Parenting Concerns

Anxiety to Agency: Empowering Kids to Address Climate Change

Somewhere around last few years, I started fielding questions about the Earth’s climate in my work as a child psychiatrist. 

“Have you seen the Mad Max movies?” kids would ask. “I mean, that’s where we’re heading.

Q+A: What’s Wrong With Our Daughter’s Mood?

Question: What’s wrong with our daughter Maura? She just told us, “Sometimes I just feel like hurting myself.”

Maura, a 13-year-old girl, came into my office because she told her parents, “Sometimes I just feel like hurting myself…I want to jump out the window or suffocate myself with my pillow.

What Is a Personality Disorder?

I’ve always had a problem with the label “personality disorder,” and so have many of my patients. I think it’s because we typically associate “personality” with a “person,” so the term seems to suggest that there’s something wrong with the human being.

Cognitive-Behavior Therapy: A Closer Look

 Jenny was a 15-year-old high school sophomore who had suffered from depression for six months. Her pediatrician referred her to a psychiatrist, who prescribed Prozac for her depressive symptoms.

How to Prepare for a Parent-Teacher Conference if Your Child Has ADHD

It’s that time of year again. Kids are back in school. Teachers are getting to know your child, and your child is adjusting to the routine of being a student. Is a parent-teacher conference far behind? If you’re the parent of a child with ADHD, these conferences can fill you with dread.

Are ER Visits the Answer to Mental Health Issues at School?

Anyone who works in a school can tell you that mental health concerns are an integral part of their job. After all, students need to be at their emotional best in order to perform at their scholastic best. There may be exceptions, but the general rule of thumb is that healthy kids are the best students.

Q+A: What Is Separation Anxiety Disorder?

My 4-year-old was just diagnosed with Separation Anxiety Disorder. What is it?

You may already have guessed from the name of the diagnosis that separation anxiety disorder has something to do with the anxiety a child feels when separated from parents or caregivers.

What Is Family Therapy?

Family therapy emphasizes the idea that a child lives and grows in relationship to others, particularly in relationship to members of his or her own family. There are many different family therapy approaches.

Helping Kids Fit In At School

For a good part of third grade, I sat by myself in the school cafeteria during lunch.

I don’t exactly recall feeling lonely during those isolating moments with my peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, but I certainly feel sad as I look back today.

I just didn’t fit in—and that’s a truly awful feeling.

Q+A: Should I be nervous? My preschooler’s teacher recommended I have him evaluated for an anxiety disorder..

My 3-year-old son Justin has been in preschool for five months and he won’t stay unless I sit in the classroom with him. His teacher told me today that this isn’t fair to the other children and that I need to get him evaluated for an anxiety disorder.