Battle with Depression
Stories like these always make it easier for people especially boys or men to get help. Depression is real and not a weakness. Help is available and treatment works.
Teach teens to be nice…to themselves
It’s no secret adolescence is the period of peak stress. Rachel Simmons writes a fantastic article in the NY Times about self-compassion for stressed out teens. Unfortunately, anxiety and depression have skyrocketed in today’s teens. Between 2012 and 2015 depression increased 50% in teen girls and college students experiencing overwhelming anxiety reached 62% in 2016. Many adolescents attempt to motivate themselves to succeed with self-criticism; the idea of self-compassion is completely foreign. However, researchers analyzing studies of 7,000 teenagers with high levels of the self-compassion trait report lower levels of anxiety and depression. Previously, researchers discovered self-compassion not only eases psychopathology in adults but bolsters motivation and high performance standards. Self-compassion involves noticing one’s feelings without judgment, self-kindness or talking to one’s self in a soothing way and common humanity, or thinking about how others might be suffering similarly. I don’t know about you but my teenager is going to get weekly lessons on self-compassion.
Talking to your kids about school shootings
As we all reel yet again from the tragedy yesterday in Parkland, Florida it’s important as parents to be equipped to discuss these issues with our children. NBC News asked mental health experts how they discuss these tragedies with their own children. It provides some good ideas about how to communicate and process the events from yesterday. I’ll be having these same discussions with my 9th Grader and Fifth Grader. Avoiding, minimizing or ignoring the topic isn’t the right strategy just as forcing the discussion on to our kids is not healthy or helpful.
Winter Newsletter Stinkin’ Thinkin’
Suicide
A YouTube celebrity vilified across the Internet and in most mainstream news programs for an insensitive video vanishes for one month and comes back with the best mental health awareness video I’ve ever seen. He has tens of millions of subscribers and millions of fans; two of which are my own children. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in young people. One in six high schoolers seriously consider suicide. Logan Paul ends his video by pledging one million dollars to suicide prevention organizations.
Better Parenting
I can’t think of a better New Year’s Resolution. David G. Allan writes “There’s a lot of talk, many articles and a long shelf of books on mindful parenting. But it all boils down to this: When you’re with your kids, give them full, curious and happy attention.” If we do nothing more than this in 2018 we’ve given our children a deep and long-lasting gift.
Bullying and Hazing in High School Sports
Matt Wixon and Greg Riddle of the Dallas Morning News write and excellent special report on the culture of hazing and bullying in high school sports. I’ve heard heartbreaking stories from teens and observed the emotional fall out from this type of abuse. Most of this is unreported and under the radar of parents, coaches and administrators. This is an article every high school athlete and coach should read.
Fall Newsletter “Why Do We Procrastinate?”
Teenagers suffering more than ever from anxiety
Eye-opening story in New York Times Magazine about the epidemic of anxiety facing today’s teens. Anxiety has overtaken depression as the most common reason college students seek counseling services. There’s been a doubling of hospital admission rates for suicidal teenagers in the past 10 years with the highest rates coming in the Fall after they return to school. Anxiety is easy to overlook because most everyone has it to some degree and it’s often seen as a less serious problem. However, according to the National Institute of Mental Health Anxiety is the most common mental-health disorder in the U.S. affecting nearly one-third of both teenagers and adults.
