Disorders
Talking About Mental Illness: Ways to Discuss Mental Health with Your Child
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…
Read MoreStudy Finds a Gene Linked to Teen Anxiety
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,…
Read MoreSchool’s Out: Truancy in Teens
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…
Read MoreFrom One Mood to the Next: Tips for Parents Dealing With Bipolar Disorder In Teens
While mental illness is never easy, bipolar disorder in teens can hit especially hard As if puberty alone 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 to…
Read MoreA constant battle: oppositional defiant disorder in teens
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…
Read MoreThe Living Dead: Sleep Deprivation in Teens
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…
Read MoreSocial Anxiety Disorder: Bee Stings, Not Butterfly Wings
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…
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