When my son turned 13 and started doing things that made me say WTF more than a few times, a friend recommended I read The Teenage Brain. “Trust me,” she said. “It’ll explain everything.” The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Asolescents and Young Adults is written by Dr. Frances E. Jensen, a… Read More If your teen is doing things that make you say WTF, read The Teenage Brain
Research and surveys show it’s not always easy to distinguish teenage moodiness from teenage depression. But fortunately, there are some proactive steps you can take for your teen’s mental health. If you’re worried you might miss the signs of depression in your teenager, you’re not alone. The C.C. Mott Children’s Hospital in Michigan recently released… Read More Three proactive steps you can take for your teen’s mental health
As parents we tend to look to other parents to tell us how much screen time is too much for tweens and teens. So, lucky for us, The 2019 Common Sense Census on Media Use by Teens and Tweens is out. It’s the ultimate comparison tool. The verdict: kids are spending nearly five hours or… Read More How much screen time is too much for our kids?
I found Parenting Through the Storm by Ann Douglas after my daughter reached the recovery stage, but I wish I had found it sooner. If you’re unfamiliar with Ann Douglas, get ready to rejoice because this lady has been through the wringer and has lived to tell the tale. She knows of what she speaks!… Read More The best book about parenting kids with mental health challenges
Who is your MVP right now? Who do you turn to when depression starts winning? Gary Gulman once said of depression recovery, “This is not a solo act.” In a recent New Yorker Interview, he gave his girlfriend Sadé, the coveted title of MVP in his story. Which got me thinking: Who is my MVP?… Read More Depression recovery is not a solo act–you need an MVP
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
