A realistic and raw look at common issues faced by parents of children living with mental health and neurodivergent challenges.

Finding Connection: Shelter and Support for Parents of Children Living with Mental Health and Neurodivergent Challenges covers common realities, issues, and experiences of parents and caregivers of minor and adult children living with emotional, behavioral, developmental, and intellectual challenges.

From the perspective of a mother on the journey of loving and advocating for a daughter living with emotional and developmental challenges, the book openly, honestly, and compassionately acknowledges such common parental issues as:

• Feeling alone and isolated from friends and family because of a lack of understanding of the realities of loving and advocating for a child living with mental health and neurodivergent challenges.
• Being overwhelmed and exhausted by the amount of people and systems that must be dealt with in order to best advocate for a child.
• Living with guilt and blame over a child's diagnosis and challenges.
• Struggling with the decision of whether or not to medicate a child and frustration that a child refuses to take their prescribed medication.
• Getting fed up with the amount of unwanted advice received from people who are "just trying to help".
• Feeling like an emotional and/or physical punching bag for a child's feelings and emotions.
• Having difficulty connecting to the love felt for a child because of years of being on the never-ending roller coaster of emotions in caring and advocating for them.
• Wrestling with difficult emotions, such as anger, frustration, resentment, sadness, and hostility, sometimes directed toward a child living with challenges.
• Worrying about the effect this journey has on other relationships - with other children in the family, spouses, romantic partners, extended family, and friendships.