Not only are the number of young people searching for help with their mental health increasing, but over the last three years, 11-17 year olds have been more likely than any other age group to exhibit moderate to severe symptoms of anxiety and depression. So, it’s more important than ever to have open, honest, compassionate conversations with your kids.
To this end, the Behavioral Health Awareness website contains a section on how to have productive conversation about behavioral health with your family. As someone who has personally dealt with the challenges of engaging teenagers in the conversation (and knowing there was an issue to be addressed), I particularly like the article from Brightline: 9 tips for talking to kids & teens about mental health. While challenging, we owe it to our kids to have proactive, open conversations about mental health, as fear of stigma may prevent them from coming to us.
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