New iPhone app aimed at getting help to troubled teens

Kids may not come with user manuals, but a just-released technology-driven tool aims to make it easier to find help for hurt and troubled teenagers.

The process — recognizing a problem, identifying the causes and ultimately finding help — can be a complex puzzle for adults unfamiliar with the pressures teens face at middle and high schools and the resources available to help.

That dilemma begged an obvious question: “How can we put a tool in the hands of all those people?” said Eric Nidiffer, vice president of Turning Point Experience, a Las Vegas-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students avoid destructive influences in their lives.

For the past 10 months, father-son duo William and Eric Nidiffer have been working with the Southern Nevada Community Gang Task Force to produce that tool — a comprehensive iPhone application designed to educate adults about the top 20 issues teens face and provide them with the resources for finding help.

Read entire article here.

By Jackie Valley, www.lasvegassun.com

Experts warn of pitfalls teens face on social networking sites

A photo or snippet of information posted to a social networking site such as Facebook can become a digital first-impression of a person, and for some young people, it’s not a good one, an expert on cyberbullying said.

To make his point, Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, flashed a series of photos publicly displayed on Facebook of teens drinking, doing drugs and engaging in other questionable behavior.

“It’d be nice if I sat down with any of these kids and had a chat with them and got a feel for their integrity and their character,” said Hinduja, keynote speaker at a forum on cyberbullying, sexting and social network privacy.

“But we live in a society where we don’t take the time to do that. What we do is Google you...and make a snap judgment about you,” Hinduja said.

The Anti-Defamation League and Henderson Libraries hosted The ABCs of Cyberbullying panel discussion on Wednesday at the Paseo Verde Library.

Read entire article.

By: Rich Coleman, www.lasvegassun.com

Demi Lovato's Treatment Sheds Light On Teen Issues, Expert Says

Now that Demi Lovato has entered a treatment facility to deal with "emotional and physical issues she has dealt with for some time," her public struggle is shedding light on a whole range of issues that many teenage girls face. Lovato has been open in the past about the pressure she's under, including her self-esteem issues and constant media scrutiny.

Dr. Dorian Traube, assistant professor at the University of Southern California's School of Social Work, spoke to MTV News about the advice she has for young people who might be going through a similarly difficult time.

"Well, I think regardless to whether the bullying contributed to what sent her to seek treatment, she's in treatment because she's having issues related to self-esteem and mental health, and all of that makes you feel lonely," she explained. "So I think it's important for young women or teens to realize that it is important to find an environment in which they feel like they excel and treated with respect and that they have a good cadre of friends around them."

Read entire article here.

-By: Jocelyn Vena, mtv.com

Teen Binge Drinking LInked to Attention Problems

Teens who binge drink may be more likely to experience problems with attention as well as making decisions and carrying them out (executive function), a study shows.

The study, published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, also shows that teens who smoke marijuana tend to have trouble with their memory.

Substance abuse during the adolescent years can have significant lifelong consequences on the developing brain. "Both animal models and observational studies in humans suggest that binge drinking during adolescence alters normal developmental processes in a way that negatively impacts learning and social adjustment into adulthood," says study researcher Robert J. Thoma, PhD, a psychiatrist at the Center for Neuropsychological Services of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, in an email.

"On one hand, the adolescents in our study were functioning largely within the normal range on cognitive tests, [but] it is likely that they are under-performing on many of these tasks relative to their ability before initiation of binge drinking," he says.

"Consistent under-performance in school could shift an adolescent’s trajectory of educational attainment, thereby affecting subsequent job placement and socioeconomic status," he says.

Read entire article here.

-Denise Mann, Webmd.com

Christian Parenting Advice on Classifying Drugs Your Teenager Uses

The main reason I write all the articles I do on teenage drug abuse is because of my own drug abuse problem as a teenager and even young adult. You could say I used more drugs than not. I say this not to glorify it in any way but to say I know of the damage because I use to be there. I have some understanding of the issue and effects of certain drugs.

For instance, when I was growing up we would pick and choose the drug we would use depending on the activity we were going to engage in. Because we knew that different drugs would produce different results.

Even as a parent we might find ourselves responding differently to the knowledge of the type of drug our teenager is using. You would feel better if your child is smoking dope instead of shooting up heroin. Because of the stigma and effects of each drug. We would probably not even bat an eye if we knew our child went and got drunk somewhere?

Read entire article here.

-Phil Longmire

Parents face tough choices when child seems in trouble

One of the most difficult things for parents of teenagers who are thinking about hurting themselves to face is that sometimes right before a troubled teen tries to take his life, he or she might seem to be getting better.

"For teens in particular, a sudden cheerfulness after a period of depression may be a threat that they're going to take their life," Debbie Helms, program director for the Samaritans of Merrimack Valley, said. "There's an energy and period of clear thinking because they've already made the decision to kill themselves."

Yvonne Vissing, associate professor of sociology at Salem State University and director of the university's center for Child Studies, said that's one of the aspects of teen suicide that's particularly confusing - and torubling - for families.

"One thing is when people are very depressed that's not usually when an attempt will happen," Vissing said. "It's usually when a person is feeling better."

Saugus High School senior Felix Sacco jumped off an overpass last week in Saugus after leaving school in what police are calling a suicide.

Helms said although there are exceptions, most teens who commit suicide do so after suffering from "an underlying mental-health issue." "Suicides rarely occur because of one thing that happens in someone's life," Helms said.

Read entire article here.

By: Jeff McMenemy/The Daily Item

Christian Parenting Advice – Co-Dependency With Teen Drug Abuse

After portion for over 10 years as a priest we have to contend which there is usually as most dysfunctions as good as masks which we wear in a church as people do outward a church. we consider we usually sense to censor them improved upon Sunday Morning.

But what happens when we wear those masks as good as do not understanding with a issues during hand, is which we find ourselves essentially apropos as good as vital as co-dependents to a teenagers. We find ourselves stealing as good as masking a dysfunction, hurts, pain, as good as annoyance which comes with a teenagers wrong meditative as good as behaving.

I am not certain if we know this or not though co-dependency is essentially a schooled behavior. You can essentially pass it down from a single era to another, all a time training those which we lift how to duty as good as live in a habituated relationship.

When a primogenitor lives in a habituated attribute with their teenager who is abusing drug it not usually affects both parents, though siblings as well. It has a mortal settlement which plays out via a complete house. It shows as good as allows those who have been harming a family to live any approach they wish whilst dire in upon those who have been not abusing drugs, over compensating upon parenting so which they themselves do not go down a same path.

Some examples of dysfunctional family groups with teenagers who have been regulating drug competence not admit which problems exist. The family will not speak about them or confront them. As a result, family members sense to restrain emotions as good as negligence their own needs. They turn “survivors.”

Read more.

-Phill Longmire