One day, I was standing on the back of my pickup truck and throwing away trash at the town dump when I had an experience that’s hard to describe. My head was swimming, my body felt electrified and I felt detached from the world and myself. A memory then trickled in: I was nine years […]
We’re seeing epidemic levels of stress in children and teenagers, with increasing rates of clinical depression, anxiety and other coping problems. Fear, uncertainty and lack of control—factors that power stress—are ramped up in times of rapid, unpredictable change. And puberty is a time of massive change: hormonal, physical, sexual, social, cognitive and neurological. Puberty brings a level of volatility […]
My 5-year plan after finishing high school was simple: graduate from college in four years, then begin graduate school directly following graduation. It was easy for me to imagine a 5-year plan at 18 years old when my toughest challenge at that point had been taming my frizzy hair. My first two years of college […]
The rate of teen suicide has steadily increased since 2005. Among youth ages 15-24 years old, suicide is the second leading cause of death. A ripple effect of needs is created when a teenage suicide death occurs. Responding appropriately is critical to ensuring that everyone affected—family, friends and the school community—receives the right type and amount of support. Grief […]
Are there mental habits that will increase your self-confidence? Most definitely. You’ll read about 7 such powerful thinking habits below. My last blog revealed the very best mental habit I know for building self-confidence: “The Daily Success Review.” This short and simple 3-minute procedure nudges you to tune into the little things you do right every day […]
At least 1 in 5 school-aged children is affected by a mental health condition. The two most common conditions among children and adolescents are anxiety followed by depression, but children can have other difficulties that affect their ability to fully take part in and benefit from their classroom experiences. These include attention deficit-hyperactivity, autism spectrum disorder and eating disorders. Many […]
I was 21 years old and living in France. I had just graduated from college and was living near Paris when the symptoms began. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. I had never heard of mental illness; I did not think mental health existed. All I knew was that I couldn’t control what […]
We all know that education is incredibly important for a child’s development. But did you know that the time between toddlerhood and the teenage years (also known as “middle childhood”) is actually the best period for learning? According to anthropologist Benjamin Campbell, the human brain during this time is “organized enough to attempt mastery, yet still fluid, […]
Self-abandonment is a strange concept. How can you abandon yourself when you are always with you? If you’re well-schooled in the world of self-development, you may have an educated guess at what self-abandonment is: It’s when you don’t support yourself, right? Kind of. Essentially, self-abandonment is when you reject, suppress or ignore part of yourself in real-time. In other […]
I am in treatment (weekly therapy and a drug regimen) for clinical depression and a panic disorder. They are, for the most part, very well managed. However, even the most well managed mental illness has flare-ups, during which I find it difficult to get out of bed, am plagued with suicidal thoughts or am so […]
