Are you worried about your child going off to college? and what kinds of resources will be available?
The good news is that there are over 400 chapters of Active Minds, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and support for mental illness. See if there is a chapter at or close to a school your child is considering.
Check out this video for more information:
If you’re looking for basic public health information about mental health, look no further than the Center For Disease Control’s (CDC) Mental Health page. This website provides users with a good starting point for learning about mental health.
This page gives:
Viewers also have access to published papers for additional, more in-depth research. Additional links to other organization’s websites are included.
Did any fact, number, or statistic on this site surprise you?
Featured image: Fe_Lima via Compfight cc
College years are a big transition for everybody, so anxiety and depression are not uncommon among undergraduates.
Continue reading Yik Yak: Let’s Talk about Depression, Anxiety, and Suicide
Time management is not easy. It is even more tough to teach your child how to manage their time. Kids are so busy these days – AND can easily get distracted by their technology.
Access Times
Help your child think through what times of the day they could limit using social media. Is it right after school? Is there an hour when they have to put away their phone and only focus on homework? A good time to put away technology is dinner time. Having a regular family meal is a great way to say healthy. It can promote communication between the family, and be a way families can spend quality time together, including thinking about what you are eating instead of mindlessly scarfing something down. This can be tough for busy families – but try it at least a couple of times per week.
Computer Websites/Apps
If you or your child need some help limiting your use, there are some great online apps available to help. There are different apps with slightly different abilities, so here’s a guide that will help you pick your best option:
Phone Apps
You can stop yourself from accidentally logging onto Facebook on your computer, but what happens when your friend posts a photo and you get a notification on your phone? It’s not easy to ignore, and phone providers make it difficult to limit access to certain sites from your smart phone. Because of this, there aren’t as many tools for your phone to limit distractions. However, there is an app called Forest that works really well to encourage you not to be on your phone, instead focused on the task at hand. You enter the app and can “plant a seed,” which takes 30 minutes to grow into a tree. If you leave the app at any time to check another app (*cough* like social media) the tree will die, and you’ll have to start over. Eventually, your hard work will grow into your own personal forest in your phone. Interested? Click here to learn more.
Do you have any tips or tricks for limiting your own or your child’s social media use? Let us know in the comments below!
One day your little person grows up and looks like an adult – it seems like it happens overnight.
Sometimes these physical changes make it hard for parents to realize that young people are still going through developmental tasks.
Have you seen this inspirational video of a commercial where a man gives back to his community in a selfless way?
How does it make you feel when you’re able to help someone out in a big way? How do we encourage selflessness and giving in our adolescents? Let us know in the comments!
You might have heard that taking a pause in the day to recenter yourself and let yourself just be without judgment can be a way to de-stress. There is a website that can turn your computer or phone into a relaxation zone. Check out this beautiful website: calm.com or download the app.
There are some people in our office who use it while we work, we think it’s lovely!
If you tried it, let us know what you thought about it below!
Do you sometimes get annoyed by what you see on social media? You wish you just didn’t have to see someone’s post about something?
Some social media sites are picking up on this and making changes so we can customize our social media experience.
Take a look at this article on how to customize your Facebook newsfeed.
In one of our previous posts, we talked about the best way to handle difficult situations with your teen- having open communication. Being available and having regular quality time together can let topics that are hard to discuss come up on their own instead of forcing it when you are both feeling emotional.
This can be tough when you are trying to talk about social media – something that your teen usually does in private.
You may have totally different perspectives on social media.
For your teen – it is an exciting place where they can actually do a lot of the things they are supposed to be doing. Things like establishing their identity – that means deciding what kind of picture they want to post, what kind of status update, who their friends are. At this age, what friends think is really important to your teenager – how many likes they get about a joke they post could be something that makes or breaks their day. They can experiment interacting with someone they feel attracted to – maybe they can like that person’s picture and see if that person like’s theirs.
For you – you may worry about your teen posting something that they get bullied about, about them sharing private information that can hurt them down the line, or that they are spending too much time on social media or that it is making them feel bad about themselves.
These are all valid concerns. One way to approach talking about social media are to bring up some of the good things about it.
You could say: “Did [friend’s name] post any pictures from her birthday party? Can I see?”
Or: “Can you help me set up my Facebook? I don’t know if I’m doing this right.”
Teens love to share when they are experts on something adults don’t know about. Understanding what is fun about social media for them can help you have open communication about it. This will let you ask the tough questions like, “Does using social media ever put you in a worse mood?” or “Are any of your friends getting bullied on social media? I worry about that happening to you.”
If you talk to your teen with a statement showing that you care like “This makes me worry” or “Can you show me” it might help your teen open up. This can eliminate your children feeling like you are lecturing them.
What do you think? Have you tried talking about social media with your teen and what has worked for you?
Transgender issues have been on the forefront of the news and social media all spring this year, and regardless of the reasons for this attention, the truth is that attitudes are changing.
