Is hardiness the new resilience? I think it will be come January 2020, when Dr. Steven J. Stein’s new book Hardiness: Making Stress Work for You to Achieve Your Life Goals comes out. I had the good fortune to hear Dr. Stein speak at a recent event at The Globe and Mail (full disclosure: I… Read More Is hardiness the new resilience?
The George Hull Centre for Children and Families, in Etobicoke, Ontario, is one of 400 agencies in the province that support children and youth mental health. I was familiar with it as my daughter, through a referral from her school, had briefly done speech therapy at the centre as little kid. As well, a close… Read More Treating the whole family at the George Hull Centre
Last spring I wrote a post about re-thinking our education system to prevent suicides on university campuses. It was written in response to the death of a student at the University of Toronto. I could recycle that post now, just months later, following the death of another student in late September in the Bahen Centre… Read More Rethinking our education system on World Mental Health Day
While I’d read about the gaps in Canada’s mental health care system, I didn’t really expect to encounter them when I went looking for professional help for my daughter’s depression. I had so many advantages compared to many in Ontario. I lived in a big city, had a family doctor and means for private therapy.… Read More Mind the gaps in Canada’s mental health care system
Hands up if you want to stop feeling guilty about your teen’s depression? No matter how many people tell your child’s depression is not your fault, it sometimes feels impossible to believe otherwise. After all, our kids are the result of both our nature and our nurture. Who else is there to blame? For me,… Read More How to stop feeling guilty about your teen’s depression
I didn’t always talk about my kid’s struggle with depression. For a long time, I thought, “it isn’t my story to tell.” Even though it is. Getting married, having kids, nearly losing one of those kids–those events are all a part of my narrative. But for years, our situation was precarious at best. My daughter… Read More Why I talk about my kid’s struggle with depression
In December 2018, the journal Clinical Nutrition reported that those with pro-inflammatory diets were 1.4 times more likely to have depression or depressive symptoms. The finding came from 11 existing studies, involving over 100,000 participants with pro-inflammatory diets. Yet, in years of mental health care for diagnosed depression, inflammation was not something that any doctor,… Read More Does a pro-inflammatory diet cause depression?
What to do while waiting for help that actually helps your teenager is an important lesson to learn, because chances are you’ll have to wait. And while you wait, your teenager’s depression may get worse. At least that’s what happened with my daughter. She went from acknowledging she felt depressed and asking for help to… Read More What do do while waiting for help that actually helps
Depressed teenagers do not walk dogs. At least not in my experience. I thought you should know in case you were thinking about getting a dog to help improve your teenager’s depression. That’s not to say you shouldn’t go ahead and do it. Dogs really are good for our mental health. I just think it’s… Read More Depressed teenagers do not walk dogs
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), with or without medication, seems to be the go-to treatment for teenagers with moderate to severe depression. The catch is that one-on-one CBT with a psychologist or licensed clinical social worker in Toronto can cost anywhere from $150 to $225 an hour in Toronto, and appointments outside of work and school… Read More Expert Q&A: Advances in CBT with Dr. Khush Amaria
