I recently found out about this book Writing Away the Stigma:Ten Courageous Writers Tell True Stories About Depression, Bipolar Disorder, ADHD, OCD, PTSD & more
One in four American adults will endure the trials of a mental health condition this year, and more than half will experience one in their lifetime. Yet the stigma of mental illness remains, leading many to face their difficulties in shame and silence. In this collection, ten writers confront the stigma of mental illness head-on, bravely telling stories of devastating depressions, persistent traumas, overwhelming compulsions, and more.
I thought it was very cool that so many people contributed to the book to write about their experiences with mental illness. Being receptive to talking about mental illness makes it easier for our adolescents to talk to us about what is happening with them.
E-book and paperback versions are available now through Amazon.
What do you think of sharing your story? Does it help you to be open about your struggles?
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.
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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?”
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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.
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:
An article through NPR has combined some recent research on how schools can help to nurture students’ mental health rather than making it more difficult for adolescents. Here are some of the suggestions they had:
This warning is based on research studies which looked at the possible risks of taking an antidepressant. The research studies done on medication are usually randomized controlled trials. The researchers will set certain rules about who can be in the study. Then once they agree to be in the study, the person is randomly selected to either get the real medicine or a fake medicine (placebo) which looks the same – or sometimes a different medicine. In the best studies, neither the patient nor the healthcare provider evaluating how well they are doing know which medicine they received. (See this link for more information explaining clinical trials.)
It can sometimes be tough to figure out how serious a mental health problem is – especially in the beginning for a teenager. If you try to think about physical health problems, sometimes there are different tests to help figure it out – blood work, images, math equations taking into account different things like how old you are, what other health problems you have, etc. Then the doctor might come back and say,
listen if you don’t take this medicine, you’re probably going to get diabetes.
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:
ask more detailed questions about what is going on
think about the symptoms in the context of the rest of your child’s health
follow your child over multiple visits to see whether the symptoms are just happening because of a certain situation and then go away – or whether they last longer
think about other medical or mental health problems that could be causing the symptoms or making them worse
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?
One in four American adults will endure the trials of a mental health condition this year, and more than half will experience one in their lifetime. Yet the stigma of mental illness remains, leading many to face their difficulties in shame and silence. In this collection, ten writers confront the stigma of mental illness head-on, bravely telling stories of devastating depressions, persistent traumas, overwhelming compulsions, and more.
