Helping children, teens, and adults decrease stress, anxiety and anger.

Teen Depression and Stress

 by Madison Friedman

Note to Readers:  Sleep deprived teens are more likely to use alcohol, drugs, and suffer from depression.  Sleep deprivation plus stressful life situations increase your teen’s risk of developing depression. It is important to introduce teens to stress management techniques. Thank you to Kid Spirit for sharing this article on teen depression with us.

Julia felt so alone. She felt she had no one to talk to or confide in. She was stressed out from homework, tests, and her parents’ recent divorce. Julia believed that she had no one to turn to for help. She had no energy and was always tired. She was bored with life, or at least her life. One day Julia was sitting with her so-called friends. She was watching them talk, not listening and not saying a word. Then she let something escape her lips: “I wonder if they would miss me.” She wasn’t talking to anyone in particular, she was just wondering aloud. She also was not expecting anyone to hear her, but someone did. The girl who heard was concerned. …Details and ORDERS »

Breathing Teen Stress Away

Note to Readers: Teen stress is not always easy to detect, but we know teens are under enormous amounts of stress. Teens and their families can all benefit by learning to balance their stress filled lives with stress management techniques. Thanks to Annie for sharing these steps to introduce your teen to the powerful effective technique of  breathing. Focused breathing can help help breathe teen stress away.

by Annie Fox, M.Ed

It’s totally normal for teens and everyone else to get stressed at times. Stress knocks people off-balance. Getting “back in balance” or re-centering reduces stress. It’s that simple. There’s a special kind of BREATHING called re-centering breathing.  It can help you when things get rough. When you do it, it can help you stop a stress-response before you lose control and end up doing stuff that you “don’t want to do.” This kind of breathing isn’t hard to do, but it takes practice. The trick is to remember to do it while you’re feeling stressed.   …Details and ORDERS »

Time Management Equals Stress Management, Especially for Teens

Just as the regulation of sleep cycles for teens in particular is instrumental in overall adolescent well-being, so too is time management. Not only are teens undergoing enormous changes, both emotionally and physically, but they have the added weight of having to keep up with the proverbially hectic junior high or high school schedule. Parents might need to get involved with stress management for teens if they seem like they are stressed. Here are a few tips to help your teen manage her time such that she makes the most out of her academics and extracurricular, but keeps her stress levels low, too. …Details and ORDERS »

5 Ideas for Better Sleep for Teens

With school winding down and colleges finishing up teens are adjusting to another change in their schedules. When they are still living at home it’s easier to monitor and have input on their schedules but when they are away at school who knows what type of sleep they are getting. If they are home for the summer here are a few ideas to get them back on track with proper sleep. …Details and ORDERS »

Tips for Taming Teenage Stress

by Lori Lite

One third of teens in the United States state that they feel stressed on a daily basis.-The University of Michigan

Most parents recognize (and remember) that the teenage years are a volatile time marked by the struggle for independence, the forging of identity, the painful process of emotional maturation, and the learning of societal norms.  Yet parents often underestimate the toll that the stress from these years can take on a teen.

Teenage stress have never been more prevalent. Teenagers are living ever-more complex lives in a society that increasingly treats them as younger adults.  It is important for parents to recognize the causes of teen stress and take measures to relieve or combat it. The American Psychology Association reports that 86 percent of tweens and 74 percent of teens state that they are comfortable talking to their parents about the things that cause them stress, yet only 50 percent of tweens and teens have talked to their parents about things they are worried or stressed about in the past month.

…Details and ORDERS »

Stress Free Kids = Drug Free Teens = Adults Free From Addictions

By Marianella Alvarado-Michel B.S., ICADC, ICCDP Addiction Counselor

“73% of teenagers reported that school stress was the primary reason for drug use.  This study clearly tells us that kids in America do not know how to deal with stress and that they are self-medicating by getting involved in substances and addictive behaviors.”

Addictions in general and substance abuse are not only about not being able to say no; instead they are much more complex issues in which kids do not know how to deal with the emotions induced by stress and daily life issues.  The reason kids do not have this ability is not because they are not capable, it is because they have not been taught how to deal with the stresses of life.

Many times as parents we think that our kids will never be affected by stress and that we will be able to protect them, but the reality is that we are not constantly with them and we cannot protect them all the time.  Our only option is to give them the tools deal with stress more effectively. Free download. (see below) …Details and ORDERS »

How to manage our Hard-Wired Youth

A friend of mine who is a high school English teacher in our local schools has been perplexed by the behavior of some of her current students.  She said, “Help me understand why a third of my students can’t sit still in their desks?  They wiggle, they squirm, they tap their pencils and their feet and are constantly in motion.”  She is experiencing a dose of today’s “hard-wired” youngsters dealing with technology stress. …Details and ORDERS »

Body image and Self-Esteem for Teens

Healthy Self-Esteem

Article written by KidsHealth.org

If you have a positive body image, you probably like and accept yourself the way you are. This healthy attitude allows you to explore other aspects of growing up, such as developing good friendships, growing more independent from your parents, and challenging yourself physically and mentally. Developing these parts of yourself can help boost your self-esteem. …Details and ORDERS »

Questions and Answers on Sexting causing Stress

Q. As a parent I am stressed out about the new subject of “sexting.” We just gave my 10 year old a cell phone. Should I be concerned?

A. A cell phone can definitely create a whole new set of problems and stress. A common usage of a phone is to take funny photos of friends. Sleepovers can become a photo opportunity. This could include taking photos of a friends private parts or someone in a compromising situation. If you child is mature enough to have a phone then they need to know about the potential problems a phone can create.  …Details and ORDERS »