Helping Teens Navigate Mental Health Challenges

The teenage years can be an emotional rollercoaster. One moment everything is great, it’s amazing, then suddenly life is terrible, and all is ruined. But – it seems like something else is going on right now, beyond these expected ups and downs. Statistics are rising across the board for issues like anxiety and depression, the number of kids receiving mental health treatment, or reporting that they feel hopeless.

So what’s happening – and what’s to blame? On this episode: teens, their mental health, and how families can navigate these challenging times. We’ll hear from psychologists, parents and teens about their approaches and solutions. We’ll also visit a gymnasium full of teenagers to hear what they really want to know about mental health, and meet an adolescent who found an unexpected ray of hope in a very dark place.

Also heard on this week’s episode:

• Psychologist Lisa Damour talks about staying calm while raising teens, and her new book “The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents.”
• We talk about kids, their phones, and social media with Yalda Uhls. She is a developmental psychologist at UCLA and author of “Media Moms & Digital Dads: A Fact-Not-Fear Approach to Parenting in the Digital Age.”
• For this episode, we collaborated with WHYY’s Media Labs student reporters A’liyah Kent, Alejandra Rojas, and Jolie Schreiber who contributed ideas and recordings.