Parents: What You Need To Know About Teen Eating Disorders

Teen Eating Disorders

Are you concerned about your teen developing an eating disorder? As a caring parent, the worry about your teen falling prey to societal ideas of body image that are less than healthy has probably crossed your mind a time or two—especially if you have a daughter. Why do teens succumb to the pressure? Some think,…

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4 Steps to De-Escalate Your Teen and Stop the Screaming Matches

De-Escalate Your Teen

“You’re not being fair!” “Just DO IT!” “I’m not a child anymore. Stop telling me what to do!” “If you’d act like an adult, I wouldn’t have to tell you what to do!” “Just leave me ALONE!!” The words are followed by a door slamming. — Sounds familiar? Do your “conversations” with your teenager all…

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Cutting to Cope: Understanding the Mechanism Behind Self-Injury

Cutting to Cope

Absentmindedly and unintentionally, you step into the bathroom to put up some freshly folded towels just as your daughter exits the shower. Her eyes widen. She quickly wraps the towel around herself. But you’ve already seen what she’s trying to conceal. – Scars and partially healed wounds. You freeze and stare at her, unsure about…

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Exposure Therapy: Why Directly Confronting Fears Helps OCD Sufferers

Helps OCD

The most natural reaction to something we fear—be that people, objects, or situations—is usually to avoid it. Unfortunately, though, that innate action is often the least helpful response. Think, for example, of someone that suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The urge to eliminate or avoid something that they fear—contamination, harming others, losing control, etc.—is exactly…

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Teen OCD and PANDAS: Is There a Connection Between the Two?

Teen OCD and PANDAS

PANDAS—Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with cute black and white animals. To the contrary, it’s actually a scary condition that some have estimated affects 1 in 200 children. But what does it have to do with teen OCD? Understanding PANDAS PANDAS usually begins with a seemingly…

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How to Survive Your Teens Mood Swings and Maybe Even Help Them Out

Teens Mood Swings

Without much warning and often little provocation, the beast awakens. You brace yourself. A little fear even flashes in your eyes. With eye rolling, snarky comments, snapping, and yelling, your teenager unleashes their attitude. Like a ferocious and unpredictable monster, they tear into everything and everyone around them.     At least… that’s how you may perceive…

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How to Understand and Coach Your Unmotivated Teen Successfully

unmotivated teen

Do you worry about your teen’s lack of motivation? Does it make you beg, bribe, coax, nag, or push them to “motivate” action? Do you get so frustrated at times that you resort to yelling, screaming, or punishing? If you imagine that this will lead your teen to become self-motivated you’re fooling yourself. Your actions…

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Your Teen Tried Marijuana? 7 Tips to Help You Handle It

teen tried marijuana

It’s a sad but true fact that marijuana has become the most popular drug with junior high and high schoolers. Statistics show that it’s not at all unusual for children to be offered the opportunity to try it sometime during their teenage years. Although you probably knew this, it becomes much more personal when you…

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Does Your Child Have Asperger’s? 10 Signs to Look For

asperger's

“His words were gushing out like a waterfall. I watched him pace back and forth in the room, recounting the statistics he had read in a book about baseball – his great passion. I knew a lot of people didn’t understand him. They often found his behavior annoying and odd. “All his life, he had…

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