Disorders

Navigating a disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) or other mood disorders in teens and adolescents can be a significant challenge, impacting their ability to maintain emotional stability and affecting their daily life and school performance. While traditional methods like talk therapy and stimulant medications prescribed by a qualified mental health professional can be effective for…

Mental health is often the elephant in the room. While recent years have seen mental health awareness, research, and treatment progress to new levels, talking about mental health is as difficult as ever. There are many reasons mental illness can go unheard. In some cases, it can be difficult for a person who hasn’t experienced…

In a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, researchers found a gene linked to why anxiety often forms and peaks in adolescence. With this new information, it may help develop new techniques for identifying teen anxiety and intervening earlier. Child and teen anxiety disorders, according to the NIH,…

Perhaps the greatest misconception about missing school is that all cases are the same. In reality, there are many reasons why a child would not want to go to class – the two main offenders being school refusal and truancy in teens. School refusal and truancy are entirely different beasts; the first step to ensuring…

While mental illness is never easy, bipolar disorder in teens can hit especially hard. As if puberty alone isn’t enough, a child struggling with bipolar disorder must deal with the pressures of severe mood episodes, from depression one moment to mania the next. During such an important phase in your teen’s life, it is crucial…

In every school, there are a few notoriously “bad” kids. These young people are defiant to authority figures like teachers and administrators, and act out at home, too. But some of these kids can’t help their insubordination. Oppositional defiant disorder in teens is a pattern of irritability and defiant, insubordinate behavior that lasts at least six…

In our society, people just expect teenagers to be extremely tired all the time, but many don’t ask why. Sleep deprivation in teens has become an epidemic in the United States. According to the CDC, about 70 percent of teens are sleep deprived. It’s hard to believe that seven in 10 teenagers you meet are running on…

Butterflies. Not the beautiful ones that float effortlessly throughout the warm, summer air, but the ones that flutter in your stomach before something nerve wracking, such as a date or an award ceremony. That iggly-wiggly feeling in your stomach is a product of normal, mild anxiety known as nervousness.  Social anxiety disorder: not butterfly wings, but bee stings…