Category: Child/Adolescent Mental Health

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Child Mind Institute Summit

I cannot say enough about how much information is packed into just an hour. Please take the time even if you have to break it into 15 min. segments. This is loaded with child/adolescent mental health information for parents, teachers, really anyone that has children in their lives. The Child Mind Institute Summit https://childmind.org/live/ A conversation ...

Managing Our Expectations and Behavior

Sometimes as parents we unintentionally expect more from our kids than they are capable of giving. It is important to know what age-appropriate behavior is for them at this stage in life and that they are learning from our interactions with not only them but the cashier at the store or how we speak about ...

Your Relationship with Your Teen still Matters

There is power in a relationship with your teen. Something I began to realize and understand after effectively pushing my teen farther away from me and closer to his friends was that he wouldn’t want to hear anything I have to say if all he hears is that he is doing this or that wrong ...

School Refusal…Now What?

Does your child struggle with school refusal? Many kids and teens with a mental illness struggle with getting themselves to school. Lots of homes are full of yelling and/or cajoling each weekday morning. Parents are afraid for their child’s future if they do not receive an education and sometimes of the legal penalties involved in ...

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Building a Support Team

Building Your Support Team is as important as building your child’s mental health care team. If you are always running on empty, you will not have the patience or stamina to fully support your child. This was something we failed to do, and I believe it would have made a world of difference. For some ...

Has Your Child Been Diagnosed with a Mental Illness?

Has your child been diagnosed with a mental illness? This can be a very uncertain time for many of us. We question whether it is the right diagnoses and should we allow them to be given medication. But the biggest question of all is what did we do wrong? As mentioned in a previous post, ...

Sometimes It is Not a Mental Illness

After reading a blog on Adverse Childhood Experiences (https://weneedtotalkaboutchildrensmentalhealth.wordpress.com/2017/10/30/the-adverse-childhood-experiences-evidence-base-a-wake-up-call-to-radically-redesign-childrens-mental-health-services/), I felt the need to clarify that not all behavioral problems stem from a mental illness. There are situations where life circumstance whether under our control or not can cause symptoms of a mental illness but actually may be a reaction to their environment. For me, ...

Seeking Outside Help for Your Child Can be Scary

Deciding to get outside help for your child’s behaviors can be a surprisingly difficult decision. Not only do we worry about the stigma of seeing a therapist or psychiatrist, we also worry about placing ourselves under a microscope to be evaluated and judged as a parent. I would like to let you know that you ...

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Stop the hate!

Just because someone is voting for a person you disagree with does not mean that person holds all of the same views as that candidate . Don’t make the mistake of judging and losing friends based upon that belief.  Here is what I have to say to my friends : It saddens me how vicious ...