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Mom pens blog about coping with youth mental illness Andrea Berryman Childreth helps people who are coping with a child's mental illness through her blog "Bipolar Lemonade." Mail Tribune / Denise Baratta Monday Nov 14, 2016 at 2:00 AM Nov 14, 2016 at 7:58 AM Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune @VickieAldous When Andrea Berryman Childreth began writing a blog about her struggles with her mentally ill daughter, she was surprised by how many parents started sharing their own stories. "When I started posting, people came out of the woodwork," she says. "It was so important for people to see a 'normal' family with a daughter who is struggling with mental health issues. We didn't choose this. She didn't choose this. I want people to know they're not alone." Childreth created her Bipolar Lemonade blog in 2014 to help deal with the stress and sadness she felt after placing her daughter, Chloe, in a residential treatment program in Corvallis for the first time. Since then, Chloe has been in an out of treatment and alternative school programs, and is now at a treatment center in Utah. She has been diagnosed with mental conditions that include bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety and Asperger's syndrome — a condition on the autism spectrum that causes people to have difficulties communicating and dealing with social situations. Childreth says many people don't understand mental illness. "People have a misconception that the mentally ill are those crazy people who walk on the streets shouting out things, or that they come from socioeconomically struggling families," she says. "Mental illness is pretty common, and it happens to people in middle- and high-income families, too." A marketing expert who runs Medford-based Spotlight Marketing, Childreth is married to a dentist. Childreth says middle- and upper-income families with private insurance often struggle to access mental health care. Low-income families with Oregon Health Plan coverage are more likely to get wrap-around services that help the family member with mental illness. She recalls one boy with OHP coverage who was helped by a counselor, skills trainer, caseworker, psychiatrist and other experts after he left a treatment center. Meanwhile, her daughter was authorized to have one visit per month with a psychiatrist. Middle- and upper-income people work and pay taxes that subsidize care for lower-income people, yet they can't access that same level of care for their loved ones, Childreth says. "Our kids need services just as badly," she says. On her blog, Childreth talks about her family's personal struggles, while also providing information about mental health advocacy organizations, types of mental illness, different treatments, providers and resources. She also leads a support group and can schedule one-on-one appointments to help families find providers, identify school resources, contact an attorney and research treatment options. The support group meets at 6 p.m. on the last Tuesday of each month upstairs at 4 Daughters Irish Pub, 126 W. Main St., Medford. Childreth says people who attend the support group find out they share many of the same experiences and problems. "Everybody says, 'I thought only my kid had these strange behaviors,' " she says. Childreth says dealing with a family member's chronic mental illness can be isolating and stressful. Often, people want to blame the parents, thinking they just haven't used enough discipline to keep their child in check. But Childreth notes that while Chloe struggles, her other daughter gets good grades and is active in sports. Now 15, Chloe began exhibiting symptoms while still a toddler. "There's a lot of stigma and shame with mental illness," Childreth says. "You can be going through all these crises, and people don't know what to say or do. If a person gets cancer, people bring casseroles or flowers. With mental illness, there's not a lot of help. We struggle as a society to support and have resources for mentally ill people." She says with early intervention and support for mentally ill youth, their school attendance and graduation rates go up. Their chance of using drugs or committing crimes goes down. Childreth keeps her own bipolar disorder under control with medication and has a successful career. Chloe talks openly with people about her own struggles with mental illness and helps her mom raise awareness. "I want to educate people and help people feel they are not alone," Childreth says. "There are other people out there experiencing the same thing." For more information, visit bipolarlemonade.com. Reach staff reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or [email protected]. Follow her at www.twitter.com/VickieAldous.