Worried About a Coronavirus Summer Slump? Boost Kids’ Brainpower With Nature
From National Geographic: Time spent outdoors has been linked with improved attention spans, better memory, and enhanced executive function.
How to Deal With Your Teenager’s Depression
From The Telegraph: Classic signs of teen depression can be tricky to spot now that pyjamas are acceptable daywear and many of our routines have vanished.
The Year I Lost Everything, Psychiatry Offered Nothing
After a failed suicide attempt following my son's death, New York State incarcerated me in a mental institution for 21 days. The environment was degrading, stultifying, and downright depressing.
Youth Antidepressant Use Associated With Increased Suicide and Self-Harm
National data on rates of youth antidepressant prescription, suicide, and self-harm in Australia sparks public health debate about drug safety.
Black Suicidality and Mental Health #BlackLivesMatter
Suicides in Black communities can be understood to be caused by an institutionalized inequality that requires Black folks to negotiate their quality of life with life itself.
Exercise for Youth Mental Health in the Lockdown: Interview with Psychologist Scott Greenspan
School Psychologist Scott Greenspan discusses how to promote exercise and mental wellbeing for adolescents stuck indoors during the pandemic.
Withdrawing Kids from Psych Drugs: Why, How, and When
Here are methods for reducing or eliminating a child's psychiatric medications that I have seen work well over years of supporting families through this process.
Supporting Children and Parents to Withdraw from Psychiatric Medication
The main problem with prescribing psychiatric drugs to children is that it hasn’t been very effective.
Creating a Guide for Parents During Lock Down – by Children
From Dulwich Centre: A number of narrative practitioners have consulted children in their lives to create a guide for parents during lockdown.
What If This Pandemic Is the Best Thing to Happen to Children with Challenges?
Families may be worried that the stress of lockdown may aggravate their child’s struggles. Yet, we hear some parents say the situation has changed their child for the better. Why might that be? In this interview, Dr. Nicole Beurkens talks about the impact of “quarantine life” on children with different types of behavioral, emotional, and neurodevelopmental challenges.
Awakening: Shedding the “Mentally Ill” Identity and Reclaiming My Life
If I had not crumbled, brought to my knees beneath the weight of the misdiagnoses and sordid side-effects of the medications, I would not have had the opportunity to rise up and gain such a strong sense of self—something for which many spend their whole life searching.
The Pandemic Will Haunt Today’s Children Forever
From The Washington Post: Stress during this vulnerable period can be especially damaging to children who already have accumulated trauma in their lives.
Jordan B. Peterson’s Support of Corporal Punishment for Children: A Critique
In his book 12 Rules for Life, supposedly based on "cutting-edge research," Jordan Peterson attempts to justify the hitting of children as a form of discipline. But Peterson does so without citing a single study to support his view. In fact, this entire section of the book is bereft of any reference to any research supporting the effectiveness of corporal punishment.
Helping Teens Make Room for Uncomfortable Emotions
From The New York Times: Psychological health is not about being free from emotional discomfort, but about having the right feeling at the right time
Class of 2020 Students May Face Traumatic Loss Due to Coronavirus
From The Conversation: Emerging adulthood is a critical developmental stage. Combined with the transition into an uncertain future, existential despair can result.
Sam Himelstein – The Impact of COVID-19 and Social Distancing on Adolescents
Psychologist Sam Himelstein, PhD, talks about the impact of the coronavirus crisis and “social distancing” policies on adolescents, taking a look at the unique needs of teenagers and young adults and the challenges they may present for parents, caregivers, and other family members.
Lockdown Reading to End DSM Psychiatry?
A review of the "Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents" books by Lindsay Gibson. Even though adults experience emotional loneliness, such loneliness can also start in childhood when we might have felt (and I would submit, actually were) unseen emotionally by self-preoccupied parents.
Just Like Viruses, Emotions are Contagious
Now is not the time for family members to be nursing old hurts or believe the all-too-common delusion we all periodically fall prey to—you can get, without giving, when it comes to goodwill. Gestures of decency, gratitude and appreciation will need to prevail.
Antidepressant Use Continues to Climb Among Youth on Medicaid
New study finds that Medicaid enrolled youth were 14 times more likely to be on an antidepressant in 2014 than in 1987.
The Kids Aren’t All Right
From The Atlantic: The youngest among us will bear the larger burdens of trauma and economic fallout from COVID-19.
Researchers Find Paroxetine Harms Developing Brain
Researchers at Johns Hopkins test paroxetine on developing brain cells and discover numerous neurotoxic effects.
Tending Hearts and Minds: Changing the Mental Health Paradigm in Our Schools
Our school professionals are under constant pressure to help funnel children into the mental health system and ultimately—and tragically for many—toward psychotropic drugs. So we designed a professional development symposium to address alternatives.
National Boards of Health Are Unresponsive to Children Driven to Suicide by Depression Pills
Peter C. Gøtzsche reports what happened, or rather did not happen, when he contacted National Boards of Health in eight countries with his serious concern that the use of depression pills in children is increasing and leads to more suicides. The continued official denial that these drugs cause suicide and that something substantial needs to be done is appalling.
Mental Hell-Care: My Sibling’s Story
Doctors refuse to believe psychiatric medications have caused my sibling, Pat, any harm. Over a three-year period, however, Pat's insurance companies have paid out more than one million dollars to warehouse Pat and to provide "treatment" that has caused complete disability.
6-Year-Old Girl Baker Acted Without Parent Consent
From NBC News: The Florida girl was committed for two days to a mental health facility and given anti-psychotic drugs after allegedly throwing a temper tantrum at school.
