If your teenage child talks about suicide – which means they think about suicide – the first thing you should know is that you must take it seriously. Do not ignore it. Do not assume they’re joking, being dramatic, or saying it only to shock you. While you may be right – it may be one or a combination of all three of those – the consequences of you being
When you first learn your daughter engages in the behavior informally known as cutting, you’re probably at a total loss. For many people – especially parents – it’s difficult to understand. You probably feel a mix of confusion, shock, and worry. You wonder why your child would want to harm themselves. And you may feel guilty and think that somehow, it’s your fault. With all these emotions swirling in your
The word trauma gets tossed around a lot in contemporary informal speech. When something bad happens to us, we say things like: “That was traumatic.” or “I was totally traumatized.” And quite often, we mean it. We have a bad experience and it has a negative emotional impact on us. Maybe we had a near-miss driving a car, as in we came close to having an accident, felt a rush
Is your teen sleeping the recommended 8-10 hours? About three-quarters of high schoolers don’t get enough sleep. This not only puts them at risk for physical health problems, but also mental health disorders like depression and anxiety. During adolescence, development is supercharged. Teens can’t cope with the stress of physical, emotional, and social changes without enough sleep. Some experts believe that behaviors commonly associated with adolescence, such as moodiness, sleeping
You took an important step when you sent your child to a residential treatment program. It was probably one of the scariest things you’ve ever done. Committing to residential treatment is neither simple nor easy. You deserve praise for making that difficult decision. It’s totally understandable that you were on edge while your teen was in treatment, and it’s totally understandable that you’re on edge now that they have a
In 2010, scientists and experts on drug and alcohol use from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) launched a public awareness campaign to offer teenagers real facts about alcohol and drug use among their peer group. The purpose of the campaign was twofold: Present teenagers with the latest data on alcohol and drugs. Refute myths and misconceptions about alcohol and drug use teenagers find online and learn from television,
In 2017, the Child Mind Institute released a special report on the increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression among teenagers in the U.S. Two years later, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released their annual Monitoring the Future Survey (2019 MTF), which included data on the increase in rates of binge drinking among adolescents. Both reports created concern – and in some cases, raised alarm – for parents,
Bipolar disorder is a manageable condition. If you’re the parent of a teen diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BP), then you understand your child faces significant challenges. It’s likely they’ll experience some variation of the cycles of mania and depression that characterize bipolar disorder for the rest of their lives. If you’re unsure what those terms mean in the context of bipolar disorder – mania and depression – we’ll explain below.
The first thing a parent should do when their teenager lies about something is simple. Or rather, the first two things a parent should do are simple – and they’re more about you, the parent, than they are about your teenager. Here they are: Don’t be surprised. Don’t take it personally. We should back up and rephrase that: those are the first two things you shouldn’t do when your teenager
Every parent knows that children don’t always behave the way they want them to. That’s part of parenting: teaching kids right from wrong, teaching them the difference between appropriate behavior from inappropriate behavior, and teaching them how to get along with others. When our kids are toddlers, we excuse almost everything, because we know our kids know almost nothing: they need to be taught. Learning these basics is also part
