I’m in the midst of trying to get my almost 9 year old evaluated for her mental health/behavioral issues. I’ve been been fighting this fight for 4-5 years now. As a mom you just know if something is off with your child. It’s mother’s intuition. I’ve had doctors and counselors tell me it’s normal behavior or just her age. I’ve had a counselor who ghosted us after her husband passed unexpectedly (which I completely understand). I’ve had doctors look at me like I had 2 heads when I say I know there is something going on with her. I’ve had teachers procrastinate on filling out forms just to get her diagnosed with ADD. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. I could write a book with some of the things I’ve done to try and get some answers. In the last year or so I was able to have her diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder as well. She is on meds which do not seem to be making a difference. She also goes to counseling which hasn’t seemed to help either.

So after a very long weekend of crazy high and low behaviors and a couple weeks of drastic sleep changes and other changes I had enough and wrote her doctor a long email on everything that happened. Finally they gave me some numbers to call to get her into a place that can diagnose her. First place I call they told me they do a phone evaluation to decide if they can help my child. *IF* they can help my child then it will take 6-8 months before she will be seen in their office. Yes that’s right. MONTHS not weeks or days. I told the lady I don’t have that kind of time. I need to get my child help now. I really wanted to tell her this is why people commit suicide if this is what they are told when they go for help. Our veterans especially have a very long waiting list and often times they need help the most. Our mental health system sucks. My daughter continuously fell through the cracks at school despite me being vocal on what she needed and now she can fall through the cracks of mental health if I can’t find someone to help her sooner rather than later.

I realize our country is overloaded with people who have mental health issues, but this is not an answer that someone who is ready to commit suicide should hear. I’m beyond frustrated for anyone who has gone through this. I feel for you. The want to get help, but no help is there for you in a timely manner. I’m certainly not knocking anyone in this field as I’m sure many of you feel overworked with how many people truly need help. All I’m saying is that it’s absolutely frustrating to not be able to get the help you know you truly need because of this.

Side note: I’m not giving up. I spent over a half hour on the phone with my insurance to see who else I could call. I have a list of people and will be exhausting all of them tomorrow as they are all closed now. I’m also exhausting other areas such as vision and food allergy issues. I’m trying to narrow down exactly how I can help her.