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Anxiety & Mood Disorders

teens in masks pandemic
Anxiety & Mood Disorders

Teen Mental Health Issues: Don’t Wait for a Crisis

Delaying Treatment Makes Everything Worse If you’re the parent of a teenager, you know the past two years have been stressful. Strictly speaking, by the calendar, it’s been 19 months since schools around the country switched to virtual learning at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Most kids are back in school now, and things are slowly getting back to normal. But if we’re honest, they’ve been through 19 months

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depressed teen girl sitting floor
Anxiety & Mood Disorders

Depression in the U.S. Before and After COVID: Risk of Increased Co-Occurring Disorders

Decades of research and documentation show the relationship between alcohol/substance use disorder (AUD/SUD) and mental health disorders such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder (BPD), and depression. When an individual receives a diagnosis for more than one mental health disorder, clinicians use the terms co-occurring disorders or dual diagnosis. Both these phrases mean exactly what they sound like: co-occurring disorders means that two disorders occur in one individual

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two teens bump elbows wear masks
Anxiety & Mood Disorders

Surgeon General’s Advisory: Youth Mental Health in 2021

On Tuesday, December 7th, 2021, the Surgeon General issued an advisory regarding the mental health of children and teens in the U.S. Here’s the short version: Our youth are in trouble – but there are things we can do to help. The rest of this article is the long version. Why a Surgeon General’s Advisory Is Important A Surgeon General’s Advisory (SGA) carries more weight than a report from the

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teen boy doctor exam of back
Anxiety & Mood Disorders

Teens with Chronic Pain Experience Depression and Other Mental Health Disorders

Mental Health Issues in Teens With Chronic Pain According to a worldwide survey conducted in 2019 that included data from over two-hundred thousand children and teens from 42 countries, 44.2 percent reported experiencing chronic pain. In addition, data from 2008 shows that among children and teens who experience chronic pain, 5.1 percent reported pain so severe it prevented them from participating in regular daily activities. The research on chronic pain

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bored teenager sitting on couch
Anxiety & Mood Disorders

When Teens Lose Interest or Pleasure in the Things they Used to Enjoy It’s a Sign of Depression

With a Teen, How Can You Tell? Deciphering and interpreting adolescent moods is one of the most challenging aspects of parenting a teenager. Most parents know and understand the warning signs of mental health disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD), which non-clinical people call depression. They know to watch for a sudden drop in grades, radical changes in appearance and attention to hygiene, and surprising changes in peer groups. They

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Anxiety & Mood Disorders

Why Do Parents Wait to Get Help for a Teen Struggling with Mental Health?

Stigma and Awareness: Rewriting the Narrative About Mental Health When a teenager has mental health issues, they don’t always get the help they need. That help can come in many forms. For some teens, it may mean once a week outpatient treatment. For others, it may mean something more immersive, like an intensive outpatient program, called an IOP, or a partial hospitalization program, called a PHP. Teens with a severe

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Anxiety & Mood Disorders

Treatment Outcomes for Teen Depression Impacted by Duration and Severity

Why Delaying Treatment Can Make Depression Harder to Treat Depression* is the second most common mental health disorder in the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 280 million people in the world have clinically diagnosable major depressive disorder (MDD), with depressive states and depression symptoms of depression affecting nearly 350 million worldwide. In addition, the WHO indicates that depression is the leading cause of disability in the

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Anxiety & Mood Disorders

When Parents Fearing Stigma Delay Inpatient Psychiatric Care the Consequences Can Be Dire

Understanding Inpatient and Residential Care When your teenager receives a diagnosis for a clinical mental health, behavioral, or addiction disorder, it can come as a shock. You may not be prepared for the diagnosis or your responsibilities related to the diagnosis. Your first responsibility is to get your emotions under control and understand that what matters is not what happened leading up to the diagnosis. What matters is what happens

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Anxiety & Mood Disorders

I Wish I Were Dead: Why Transgender Teens Present as Suicide Risks and What Parents Can Do

[seriesbox]Parents of LGBTQ + Teens: A Guide to Terminology and Basic Concepts You Should Know LGBTQ+ and Transgender Teens: Using a Teen’s Chosen Name Reduces Depression and Suicide Risk Is Gender-Specific Treatment for Teens Necessary or Does It Exclude LBGTQI+ Teens?[/seriesbox]Transgender Teens at Increased Risk of Suicide Compared to Non-Trans Teens When we write about suicide risk in teens, we include the following warning in every article. Sometimes it appears

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Anxiety & Mood Disorders

The Latest Evidence on How the Pandemic Impacted Teens with OCD

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, mental health experts sounded an alarm. They warned that the pandemic would have a significant negative impact on the mental health of everyone in the country. Adolescent mental health experts warned that it wasn’t only the pandemic itself that would have negative consequences. They worried about the impact of mitigation measures on teenagers, specifically teens diagnosed with: Anxiety disorders Depressive

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