You & Your Family

Nutrition and Mental Health: It’s More Complicated Than You Think

The fact that March is National Nutrition Month makes me think of rats.

To be more specific, I think of two particular rats that lived in my first-grade classroom.

The Psychological Effects of the Flu

I call my mom once or twice a week to check in. When I called her yesterday, she took a second or two longer to speak than usual. Then, when she did speak, she sounded pretty awful.

“Welcome,” she whispered,

<raspy breath>

“To the house,”

<cough, wheeze>

“Of pesti—<cough>—lence.

New Year’s Evolution – Shrinking It Down

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Coping With the Wintertime Blahs – Shrinking It Down

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It’s cold. It’s gray. It’s dark. This time of year, a lot of folks feel pretty blah. And not just those with depression or other mental health disorders. It can affect anyone.

A Closer Look at Autism

Autism, more formally referred to as autism spectrum disorders (ASD), are conditions where individuals struggle with social relationships and communication. People with autism also often face challenges in handling changes to their normal routines, or attempts to expand their usually narrow range of interests.

DMDD Versus Bipolar Disorder

We’ve written about bipolar disorder before.

We’ve also written about the controversy surrounding the diagnosis.  Until about 25 years ago, most clinicians felt that bipolar disorder in children and adolescents was extremely rare.

Q+A: Are Behavioral Issues Among Kids as Common as They Seem?

Question: It seems like every child these days has some kind of problem. ADHD. Anxiety. Depression. Are these things as common as they seem?

Answer: Are behavioral challenges among children as common as they seem? Well, it’s difficult to say because the line between normal and abnormal behavior is often a matter of degree.

Our Greatest Strengths, Part 2 – Shrinking It Down

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At the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, we think a lot about helping kids as they’re growing up with all sorts of challenges.

The World Series: A Metaphor For Life

My kids roll their eyes when I tell them that being a sports fan is a lot like life. This is probably because I say it too much.

But just look at our rhetorical metaphors.

For football: “We went the whole nine yards.” Or “I didn’t have anything to lose, so I just tossed a Hail Mary.

Five Parenting Rules for Coping with the Current Political Climate

It’s not like we needed the recent supreme court hearings to know that things right now are super-tense.

Still, those hearings certainly didn’t help.

By my count, this is roughly the tenth time in the last three years I’ve been asked to write something about how parents can keep their heads in these trying political times.