Does Cutting Mean My Teen Wants to Commit Suicide? If you recently discovered your teen engages in self-harming behavior, we’re sure your first question is a short version of the title of this article: “Why?” We understand. Most people who learn about cutting – especially when one of their children cuts – are confused and at a loss about the reasons and motivation behind the behavior. It’s not easy to
Take Passive and Active Suicidal Ideation Seriously When you have a teenager, one thing you have to learn to handle is the drama. If you can remember back to your teen years, you may remember that everything in your life seemed like a big deal. The new romantic interest. The breakup in your friend group. The classmate who got busted drinking and driving. The big test coming up on Friday.
Each year during the month of September, mental health professionals, community advocates, and organizations like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) work to raise awareness about the growing prevalence of suicide in the U.S. and around the world. Their collective efforts are known as National Suicide Prevention Month. There are two primary goals of National Suicide Prevention Month: Awareness Organizers use messaging across
Increased Risk for Teen Athletes, Boys and Girls with Body Dysmorphic Disorder Over the past several years, national news media published countless reports on increases in mental health disorders among adolescents (age 12-17) and young adults (age 15-29). Before the coronavirus pandemic began, mental health professionals called it a mental health crisis in our teens and young adults. One major factor leading this wave of reporting was the fact that
Our Teens Need Help: There Are Inpatient Treatment Options for Teens with Mental Health Issues At the end of 2020, the non-profit mental health advocacy organization Mental Health America (MHA) published a report called 2021: The State of Mental Health in America. The report helps anyone interested in mental health issues understand the big picture. It offers reliable prevalence data from all fifty states, based on the most recent data
How Can Parents Tell What Level of Care Their Teen Needs? Mental health disorders, like any other type of illness humans experience, come in all types. This is true across the lifespan: children, adolescents, adults, and seniors can all develop mental health disorders. Although the disorders share similar characteristics when they appear in the different phases of life, mental health professionals use slightly different criteria for diagnosing a disorder in
Teen Treatment Centers in The Golden State If your teen has a serious mental health condition, they may need residential treatment. Teens with emotional, behavioral, or alcohol/substance use disorders (AUD/SUD) typically begin treatment with less immersive levels of care, such as outpatient treatment, intensive outpatient programs (IOP), or partial hospitalization programs (PHP). However, if your teen participated in a program at one of these levels of care but didn’t make
How Do You Know if Your Troubled Teen Needs Psychiatric Treatment? The teenage years can be challenging for teens and parents alike. Adolescence is a time of radical transformation in virtually every area of a teenager’s life. Without going into extensive detail in each of these categories, we’ll review the major changes that occur for everyone during the teen years. Adolescence: Five Big Changes 1. Physical The presence of new
Evidence-Based Treatment for Teens Who Self-Harm Self-cutting – known among mental health experts by its clinical name, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) – can be difficult to understand for someone who’s never engaged in or known anyone who’s engaged in the behavior. The first person most people ask themselves is “Why?” That’s the most common question parents ask when they learn their teen engages in this type of behavior. We’ll address that
As COVID cases continue to drop nationwide, life is slowly returning to normal. Schools that closed are gradually opening for in-person classes. Sporting events, concerts, and parties are resuming. And parents are gearing up to go back to their regular work schedules if they haven’t already. To most people, this is all good news. Not every employed parent enjoyed working from home during the pandemic. Evidence shows that many cut
