spectrum disorder) and his heroic mother’s search for answers.

Kathleen’s story is extremely compelling and important reading. So we’re going to allow Kathleen to tell it (she’s a natural writer), over the course of a few interview posts.

Part 1: Heartbreak and Hope

Parental Alienation Syndrome may be the one of the more damaging forms of child abuse you never heard of.

She gave up Continental holidays and traded in her car for the tube, but is happy she made the choice to pay to see a private psychologist.