Before I go any further into the creation side of my book Insider’s Guide to Parenting, I want to share what’s actually in it.
When I said in my last post ‘It’s a monster,’ I wasn’t kidding. Before I edited and chopped it down, it was over 800 pages…single space. By channeling my inner economist and forcing myself to get hyper-efficient with words, chapters and themes – I ended up with a rough draft just under 400 pages, 53 chapters organized in three sections: Strengths, Challenges and Treatment.
My first section, Strengths includes the following chapters:
Chapter 1: Communication
Chapter 2: Conflict Resolution
Chapter 3: Desirable Traits
Chapter 4: Values
Chapter 5: Fitness
Chapter 6: Money
Chapter 7: Nutrition
Chapter 8: Schedules
Chapter 9: Rewards and Consequences
Chapter 10: School
Chapter 11: Summer
Chapter 12: Gender
Chapter 13: Sex
Chapter 14: Gap Year
Chapter 15: Technology
Chapter 16: Work
The second section, Challenges, is really about symptoms and when things go wrong. It’s a very long section but I really couldn’t short cut too much here:
Chapter 17: Diagnosis
Chapter 18: Risk
Chapter 19: Social Services
Chapter 20: Divorce
Chapter 21: Substance Use
Chapter 22: Motivation
Chapter 23: Entitlement
Chapter 24: Abuse
Chapter 25: Suicide
Chapter 26: Gaming
Chapter 27: Depression
Chapter 28: Anxiety
Chapter 29: ADHD
Chapter 30: Schizophrenia
Chapter 31: Oppositional Defiant Disorder
Chapter 32: Autism
Chapter 33: Eating Disorders
Chapter 34: Parents’ Behavioral Health
My final section is all about Treatment – from how to find it, what the options are and how to pay for it:
Chapter 35: Overview of Treatment
Chapter 36: Evaluation
Chapter 37: Therapeutic Placement
Chapter 38: Therapy
Chapter 39: Wraparound
Chapter 40: IOP
Chapter 41: PHP
Chapter 42: Hospitalization
Chapter 43: Residential Treatment
Chapter 44: Boot Camps and Military Academies
Chapter 45: Therapeutic Wilderness
Chapter 46: Therapeutic Boarding School
Chapter 47: Aftercare
Chapter 48: Therapeutic Transport
Chapter 49: 12-Steps and SMART Recovery
Chapter 50: Insurance
Chapter 51: Financing Treatment
Chapter 52: Medication
Chapter 53: Alternative Treatments
Many of these chapters, though titled more simply here and in the book, are simply edited and clean-up versions of blog posts. Some are just blunt, scrappy researched chapters that are super interesting but super dense with information. The overall goal here is the comprehensive tome of behavioral health for parents, their kids and professionals with whom they work.