A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
You glance at your teen’s smartphone and see a text message light up the screen. Was that a sext you just saw? Questions flood your mind. Is this what kids are doing nowadays? Does this mean my child is having sex too? Sexting — the exchange of sexual messages, photographs or videos via technological devices [...]
Nearly any symptom can have multiple causes. This is difficult enough to deal with in medicine, but in mental health there are few to no physical symptoms, only behaviour and a patient's self-reporting of their thoughts and emotions. Add to this a child's limited ability to express themselves, and it's no mystery why many childhood [...]
There has been increasing awareness recently that many girls on the autism spectrum are overlooked until much later in life, which can be the source of confusion and distress for the girls themselves and those who care for them. The reason behind this has been rightfully attributed to girls with autism presenting differently to a [...]
This information from Parentline helps carers of children suffering from the most common form of the most common mental health condition: social anxiety disorder. Although highly treatable, the article acknowledges that SAD can be difficult to diagnose in children given that young kids are often shy. However, it's also important to help kids with an [...]
The concept of schizophrenia is dying. Harried for decades by psychology, it now appears to have been fatally wounded by psychiatry, the very profession that once sustained it. Its passing will not be mourned. Today, having a diagnosis of schizophrenia is associated with a life-expectancy reduction of nearly two decades. By some criteria, only one [...]
The more we persevere and sticks to life goals, the lower our risk of mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression in the decades that follow, a new study suggests. In the study, which was published recently in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, researchers focused on three things in particular: goal persistence, self-mastery, and [...]
An estimated one in ten Australians were taking antidepressants in 2015. That’s double the number using them in 2000, and the second-highest rate of antidepressant use among all OECD countries. Yet some studies have found antidepressants might be no more effective than placebo. Not only does this mean many Australians aren’t experiencing relief from their [...]
Youth mental health becoming more prominent in Australian politics has spurred more interest in the public on assessments of the scale and nature of the problem. In this article, Generation Next co-founder Ramesh Manocha and other experts explain what is causing the youth mental health crisis and the most concerning trends now being evidenced in [...]
This article explores the growing concern that Victorian young people are self-harming in emulation of their peers, following a spike in reported cases of self harm in the state. It also assesses the extent to which self-harm may simply be more commonly detected and talked about, as well as the psychological drivers behind the phenomenon [...]
This article outlines the results of a recent study comparing two approaches for the treatment of childhood anxiety: conventional cognitive behavioural therapy and a new approach focusing on the relationship between child and parents. The first group of children attended therapy to recognise and control symptoms of anxiety and to overcome the causes with exposure [...]
