When Your Child Isn’t the Child You Expected
Becoming a parent can be exhilarating. But sometimes children turn out differently than parents had hoped or expected. Maybe a child is deaf or has autism, or a child is gay or exceptionally gifted, or that child grows up and commits a crime. Writer and psychologist Andrew Solomon is the author of the best-selling book “Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity.” In the book, he looked at the struggles many parents face, and how they manage to find profound meaning in raising exceptional children.
Solomon also wrote the memoir “The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression,” which won the 2001 National Book Award for Nonfiction. He teaches clinical psychology at Columbia University Medical Center, and he says there are ways to differentiate depression from sadness.
A question Solomon has explored is why some people are more resilient through depression than others. And he found that those who see value in their struggles fare better. And they often discover they aren’t alone.
Solomon has been named the winner of UAB’s 2018 Ireland Distinguished Visiting Scholar Award. He gives a free lecture Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the UAB Hill Student Center Alumni Theatre.
UAB is a sponsor of WBHM programming. WBHM’s news and business departments operate separately.
Why Gen Z protesters worldwide are flying an anime pirate flag
Gen Z protesters from Indonesia and Nepal to Madagascar and Morocco, are rallying behind an unexpected banner: a grinning skull in a straw hat.
What to expect as Syria holds first parliamentary elections since Assad’s ouster
Syria is holding parliamentary elections on Sunday for the first time since the fall of the country's longtime autocratic leader, Bashar Assad, who was unseated in a rebel offensive in December.
Some Democrats share Trump’s goal of forcing more homeless people into medical care
President Trump says one part of the answer to homelessness is civil commitment and forced medical care. Some Democrats agree.
Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s National Guard deployment to Portland
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Portland, Ore., which the president had ordered over the objections of local leaders.
Largest US Lutheran denomination installs first Black presiding bishop
Rev. Yehiel Curry succeeds Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, who served for 12 years and was the first woman to lead the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
National parks caught in the crosshairs of government shutdown
National parks across the country face conflicting demands and uncertainty as a result of the ongoing federal funding dispute.