image by: Palm Beach County Behavioral Health Coalition

HWN Suggests

How to Help Teens Struggling With Mental Health

Health risks in adolescence are undergoing a major shift. Three decades ago, the biggest health threats to teenagers were binge drinking, drunken driving, teenage pregnancy, cigarettes and illicit drugs. Today, they are anxiety, depression, suicide, self-harm and other serious mental health disorders... Managing a mental health crisis can be challenging for teenagers and their parents. It is often unchartered territory that needs to be navigated with the utmost sensitivity.

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Featured

 Teen Mental Health Improved for the First Time in a Decade, Says the CDC

Gen Z is using fewer substances and having less sex, too.

Previously Featured

A Fresh Approach to a Crisis

A group of researchers posited another explanation for the youth mental health crisis: too much discussion.

A Look at Post-Pandemic Mental Health: Data and Resources

Before the pandemic, many college students had already experienced high levels of stress and anxiety due to academic pressures, social transitions, and the demands of college life. Data from 2019 indicated that about 20% of college students dealt with significant anxiety, while 16% faced depression. These challenges only escalated during the pandemic. After the pandemic, reports of anxiety and depression spiked.

As the mental health crisis in children and teens worsens, the dire shortage of mental health providers is preventing young people from getting the help they need

Young people deal with cyberbullying and endless exposure to social media content focused on body image. But what children and adolescents see online is not the only problem. Much of life still happens offline, and a lot of it is not good. Millions of young people deal every day with alcoholic, drug-abusing or neglectful parents; peers who drink, vape and use drugs; violence at their schools or in their streets; and overwhelmed caregivers – whether parents or others – preoccupied with financial or other personal problems. For an adolescent already struggling to make sense of the world, any one of these issues can be overwhelming.

By mollycoddling our children, we're fuelling mental illness in teenagers

Of course we want to keep children safe. But exposure to normal stresses and strains is vital for their future wellbeing.

Four things you can do to support your teen’s mental health

Whether you and your teen are getting along well or having challenges, it is important to show that you love and support them, that you can help them navigate tough times and that you are always there for them.

Global Issues Are Taking a Major Toll on Young People’s Mental Health

Economic, climate and technology woes are weighing on young adults, a report finds. It recommends overhauling how we approach mental health care.

Here’s more proof that social media is hurting young people’s mental health

As we learn more about the effects of social media, many of us have tried to decrease the time we spend scrolling through our phones. Even with screen time limits, it’s easy to shamelessly click the “ignore limit” button as soon as it pops up, but maybe it’s time we start taking it a bit more seriously.

Hold On: How to Support our Teens’ Mental Health

In this episode from Hold On, you’ll hear us talk more about the frustrations of navigating mental health care from a lot of people who love teenagers, and calls from teenagers themselves. I hope you enjoy it, and if this resonates with what you’re noticing in your communities and families…please share the episode, or the list of resources we have a link to in our show notes.

How Social Media Affects Your Teen’s Mental Health: A Parent’s Guide

Mental health issues among teens have been rising for more than a decade, and some experts wonder how much social media use is to blame. If you’re a parent questioning if—and how—you should monitor the way your teenager uses social media, you’re not alone.

How Young People Are Thinking About Their Mental Health

My depression was triggered by The Lion King. Watching Scar throw Simba’s father to his death, I started crying and couldn’t stop. I was 11, terrified something would happen to my mom—my lifeline, and the parent who had removed us from an abusive situation six years earlier. That night, it felt like a dark room opened inside my chest, filled with feelings I couldn’t name.

Is Teen Mental Health in a State of Crisis?

Have you noticed a rise in anxiety, depression and other serious mental health disorders among your generation? What can be done to help?

Mom feels like a failure as her teens struggle with mental health

Kids everywhere are having an extraordinarily difficult time right now. Depression and anxiety are way up, stress is up, mental health resources are strained, and schools are overburdened, underfunded and understaffed.

Raising a teen and mental health (ages 12 to 18)

The years from 12 to 18 can be a confusing time. It can be exciting – and a little scary. Your child might be a young teen just starting to establish their autonomy. They might be older and exploring who they are independently from you. As a parent you want to keep them safe from risky behaviour.

Surgeon General Warns of Youth Mental Health Crisis

The coronavirus pandemic intensified a rise in adolescent depression, anxiety and mental health distress that was underway before the spring of 2020.

Teen Mental Health

Like all of us, teenagers encounter emotional distress as a part of normal development and achieving maturity. Short-term anxiety about upcoming challenges and short periods of situational depression are healthy and normal reactions in young people. However, mental illness in teens is much more common than many parents realize. Studies of teens and mental illness show that one in every five young people may be affected. Mental health is as important as physical health in helping young people achieve their life goals and avoid the risks associated with depression and substance abuse.

Teen Mental Health Facts and Statistics 2024

Adolescence is one of the most formative periods of our lives. These years are a time of rapid change, growth, and exploration—but they can also come with unique challenges and pressures that can impact mental health. To support our children as they navigate the complexities of adolescence, we must educate ourselves on the current state of teen mental health.

Teens are talking about mental health

High schoolers' stories give a glimpse into the national crisis.

The mental health crisis among children and teens: How parents can help

We are in the midst of a pediatric mental health crisis — and parents need to take action. Over the past couple of years, the pandemic has not only killed hundreds of thousands; it has also shut us inside, cut off social contacts, taken parents out of work and children out of school. The consequences have been tremendous. And one of those consequences is that we are seeing alarming amounts of anxiety and depression in our children and teens.

The Rich and the Poor

How inequality messes with teenagers’ minds.

What the evidence really says about social media’s impact on teens’ mental health

Did smartphones actually “destroy” a generation?

Young People Around the World Are in a Mental Health Crisis

Young people around the world are now most worried about their mental health. It’s become a chronic struggle. A millennial in Italy told us, “I’ve never felt more depressed and apathetic than I am right now,” and a Gen Zer in Mexico described their mental health as “collapsing little by little.”

Youth Mental Health: The Numbers

Adolescent mental health in the U.S. was worsening prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our nation's youth are experiencing a mental health crisis.

‘It’s Life or Death’: The Mental Health Crisis Among U.S. Teens

Depression, self-harm and suicide are rising among American adolescents. For one 13-year-old, the despair was almost too much to take.

Resources

Project Helping

Volunteering improves your mental wellness. We make it ridiculously easy to volunteer so you can access this meaningful self-care tool.

Rula

Connect with mental health experts who specialize in you.

WHO

Globally, one in seven 10-19-year-olds experiences a mental disorder, accounting for 15% of the global burden of disease in this age group.