Self-Harm Awareness Month: The whys and what to dos
March is Self-Harm Awareness Month. The more you understand about self-harming behaviors, the more [...]
The Damaging Effects of Shame on Teen Girls
Shame has this very suffocating way of controlling lives, especially for your teenage daughter. Addressing [...]
Teaching Adolescents with Depression
As an educator one of the classroom problems that I often deal with is keeping [...]
There IS Good in the World
It's easy to look around us and see a bleak picture painted for our future. [...]
Teen Depression: A Life and Death Affliction
It happens somewhat regularly that parents commend us for “saving their daughter’s life.” I have [...]
Can a Good Night’s Sleep Cure Mental Illness?
Schools, psychiatric practices, residential treatment facilities, and even correctional facilities like the one I worked at early in my career can maximize their outcomes only to the extent that they make sleep an institutional priority.
Coping with Failure
None of us wants to fail, but setbacks give us some of our richest opportunities to listen, learn, and persist. It’s through supported challenges that we are most likely to cultivate a productive, pro-social balance of confidence and humility. The good news is that a positive relationship with failure can be developed even in young people who may have missed this developmental milestone at a younger age.
Teen Depression Treatment
If you suspect your child might be suffering from an emotional problem such as chronic depression (dysthymia), major depressive disorder, seasonal affective disorder or any of the several types of depression, alert your mental health provider (preferably one with experience diagnosing and treating teens) immediately.
LEARNING FROM THE BLUE ZONES
Short term, living on the edge a bit can help teens formulate their own adult identity, develop competencies and passions, and move forward in their journey toward independence. Long term, however, an immoderate way of life is associated with anxiety, unhappiness, health problems and even a shorter life span. As parents, we can’t—and shouldn’t—quash our teenager’s appetite for intensity. We can, however, temper and guide it.
The Suicidal Adolescent
Despite dire statistics regarding teen suicide, there is much that can be done to reduce suicide risk and to treat the causes of suicidal impulses.