Glenn Close has a wonderful website called bring change 2 mind about ending mental illness. She was inspired by her sister’s mental illness and uses the website to educate others about mental illness. One area of the site includes stories about mental illness.
Check out Laura’s story about how she uses positivity and her support network to get through each day.
When you have questions about your health, where do you go first? Many of us go to the internet. We know there are all kinds of things we could find there – good and bad. But there are ways to figure out what information you can trust and what is not trustworthy.
Sometimes the hardest part of any conversation is where to start! Open communication about social media with adolescents is important, but where do you start the conversation? Here’s just a couple of suggestions from the American Academy of Pediatrics:
Sometimes you want to listen to something while you’re reading, working, or trying to relax but music is too distracting. Try a “white noise” app or website!
Last week we mentioned how it can be tough to have a conversation with your child about driving. Here’s another video about why it is so important to have that talk. Check out the checkpoints program and get started with safe driving today!
Social media is highly used among adolescents and teens. While there are many perks to social media, it also has it’s dangers. For example, some social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., will share your location without you even knowing. This could be troublesome for your privacy as well as your safety.
What are some of the dangers of sharing your location online? And how can you prevent sharing too much information?
Continue reading Dangers of sharing your location via social media
Are you feeling especially anxious or sad today but can’t get away from a screen? Try going to www.calm.com and taking a minute for yourself.
What do you do when you’re feeling especially anxious? Have you shared that with your youth? Let us know in the comments.
– by MeditateZEN
What’s your emoticon?
Really, what is it?
If you read through your last year of posts, what emotion do you exude the most?
Has your doctor asked your child to fill out a survey before they come in to see them? If you answered yes, your child probably filled out a screening questionnaire.
These are questions that help raise a red flag to the doctor to ask you or your child more questions. Even though these screening questionnaires are backed up by research to be able to pick up people who are depressed, they can’t be used alone to make a diagnosis of something like depression. You need a professional to do that. Just like a vision screen done at school might pick up that your child might need glasses, you need a professional to tell you exactly what the problem is.
A health professional can:
Remember to give your child privacy when they are filling out screening questionnaires. They may be embarrassed to fill it out in front of you! If you have concerns you’d like to talk to the doctor alone about, make sure you let them know that too. After the visit, if your child is willing, encourage them to talk to you about what they and the doctor talked about. If they don’t want to tell you this time, try again the next time!
What do you think about screening tests? Do you think your child should have to take them before they see their doctor?
