Description: Perhaps you have heard about the alarming increases that are being observed in rates of self-harming behavior and suicidal thoughts and actions among teenagers. These stats are often discussed in relation to the question of whether they might be linked to recent generational jumps in use of social media and the attendant shifts in… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Intervention: Children Adolescents
Talking to Children about the Ukraine
Description: When I was 7 years old (in grade 3) at around 11 am on or about October 26, 1962, there was a general announcement by our elementary school principal over the PA system that we were all to pack up and go home. I do not recall whether I had any clue as to… Read more »
Predicting Early Onset Psychiatric Issues: How Many Factors?
Description: If you wanted to try and predict which individuals in a group of children would later develop one of a number of early onset psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety, addictions, dyslexia, bulimia, or ADHD what would you include in your list of predictors? How long would you list be? How accurately would your… Read more »
Can You Out-Grow or Out-Develop ADHD?
Description: You know a little bit about ADHD, right? So, consider this question, if a child is diagnosed as meeting the diagnostic criteria for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) can or will they, over time, outgrow the disorder (or the diagnosis)? A good friend of mine used to be principal at a school for children… Read more »
The Psychology of Covid-19: Anxieties and Uncertainties, What You Can DO About Them
Description: I have posted previously about the stress associated with the high degrees of uncertainty associated with our immediate and longer-term futures in relation to the coronavirus. It is important to keep in mind that while many of the factors contributing to our uncertainty and the related stresses that accompany them are obvious; our health… Read more »
Psychology and Covid-19: Talking to Kids
Description: How do you talk to a child about …. (enter name of issue/event here). How would you answer that question if the blank were filled in with Covid-19? If you have taken a course or course section on child psychology (or even if not) think about what should go into an answer to that… Read more »
Psychology and Covid-19: Stress and Change
Description: This is another installment in my efforts to talk about, and to get you to THINK about what the Covid-19 pandemic and our experiences of it can show us about the nature of human Psychology. What I am suggesting is that we can learn more about ourselves and our communities and about how we… Read more »
Children, Disasters, Mental Health and Wellness: Issues with Bushfires
Description: In addition to this post I also posted today aboutthe issue of Seasonal Affective Disorder among those of us who live well north of the equator. While we reflect on SAD in our winter, we see stories of the issues of wildfires well south of the equator in Australia. Bushfires such as those experienced… Read more »
Self-Harm: Symptom or Treatable Issue?
Description: What do you know about self-harm? I do not mean, do you engage in self-harm but, rather, what have you heard of it? Over a relatively short number of years (20 tops) there has been a marked increase in the rates of self-harm (cutting etc.) among young people and particularly among teenaged and young… Read more »
Mental Illness: Beyond the Biomedical Model
Description: Do we (Psychologists and Psychiatrists) know what caused mental illness? When I teach the Psychological Disorders and Treatments sections on my Introductory Psychology course, after talking about the drugs used in treating the symptoms of various mental disorders (like depression or schizophrenia) I will usually ask if people think that because there are drugs… Read more »
Books for Success!
