Articles containing: teens

9 Ways to Know If Your Child’s Mental Health Clinician Is Right for Them

As parents, we all want the very best for our kids – the best teachers, coaches, and health professionals, among others.

About one in five of our children, teenagers, and young adults will experience a mental health issue and ideally receive mental health care.

Anxiety to Agency: Empowering Kids to Address Climate Change

Somewhere around last few years, I started fielding questions about climate change 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.

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.

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.

Why Chores Are Important for Kids

Chores.

We all remember them.

Some were associated with allowance, others simply mandatory. For many kids, and I bet for most of us, they were often an intrusion on other more important things to do.

What If My Child Has A Drinking Problem?

By far, the most commonly misused drug among teens is alcohol.  This makes sense, as alcohol is legally available throughout the United States, it’s heavily advertised and glorified in the media, and frequently used in celebratory activities.  The effects of alcohol in terms of reducing inhibition are quite real.

Advice for Parents on Talking About Tattoos

When it comes to tattoos, it’s always fun, if possible, to inquire.

Last week I saw a snarling demon with drooling teeth moving around on a teenager’s arm. The teenager wasn’t my patient, so rest assured that I am not writing about someone under my care.

What If My Child Has Depression?

“Depression” is a funny term.  Like lots of diagnoses in psychiatry, the word “depression” has both common and specific uses.  Kids might complain of “feeling depressed” after a break-up, or not making the school team, but they tend to snap out of whatever funk they’re in relatively quickly.

Reality TV: What’s Really Real?

In 2014, Dr. Holly Peek published an article on the MGH Clay Center Website discussing the strange world of reality TV. She began with a description of Kim Kardashian’s preparations for the birth of her first child.