Census data says there are roughly 21 million adolescents age 14-19 in the U.S. Mental health statistics say about 3% of adolescents age 13-18 have some form of bipolar disorder. Our informal math says these numbers mean over half a million teens in our country struggle with bipolar disorder. It’s important for parents of bipolar teens to work alongside both their teen and their teen’s therapist to help them lay

What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)? The gold standard diagnostic manual for mental and behavioral health disorders, the DSM-V, defines Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder as a neurological disorder characterized by obsessions and compulsions that take up at least an hour a day and cause a significant amount of psychological and emotional distress. Statistics show that about one in every two-hundred children and about one in every forty adults meet clinical OCD criteria. OCD

Teens and Stress When parents hear their teenage children complain about stress, most laugh out loud, roll their eyes, and say something like this: “Kid, you have no idea what real stress is. Just wait until you have real responsibilities. Come talk to me when you get a job, have a mortgage and monthly bills to pay, have to figure out how to afford health insurance for the whole family,

Childhood Mental Health: Emotional Fundamentals Most adults are well aware that the lessons children learn in their early years lay the foundation for success later in life. That includes educators, parents, and mental health professionals. Whether they’re educated at home, in a public school, or in a private school, a robust amount of early education and social interaction gives children skills that translate to the workplace on two key levels.

Getting the correct diagnosis for your teen is an essential first step if they struggle with emotional, mood, behavioral, and/or substance use disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is the go-to, authoritative bible mental health professionals use to identify and diagnose mental disorders in children, adolescents, and adults. It’s a comprehensive guide that includes detailed diagnostic criteria for almost any mental disorder a therapist might see.

Be sure to have your teen read Is My Anxiety Normal? Let’s start this conversation with a quick reality check: if your teen is anxious all the time, then yes, you should be actively concerned about it and try to find the underlying cause. What you should not do, however, is add fuel to the fire by compounding their anxiety with anxiety of your own. Which means our yes comes

Be sure to read Part One: Dialing in the Diagnosis Before we discuss the relationship between bipolar disorder and creativity, we want to be clear that nothing in this article glamorizes or romanticizes bipolar disorder. We work with bipolar patients every day, and we know first-hand living with the disorder can be uncomfortable at best and completely debilitating at worst. It’s a serious mental health condition that takes work, patience,

The teen years are a challenging period for any parent. Adolescence is a time of radical change on almost all levels. Teenagers transform physically, emotionally, and socially. As a parent, it’s easy to get caught on the back foot. It may seem that one moment your child is playing with dinosaur figurines and talking endlessly about dreams of becoming a paleontologist, and the next they’re obsessing over pop stars, dropping

Anxiety is a regular part of daily life. From children to adolescents to adults, we all experience relative degrees of anxiety as we navigate the world. Anxiety stems from fear: fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, or fear of bad things happening at some point in the future. Despite its negative connotations, anxiety can be healthy and helpful. In the big picture, anxiety is a positive human survival adaptation. It