Parents, School Cooperation Brings Success for Students With Challenges

There’s increased public awareness that mental illnesses can begin at an earlier age. 

By Yagana Shah for Capital News Service 

Cecelia Scheeler was just 4 years old when she started exhibiting odd behavior -- throwing a fit when walking by dirty laundry or refusing to sit on certain furniture. She would wash her hands until they bled.
“My daughter’s behavior blew in like a storm overnight,” said Mary Ellen Pease of Towson...[Mary Ellen Pease is a Baltimore County parent and education advocate.]
read the full article here.

Now that you have met Cecelia Scheeler, read her phenomenal college essay:

Cecelia Scheeler's College Essay 

I can open doors with my feet.
I developed this ability at the tender age of four after I was diagnosed with severe obsessive compulsive disorder. Since my diagnosis, my life has been a series of fluctuating dosage levels, revolving door compulsions, and mad dashes for the bathroom sink.
OCD takes many different forms, but few of them are what you see on Monk. Sure, many of us obsessive-compulsives have had the urge to take a bath in germicide or organize our wardrobe by color at one point or another, but obsessions can be about anything at all. Despite what the media may lead you to believe, OCD is not simply about cleanliness and organization. Simple routines like brushing one’s hair can become a two hour process. But over the past few years, I have realized that my disorder doesn'’t need to be an obstacle in my path to success.
That’s not to say that it hasn’t been a rough ride. After my initial diagnosis, I was prescribed medication and had few symptoms throughout elementary school. Occasionally, I would relapse, and then I would start flicking light switches on and off and on and off and on and off and on and off at a seizure-inducing pace. But eventually, the lights would stay off, and I’d walk away.
Then came middle school...continues here.