If you are the parent of a teenager, we know you have spent the last sixteen or so years thinking about what it will be like to watch your child grow up. You likely imagined them doing well in school, playing a sport or an instrument, having wonderful friends, and someday going to college or [...]
According to recent statistics, one in every five women and one in every 71 men will become a victim of rape at some point in their lives. Rape isn’t limited to unwanted sex between a person and a stranger, either. In fact, over half of female sexual assault victims indicate that they were raped by [...]
The teenage years are difficult. It does not matter if you are the most neurotypical, healthy teenager with plenty of friends. These years are still difficult. They are full of developmental milestones, learning consequences, identifying who you are, and learning to establish healthy relationships. You do all of this while balancing school and deciding what [...]
Cyberbullying is the experience of being bullied over a technology device such as cell phones, computers, tablets, social media, forums, and gaming. It is unfortunately occurring at a rate that is steadily increasing and very high. Federally collected data from 2017 shows that 15% of school aged children 12-18 have experienced bullying by text message. [...]
Recovery means something different to every person. Most of us are in recovery from something. Recovery from the end of relationships, from substance use, from an addiction to eating or shopping, or really any struggle that has impacted life in difficult ways. As a teenager I needed help find recovery from the struggles that high [...]
You’ve probably encountered someone in your life and have written off their quirky behaviors to OCD. Perhaps this friend was overly neat and organized. Maybe they were excessively clean and were taken to be a germophobe. Possibly, this person just seemed uptight and needed to learn to relax. Or, so you thought. In reality, OCD [...]
How often do you see young people on their phone? If you answered anything other than all the time, you are not interacting with the same teenagers that we are. Phone and tablet use is so common that it is even being added to their school curriculum. Prompts such as “find this resource online and [...]
Mood disorders are very common mental health diagnoses. Experiencing a mood disorder can be characterized by a distortion in mood that makes functioning difficult. A person may be very sad, depression, happy, angry, and may struggle to maintain a mood state. At any age, people who experience mood disorders may be more likely to engage [...]
Today’s teenagers face a multitude of pressures, among which include the need for good grades and the ability to get into a good college. But aside from academics, teens also experience several pressures that can be quite worrisome for parents, including pressures to try drugs or to have sex. With both drugs and sex, once [...]
Though it seems that teen drug use as it pertains to cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines is stable, if not on the decline, drug use and abuse is still prevalent. Whether it be alcohol abuse, prescription medication misuse and abuse, and one of the more common behaviors that we are seeing, vaping, teens today are still [...]
Stress can reduce our quality of life in unimaginable ways. It is a human experience and one of the few things that bond us all together. We all experience stress. The magnitude of those stressors are different, but it is something we can all relate to. Even infants feel stress as they cry waiting for [...]
In your everyday life, you probably have no reason to even talk about “coping mechanisms” on a regular basis. However, if you or a loved one were to be faced with a mental health issue of some kind, I would be willing to bet that you may hear and use these words often. First and [...]
As we enter into the fall season, households across America start packing up their summer wear. And, they start pulling out fall clothing and warm blankets, and switching the thermostat from air conditioning to heating. For many Americans, however, fall means an emotional change as well. In fact, the fall season is well known for [...]
Eating disorders can be caused by a variety of reasons. In most cases, they stem from an obsession with body weight, food, or body shape. In these cases, the person with the eating disorder has some sort of altered reality about their situation or tries to overcompensate for that perceived shortcoming. Though most of us [...]
Human beings love to eat. At pretty much every single stage of human development, people can’t get enough of snacking on sweet or salty products throughout their day. As young adults in school and in the workplace, it can be hard to find a balance between eating responsibly and overeating. While, for the most part, [...]
Food addiction occurs when a person feels a pressing need to eat, so much to the point that the need becomes out of control. This compulsivity is often a response to certain feelings or emotions that cause stress, anger, or sadness. Though food is a requirement for human survival, food addiction takes place when someone [...]
Today’s teens are under a lot of pressure. They are expected to get great grades, hold down part-time jobs, and take on extracurricular activities so that they can get accepted into a good college. Though these pressures have always existed and parents feel that they had the same experiences, with the proliferation of technology and [...]
There are many major events that happen in one’s life that can result in grief. For teens, it is usually the loss of a grandparent. In more extreme situations, it might be the loss of a parent, sibling, or friend. Or, maybe the grief has come as the result of stress due to divorce. Whatever [...]
