How Parents Can Prepare College-Bound Teens for Mental Wellness
Transitioning from high school to college can be an exciting yet overwhelming time for many students and their parents. At this stage of life, college-bound teens may face new – or recurrent – mental health challenges. Parents can take proactive steps to promote mental wellness that help college-bound teens prepare for these challenges.
A place to learn
At Families for Depression Awareness (FFDA), we focus on the families of people living with depression or bipolar disorder ("mood disorders"), equipping family caregivers with education and training so they can provide effective, constructive support to their loved ones.
Mood disorders affect everyone in a family, not only those with the diagnosis. Each family member should be able to have their needs identified and addressed.
In addition to passing along a higher likelihood of having a mood disorder, parents living with a mood disorder can find it hard to engage with their children, take care of household chores, do their work, and sometimes even to get out of bed.
Family caregivers risk wearing themselves out as they help their loved one seek treatment, manage the household and the family, and try to keep a roof over their heads.
Since our beginning, we have shared family stories to help caregivers feel like they are not alone, show that families can address mood disorders together, inspire hope, and dispel stigma. Each year, we add to our library of honest and inspiring accounts of families facing the challenges of mood disorders and suicide.
Avoiding Depression Treatment Pitfalls
Helping your loved one get treatment for their mental health condition can be time-consuming, confusing, and frustrating. There are steps you can take as a caregiver to make the process of getting treatment easier.
What’s My Role? Helping Your Loved One Manage Depression Treatment
It’s a frustrating fact: there is no one-size-fits-all treatment for depression. As a caregiver, you want to confidently point your loved ones toward treatment options you know will help them get well. Unfortunately, finding the right treatment takes time and is almost always a trial and error process.
From My Experience: Youth Discuss Living Through a Mental Health Crisis
The teen years can be challenging. When pressures from school, peers, work, family, and society build, it can be hard to know how to let off steam. Bingeing Netflix and sleeping through tough days might feel helpful at the moment, but that doesn’t address the underlying stressors. Too often, teens feel alone, overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, and without hope. Sometimes this can lead to a mental health crisis situation. What happens then?
Preventing Suicides: Supporting the Teens in Your Life
With suicide as the third-leading cause of death among youth age 15 to 24, suicide prevention is a topic that parents and guardians of teens can’t ignore. Although it may feel overwhelming, when you have knowledge and resources, you can play an essential role in preventing teen suicides.