The Centers for Disease Control used data from the Global Youth Tobacco survey to gain a global understanding on the state of tobacco use among teenagers. Part of the World Health Organization, the survey examined rates of smoking among 170,000 13-15 year olds in 61 countries, asking about how they feel regarding tobacco use in…
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Most psychiatric conditions develop before the age of twenty four years old. Mental health conditions like depression often develop in adolescence but are overlooked, leaving adolescents and teens undiagnosed as well as untreated. Teenagehood, the common angst and fluctuation of hormones, is enough of an answer for most parents to overlook the beginning symptoms of…
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According to a report by Common Sense Media, at least half of girls and one third of boys have an “ideal weight”. As young as six years old, young children believe that they should be more thin than they are now. Dieting behaviors in order to achieve this ideal weight starts young, as well. The…
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Marijuana is commonly considered the lesser of evils when it comes to experimentation with mind altering substances among adolescents and teens. Though marijuana cannot cause a fatal overdose, it can cause long term complications in cognitive development and cognitive function when it is used regularly in adolescence. Parents are learning that marijuana can in many…
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Family and friends can ask a lot of questions when they know that your adolescent loved one has struggled with addiction, gone to treatment, and come back home. Recovery is not something to be ashamed of, but something everyone should take great pride in. Early interactions in the first few months of recovery can be…
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We remember what they were like when they were little. Small children are full of robust emotions and energy for which they don’t yet have a vocabulary to express. They scream and cry, they laugh and run around, they throw temper tantrums, they throw objects, they exhaust themselves with tears. Sometimes they hit us out…
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Depression is a natural emotional experience. When you finally get your addicted adolescent into treatment and they are out of the home, it is easy to fall into a depression. There is no more fighting, no more staying awake at night worrying, no more fretting about where they are and what they are doing. Once…
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Thirty eight percent of girls between the ages of 13 and 17 have an anxiety disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. For boys of the same age, twenty six percent have an anxiety disorder. More young people are experiencing anxiety than ever before. Mental health concerns have gone through “trends” over the…
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Some parents have witnessed the horror of their young adolescent or teen addicted to hard drugs like pills, opiates, cocaine, and more. These life threatening drugs took over their child’s life and drove them down a dark path. Addiction to hard drugs is a daily threat with potentially fatal consequences. Other parents have seen their…
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Boundaries are the invisible lines we draw to separate ourselves from others’ behaviors. We get to make delineated boundaries about what we are willing to tolerate and not tolerate, for ourselves. We can only be pushed so far, do so much, or take so much abuse. Lacking in boundaries can result in codependency, exhaustion and…
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