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THERAPY page 7'
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Images & Imagination
A New Approach to Creativity
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"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Albert Einstein
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6235 Pontiac Trail, West Bloomfield
810-683-9022
810-851-5730
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Therapy In The
School Setting
A Must Visit!
Expanded Stationery & Invitation Department
28857 Orchard Lake Rd.
FS
(bet. 12 & 13 Mlle)
younger children, he says. "Some
type of severe stress (loss of par-
ent or grandparent, a move, fi-
nancial changes at home) is often
the precipitating factor.
"We see more severe depres-
sion in teens," says Dr. London.
"Depression in younger teens is
often manifested in acting-up be-
havior in school and at home. The
teen won't listen, defies author-
ity and the parents are at their
wits' end.
"When older teens are de-
pressed, they often look de-
pressed and can tell you they are
depressed. They are more obvi-
ously debilitated by their symp-
toms.
"When a teen says, 'I think I'll
kill myself,' always take it seri-
ously," emphasizes Dr. London.
"More than one-half of all teens
have had suicidal thoughts in the
last year."
Those with fleeting feelings
may take their emotional pain
and inflict physical pain upon
themselves (such as cutting) as a
cry for help. Those with more
lasting thoughts of suicide are in-
creasingly acting on their feelings
and at younger ages.
The American Association of
Suicidology reports a 50 percent
increase in suicides for teens aged
10-14 between 1980 and 1991
and a 30 percent increase for
teens aged 15-19 during the same
period.
Getting help for depressed chil-
dren and teens is imperative.
Warning signs of depression and
suicide include:
* Making comments like "You'd
be better off if I were dead."
* Direct threats to hurt oneself.
* Physical signs of depression in-
cluding weight loss and disrup-
tion of sleep.
* Inability to take care of one's ac-
tivities of daily life and loss of
pleasure in those activities.
* Failing in school.
* Inability to get along with peo-
ple or social withdrawal.
* Spontaneous crime for no ap-
parent reason and other aggres-
sive behaviors.
* Giving away possessions.
It is important to remember,
says Dr. Stettner, that while an-
tidepressant medications can be
helpful, they must be accompa-
nied by counseling. "The under-
lying problems must be
addressed," he says, "or medica-
tion alone may give the suicidal
person just the energy he needs
to hurt himself."
Farmington Hills
810-553-3250 • Fax. 810-553-8924
Hours: M-Th. 10-5:30, FrI. Sal. 10-5 & By Appt.
,
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`The main reason I end up see-
ing kids at work is that they just
aren't clicking in the classroom,"
says Sid Kardon, a social worker
at Keller Junior High School in
Royal Oak. 'They're behaving dis-
ruptively, or they're just not get-
ting anything out of school. For a
variety of reasons — depression,
lack of parental involvement, sub-
stance abuse, family conflict
and/or learning disabilities —
these kids are not academically
motivated in any way, shape or
form."
Children are usually referred
by the classroom teacher, he says,
but concerned parents can start
the ball rolling. "Parents' intu-
ition is usually the best gauge for
determining whether therapy is
necessary," he says. "Every fam-
ily is different. A problem that
may be unmanageable for one
family can be easily handled by
another."
A school social worker may re-
fer a child to a clinic for crisis in-
tervention. If the child appears
suicidal, there are alternatives at
inpatient hospitals like
Kingswood and Havenwyck that
run day programs for kids, dis-
charging them to their parents
at night.
Many schools are becoming
proactive in heading off cases of
depression. Because divorce is of-
ten a precipitating factor in caus-
ing stress-based emotional
disturbance, school social work-
ers run therapy groups of eight
or nine sessions in which children
can role-play and work out di-
vorce and custody issues. 'These
kids may not be doing poorly,"
says Mr. Kardon, "but these
Dr. Last agrees. Michigan is
among the states with the high-
est number of diagnoses of at-
tention-deficit disorder, he says,
"and it is overdiagnosed by too
many teachers, parents and pe-
diatricians. Other kinds of prob-
lems, like depression, can produce
behaviors that mimic its symp-
toms.
"It's very important that a cor-
rect diagnosis be made," says Dr.
Last, who recommends a combi-
nation of medication, counseling
and parent guidance to treat
ADD.
Parents are the people in
whom Lenore Kingston puts her
trust. "Parents are very wise, I
have found," says the social work-
er at Eagle Elementary and High
Meadow Common Campus in
Farmington Hills. "I think they
know if there's a repeated pattern
of misconduct, if the child has
been feeling sad over a period of
time, if the child is not learning
and has a negative attitude to-
ward schoolwork, they should
seek help immediately.
"At the elementary level, it's
important to take action even if
there isn't a major problem. Most
problems can be turned around
in a very short period of time with
the parents acting as therapists.
Therapy, after all, is taking ac-
tion to make things better.
"Sometimes parents don't
know what to do. They should
ask for help. Parents, working in
tandem with the teacher and
school social worker, can help
their children over emotional hur-
dles," she says.
Should A Child
Be Forced To Go?
groups help them feel and do bet-
ter."
Short-term groups also are
provided at school for children ex-
periencing grief over the loss of a
family member; for children who
have difficulty making friends
due to shyness or being new to
the community; and for smooth-
ing the mainstreaming of special-
education students.
School psychologists do testing
to screen for learning disabilities
— and for attention-deficit dis-
order (ADD). "People like labels,
and this is often the one given to
the child who is distractible and
has difficulty concentrating," say
Mr. Kardon.
"Personally, I think it's
overblown," he says. "It's not so
much that all these kids have a
biological problem that can be
helped by Ritalin or some other
drug. Most haven't learned struc-
ture at home and live with ha-
bitual family problems."
"With very young children suf-
fering from stress, it is more usu-
al to work primarily with the
parents," says Dr. London, so
forcing the child doesn't become
an issue. "With teens, I'll usual-
ly talk on the phone with the par-
ents first. If the teen is resistant,
I'll have the parent ask him to
consider coming in just once.
Most teens are afraid they'll have
to come for the rest of their lives.
"Teens do need more direct
personal contact to resolve their
problems. You can't force them to
come, but negotiating a time lim-
it of meeting for just a couple of
months often works at that ini-
tial meeting.
"I find that 10- to 12-year-old
boys are most hesitant about
coming in. In those cases," says
Dr. London, "if the parents are
feeling concerned, I may just talk
with them."
However, if the child has a
very severe problem, notes Dr.
Last, forcing the issue is appro-
priate. "It's like having a broken
leg. It doesn't matter if the child
is scared or refuses to go. You do
it.
"But you do need the child's co-