Description: You have likely run across recent concerning discussions regarding the levels of anxiety and depression being reported among teens and emerging adults and particularly among young teen aged girls. The reported (in population surveys) jumps in anxiety, self-harm and suicidal thoughts in young teen girls since around 2010 are worrying and research and debate… Read more »
Posts Tagged: Anxiety
Helping Teen Girls (and Better Understanding Why They Need It)
Description: In my last couple of blog posts (here and here) I have been looking at the important concerns being raised about teen mental health and about the mental health of teen girls in particular. A full and complete understanding of what is going on requires sorting out a huge number of variables linked to… Read more »
Identity and Purpose in Adolescent and Emerging Adult Wellbeing
Description: You cannot have missed at least some of the many recent media references to concerns over the mental health of adolescents in North America. Concerns were being expressed pre-covid and only increased over the months/years of the covid pandemic. Now there have always been versions of the statement “kids these days…!?” out there but… Read more »
Having a Bad Day? Call a Friend!
Description: Imagine that you are having a bad day, though I hope you are not. Imagine that demands are rising, things are not going in your desired directions and your stress and anxiety levels are climbing up towards the roof. What would be one thing you could do that could lead to you feeling significantly… Read more »
Stop It! Stop Overthinking
Description: Everyone worries sometimes about some things. Some people worry a LOT and have trouble dealing with the constantly high levels of anxiety that comes along with those worries. What do you think this is and what can people do, or be helped to do, that will make things better and reduce their levels and… Read more »
Treat Anxiety in Children Like a Phobia
Description: Face your fears! Sounds like a pretty basic piece of advice but for children with deep anxieties over often basic things like eating or being alone offering them such advice does not tend to work. There are therapeutic approaches that can work. Exposure Therapy, based on classical conditioning and linked to the much-discussed work… Read more »
Treating Depression: Beyond SSRI’s?
Description: Over the more than a few years that I have taught introductory psychology classes I think one area where I have consistently struggled involves the neuroscience of brain functioning and its place and role in our understanding of human psychological functioning. This is partly due to my not having had a lot in the… Read more »
Interoception – A General Sixth Sense?
Description: Can you list your basic senses? Of course, right? There is sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. The term ‘sixth sense’ is typically reserved for things that seem mysterious and perhaps even a bit magical like getting a feeling that something bad or good is about to happen or that someone is following you… Read more »
Dog Ownership and Psychological Wellbeing
Description: Quick question. Is having a dog good for you psychologically? Don’t do any searching on the question, just go with what you have heard or recall. Answer? Good for you, right? Maybe you have heard that regular time with dogs extends the lives of elderly people or that dog companions help their human friend… Read more »
Which Treatment is Best for Self-Harming and Suicidal Teens?
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 »
Books for Success!
