Teen Depression

Sue Scheff: Teen Depression

As I saw on the news last night, experts are saying that parents with children between the ages of 12-18 should have them screened for depression. It is not about promoting medication, it is about helping to understand if there are areas in their lives that can be causing stress and anxiety that can leave to making negative choices such has experimenting with substance abuse, hanging with a less than desirable peer group, feelings of low self worth, etc. Like adults, children can be prone to depression and stress and not mature enough to understand these feelings. With this, acting out in a negative way can follow. Take time to learn more.

Source: USA Today

Tools4Teens Summer Camp

This program will cover critical topics outlined in the Tools 4 Teens book. The focus will be on character and life skill development set on a Godly foundation.

Students will scrapbook throughout the duration of the program. This creative element will encourage self-awareness and positive goal setting. Our summer camp program can hold six students.

This program includes

• Eight hours of instruction, M-Th. 10am-noon, July, 2009
• On-site staff photographer
• Approximately 14-16 personal photographs per student for use in scrapbooks.
• All scrapbooking supplies, including 8 X 8 scrapbook.
• Each student will receive a customized Tools 4 Teens book using photographs taken by our staff photographer.

<< click here to request info on the Summer Camp Program >>

A Troubled Teen's Success Story

With all the troubled teen stories floating around it's good to hear the success stories too. Here's one that will make you smile (click on the link below to read entire article):

WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- Veronica Limia wanted her day in court. Not too many years ago, Palm Beach County judge sentenced her for burglary and grand larceny.

Veronica Limia, 6 years ago: "I don't know. Maybe it was attention seeking. If I wasn't going to be good, I was going to be bad. And I was going to be the best at it."

Bad is what got Veronica Limia off the softball team, running with a gang, breaking and entering and into the maximum security Florida Institute for Girls for 18-months. Along the way, she met Juvenile Court Judge Ron Alvarez.

Judge Ron Alvarez: "As I tell my kids when I send them into a program, which I don't like to do, make the best out of it. Get the most out of it that you possibly can. You've got the rest of your life ahead of you."

-"Former troubled teen returns to seek justice", reported by: Chandra Bill, wptv.com

Adults Face Fears about CyberBullying

Jennifer Pittman wrote an article in The Santa Cruz Sentinental about adults coming face to face with the issue of teen cyberbullying.

She writes:

SANTA CRUZ -- Adults who ignore the unfamiliar and sometimes daunting world of the Internet often fail to offer children and youth much needed guidance about safe and appropriate online activities, according to experts who spoke Friday at the 12th annual Jon Nadherny/Calciano Memorial Youth Symposium.

"Kids are growing up inside the Internet," said Frank Farley, professor at Temple University and former president of the American Psychological Association.

Farley, a keynote speaker for "Cyberpsychology: The Internet and Youth in the New Millennium," held at the Cocoanut Grove in Santa Cruz, calls himself "a digital immigrant" who struggles to understand the Internet world of his own two teens.

"They're not consumers of it; they live there," Farley said.

Read entire article

Abuse Among Teens

The Houston Chronicle wrote a timely article about abuse among teens in our society.

Abuse is widely reported so teens are constantly hearing about abuse among famous teen actors.

The article begins:

Celebrity watchers were astounded when baby-faced, 19-year-old pop star Chris Brown was arrested last month — for beating and threatening his equally photogenic and appealing girlfriend, the 20-year-old, Grammy-winning Rihanna.

The couple was so young, seemed so madly in love. This ugly thing hardly seemed possible.

But youth, what seems to be love and a veneer of normalcy actually are typical characteristics of much relationship violence. Parents need to grab this chance to discuss such abuse with their own teens. Read more.

Teen Suicide

Adults sometimes feel helpless when dealing with suicide. But they do not need to. A recent editorial explains what adults/parents can do.

Our view: Assuring a troubled young person's future can be as simple as asking questions and listening, which may help them shun suicide.

For adults, it's difficult to understand why a young person would kill himself or herself. We know that nothing could be that bad.

It appears there's a lot we don't know or understand about the mental workings of young people, and this is a good time to learn, whether or not you have a child.

Everyone and anyone can be the wall preventing a death. It's not that hard. It's about asking questions and listening, being positive and calling for help.

Read More

Valentine's Day Replacement for Teens

Many teens get wrapped up in the emotions that surround Valentine's Day. Some may make poor choices due to their "feelings" of love toward another.

Hormones are raging, the media is pouring on the love message, and peers may be pressuring teens to "go all the way" to show love.

A different kind of Valentine's Day celebration was celebrated in Ohio as reported from Christian Today:

Valentine’s Day is usually associated with red roses and crummy dates but for some teens in the U.S. this could not have been further from their reality. These teens opted instead to celebrate Valentine’s Day not by celebrating their love for another person but for God.

As couples around the world were busy dining in restaurants in ode to one another’s love, an increasing number of teens across North America were joining in celebrating the love of God as part of a new Valentine’s Day replacement, the “Day of Purity”.

Discussing strong emotions with teens is vitally important. They need to know that their feelings are not strange or abnormal, but they must learn to control them.

Honest, open discussions will help teens feel safe to share when these strong feelings emerge.

Finding new ways to celebrate "old traditions" will also help teens through some of the most difficult emotional times.