Screening

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.

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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?

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We are so excited to make a new announcement!

That is – we have gone through months of work so that we can invite you to be a wiseSOVA Ambassador!

This means that you can help us truly share your story by helping us blog and by committing to commenting on a regular basis.

For more information go to the menu to the side that says Become a wiseSOVA Ambassador!

We really look forward to your help growing our SOVA community!

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National Alliance on Mental Illness

 

Something Tells Me...
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The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the United States’ largest grassroots mental health organization.  NAMI is dedicated to building better lives for millions of American’s affected by mental illness through education, advocacy, listening, and awareness.  Continue reading National Alliance on Mental Illness

What does Privacy mean to You?

What does privacy mean to you when it comes to Social Media?

heart What does it mean to you when something is on facebook or another social media website? Is anything truely private once it’s on the internet?

We try to keep our website as confidential and secure as possible, which is why we have usernames that are not connected to our actual names, and we have password protected entry into this study. As much as possible we have taken precautions to protect your safety and identity. What have you done on social media to protect your personal information? Have you had a conversation with your adolescent about social media privacy?

Tell us your experiences with social media and privacy and what that means to you?

Can you trust yourself?

Have you ever felt like you can psycho-analyze other people really well? You know, like you can just pinpoint what their issue is. By seeing their behavior on the outside, you feel like you can guess what is going on in their head. Like this guy – he has low self-esteem – that’s why he keeps buying more clothes to try to look good and impress other people. Maybe you have seen other families on a reality show on TV and thought – wow they are so dysfunctional – they don’t know how to discipline their children.  Maybe you are right. Maybe you are wrong. We all do it – sometimes it is just funny or silly.

But when we do, we are really simplifying life.

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Photo Credit: HumpPhoto.com via Compfight cc

Think about it. When someone meets your family, they are going to observe just a brief moment with you, and they don’t know about all of the different relationships happening, the good times, and bad times. You are the only one who knows all of the intricate details about the relationship between you and your child. And inside you have many desires for them and worries about them. It is quite tough to step outside of your role as a parent and someone who cares so much to think about your child in a more removed way – like you might about someone else’s child.

This is why it can be totally normal to think, when a doctor tells you your child is depressed or anxious, to think, what? they don’t know my child or me, that’s not true. But if your child is depressed or anxious, then your family dynamic is your normal – and until your child gets treatment and you learn to develop a new normal – you might not be able to realize how depression or anxiety may be affecting your family life.

Try instead thinking, ok what is our life like now and how would I like it to be? Is there someone we can work with who could help us get there? Instead of thinking do I agree with them that my child is depressed? I don’t feel that way. What do they know?

Working WITH someone you trust – like a healthcare provider or therapist – can be so helpful. They have the eyes to look at your child from the outside. The more your child shares about what is going on with them on the inside and you share what it is like living with them in your family, the more the therapist can help. But for you to try to get outside of your family life to really take a removed look at your child can be very tough – without someone’s guidance.

Do you agree or disagree? Please let us know in the comments!

Reducing Stress with Easy Yoga

Anxiety is a huge mental stessor.  When we feel anxious, our body’s “fight or flight” response kicks in.  Fight or flight prepares us to struggle or escape. This response starts in your brain and branches into your nerves and bloodstream, which causes our heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing to speed up.  You can experience this response any time- whether it’s during a test you feel nervous about, when something frustrates you, or when you just feel stressed in general.

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Continue reading Reducing Stress with Easy Yoga

How to communicate more effectively

You may think that the message you’re trying to get across to your friends and family through verbal words are understood perfectly, but this is almost always not the case.

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A lot of the things we try to communicate get lost in translation from the time the idea crosses your thoughts to the time they are actually acted out.

Continue reading How to communicate more effectively