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Parents

Parents

Parents
Anxiety & Mood Disorders

Does My Teen Have Bipolar Disorder?

Katy Perry’s Hot ‘n Cold describes your teen’s mood swings perfectly. Your teenager goes through major ups-and-downs. They vacillate between episodes of enthusiasm and joy and periods of sadness and lethargy. Yes, of course, everyone tells you that adolescent mood swings are common, but how do you know whether your teen’s symptoms are typical or require intervention? Bipolar Disorder in Teens Bipolar disorder was formerly referred to as manic-depressive disorder

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June 30, 2020

The Impact of COVID-19 on Teens with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by repetitive, obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors that often intrude upon a person’s day-to-day life. This anxiety disorder is a common psychiatric disorder for adolescents. Evidence shows that between one and three percent of children and teens struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Some common types of obsession include worrying about something bad happening or worries about becoming sick or dying. Teens with OCD may show constant

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June 27, 2020

Report: The Most Commonly Abused Drugs in LA County

Addiction and substance use is a nationwide problem. But specific areas of the country show specific trends and drug patterns. For example, the 2019 Los Angeles County Sentinel Community Site (SCS) Drug Use Patterns and Trends Report shows the current statistics of drug use in Los Angeles County. Dr. Mary-Lynn Brecht of UCLA authored the report, which was funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) together with the

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June 25, 2020

Media Consumption, Protests, and Teen Mental Health

Media coverage of the nationwide protests occurring in response to the tragic death of George Floyd has been nearly constant since Memorial Day. Every second a new video appears: from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles, demonstrators are out in the streets, making their voices heard. And your adolescent is watching it all unfold, in real time, on TV and on their phones. Many parents are asking themselves this

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June 24, 2020

Five Tips for Making Your Practice a Safe Space for LGBTQ+ Teens

June is Pride Month! In honor of #Pride, we asked Clarissa Harwell, LCSW for advice on making the therapy room a safe and welcoming space for teens who identify as LGBTQIA. Clarissa works for Uplift Family Services in the Bay Area and also has a private practice in Campbell, California. In addition to working with children and teens who engage in high-risk behavior, such as suicidal ideation or self-harm, Clarissa

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June 23, 2020

Academic Performance and Drug Use Among Teens Who Date

Dating is a big part of being a teenager. Movies, pop music, books, and social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook glorify teen love, teen crushes, being boy-crazy, girl-crazy, or non-binary they/them crazy. To be clear, by crazy we mean obsessed, and by obsessed we don’t mean clinically. We mean the can’t-stop-thinking-about-my-crush kind of obsession, and crazy as in I’m crazy about this person because well I just am kind

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June 22, 2020

Anxiety in Children: Do Kids Worry About Politics?

With everything that’s going on in the world right now, you may find yourself wondering if your child worries about the news. News once aimed at adults and timed to air after younger kids went to bed now airs almost 24/7. Adults also receive constant news updates on their smartphones, or check social media to stay abreast of what’s going on in the world around them. And, in recent years,

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June 21, 2020

LGBTQ Teens: How Gay-Straight Alliances Boost Mental Health

Adolescence is a turbulent time for any teen. As the developing brain prioritizes sensation, learning, and exploration over risk mitigation, teens navigate a precarious path toward self-actualization and learn to build strong relationships both within and outside their peer groups. While recent research reframes adolescent risk-taking behavior as a natural adaptation – part of an instinctive push toward learning experiences that can lead to self-sufficiency – the facts remain that

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June 20, 2020
Parents

The Impact of the Protests on Teen Mental Health

Over the past few months, most families across the country have lived in relative isolation due to shelter-in-place orders designed to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve written several articles on the various ways this affects teens: they’ve missed school, missed seeing their friends in person, and missed milestone events like proms and graduations. Just when everyone thought things were looking up – as many parts of the

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June 19, 2020

My Teen Doesn’t Want to Go to Therapy or Mental Health / Substance Abuse Treatment, What Should I Do?

Your teen needs mental health treatment for a certain emotional, behavioral, or substance abuse problem. It could be depression, anxiety, trauma, ODD, DMDD, ADHD, prodromal psychosis, addiction, substance use, or any other mental health issue. The problem is, your teen does not want to go to treatment. Your teen could have a number of reasons why they don’t want to get mental health treatment. They could say they don’t need

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June 16, 2020