• About 20 percent of teens will experience depression symptoms before they reach adulthood
• Between 10 to 15 percent of teenagers have some symptoms of depression symptoms at any one time
• About 5 percent of teens are suffering from major depression at any one time
• As many as 8.3 percent of teens suffer from depression symptoms for at least a year at a time, compared to about 5.3 percent of the general population
• Most teens with depression will suffer from more than one episode. 20 to 40 percent will have more than one episode within two years, and 70 percent will have more than one episode before adulthood. Episodes of depression generally last about 8 months
• Dysthymia, a type of low grade chronic depression, affects about 2 percent of teens. 15 percent of teens with depression eventually develop bipolar disorder
• A small percent of teens also suffer from seasonal depression, usually during the winter months in higher latitudes.

Depression can affect teens regardless of gender, social background, income level, race, or school or other achievements. Teenage girls report suffering from depression more often than teenage boys. Teenage boys are less likely to seek help or recognize that they suffer from depression. Seeking depression treatment and anxiety treatment is imperative to helping teens live happier, healthier lives. We offer teen counseling in both our Golden Valley and Chaska offices.

Other risk factors that increase the chances of an episode of teen depression include:

• Previous episodes of depression
• Experiencing trauma, abuse, or a long-term illness or disability
• A family history of depression; between 20 to 50 percent of teens who suffer from depression have a family member with depression or other mental disorders
• Other untreated problems; about two thirds of teens with major depression also suffer from another mental disorder, such as dysthymia, addiction to drugs or alcohol, anxiety, or antisocial behaviors.

A teen suffering from depression is also at higher risk for other problems:

• 30 percent of teens with depression also develop a substance abuse problem.
• Teenagers with depression are likely to have a smaller social circle and take advantage of fewer opportunities for education or careers
• Depressed teens are more likely to have trouble at school and in jobs, and to struggle with relationships
• Teens with untreated depression are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors, leading to higher rates of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases
• Teens with depression seem to catch physical illnesses more often than other teens
• Untreated depression is the number one cause of suicide and the third leading cause of death among teenagers. 90 percent of suicide victims suffer from a mental illness. Depression can make a teenager as much as 12 times more likely to attempt suicide.

Less than 33 percent of teens with depression get help, yet 80 percent of teens with depression can be successfully treated with help from a doctor or therapist. Recognizing depression symptoms and seeking depression treatment are key.

Teen depression treatment is important:

Seeking help for depression is the first step in overcoming many problems associated with adolescent depression. Keep reading for tips on seeking help with teen depression.

If you have a family member or friend that suffers from teenage depression, please seek help immediately.

Do not wait for them to come to you. Go talk to them and find out if they are having problems at home, school, or work. The best thing you can do is get them to a local therapist to get a proper diagnosis.

All too often we hear stories of untreated childhood depression symptoms developing into problems with the law, drugs, and alcohol.
If a teenager you know speaks of dying, gives away personal belongings, or is fascinated by death please contact a local therapist or suicide help line ASAP. These are warning signs of suicide attempts. If this person is threatening suicide call 800-SUICIDE (784-2433) or 877-YOUTHLINE (968-8454).

Do not wait for help. There are plenty of residential treatment centers for troubled youth, drug rehab, and other specialty private schools to assist troubled teens.

Teenage Depression Statistics Sources:

• Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General [online] Kidshealth.org from the Nemours Foundation, “Understanding Depression”
• Center for Mental Health Services, SAMHSA, A Family Guide, Keeping Youth Mentally Healthy and Drug Free, “Depression Hurts”
• U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health, Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia, “Depression signs in Teenagers”
• Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, “Depression and Suicide in children and adolescents”
• WebMD.com : Depression in Childhood and Adolescence, WebMD/The Cleveland Clinic “Seasonal Depression”
• Teen Depression – Help for Troubled Teens – www.teendepression.org

Please call us David Hoy & Associates if you have any questions about our services: (763) 544-1006. Your privacy is respected.

We buy gym memberships to look a certain way, as though mirroring the physical perfection we see in the media will magically make us happy. Going to the gym is also seen as the main route to “getting healthy” – and improving psychological health is not emphasized in the same way. Why?

Likely, the reason why psychological health is deemphasized is because improving it isn’t seen to have the same effect on our appearance as the gym. However, even the claim that therapy doesn’t impact our appearance can be contested: research has shown that our mental health affects how others perceive our physical appearance – and whether they want to befriend us (Rosenblatt & Greenberg, 1988; Chancellor, Layous, Margolis, & Lyubomirsky, 2017).

Another (perhaps less superficial) argument for the importance of therapy is the buoyancy effect. Therapy helps us through difficult times, which are inevitable given that life is unpredictable, often strange, and frequently painful. As a protective factor, therapy can help smooth the bumps in the road – as well as make a good thing even better.

If you would like to explore the personal benefits of mental health therapy for yourself, schedule an appointment in our Golden Valley or Chaska-based office.

Intrigued but not yet convinced? Here are five reasons why therapy positively impacts long-term psychological health.

5 Long-Term Benefits of Therapy

1. Therapy can help you learn life-long coping skills.

Great, you’re thinking, but what exactly are coping skills? Coping skills are anything that helps you through difficult times, whether it’s not getting the promotion you deserve, anxiety about driving, or the death of a loved one. Therapists are educated and trained to help foster the natural coping skills everyone has. Coping skills will look a little different from person to person because everyone is unique. For example, I’m a writer, so I like to journal my thoughts as a way of coping – but someone else might find aromatherapy and bubble baths to be more relaxing. We’re all different, and that’s okay – but it also means that there is no “one size fits all” coping skill.

Therapists can also teach coping skills that might not be as innate. For example, cognitive behavioral therapists will often teach their clients that what they say to themselves has enormous influence on how they feel & how others respond to them. Attachment-focused therapists might ask their clients to think differently about how they interact with people in their lives. Person-centered therapists encourage their clients to treat themselves with unconditional positive regard and practice radical self-acceptance. Regardless of the modality of therapy, the idea is to bolster your personal strengths – often using evidence-based practices the therapist has taught you. Psychologist Rob Winkler agrees, asserting that “better coping leads to better responses and better responses lead to better experiences, which create more opportunity and prosperity in all aspects of our lives.” So while it may not seem as exciting as getting six-pack abs, learning coping skills improves your life exponentially in the long-run.

2. Therapy can change how you interact with people in your life – in a good way.

Sometimes we’re not aware of just how many ways we’re negatively impacting our relationships. We might snap and call our partner names when we’re mad and then forget about it after the fight, not realizing the effect that it has on our partner. On the other side of things, maybe we’re so used to keeping our feelings bottled inside that we have a hard time being assertive with the people we love. A therapist can help balance the way we communicate with our loved ones to improve our relationships. For example, for a client who has a hard time being assertive, a DBT therapist might teach the “Dear Man” skill. In a nutshell, “Dear Man” is a skill that helps a client describe what they want and advocate for themselves in a non-judgmental way.

It can also be useful to hear another person’s input on the important relationships in your life. Are you getting what you want out of your partner – do they make you feel fulfilled? Are your expectations reasonable, or do you think that your partner should be your everything? Or maybe you’re doing everything “right” but there are still ways you could make your connection stronger. A therapist, especially a therapist specialized in family and relationship counseling, can give you the tools and support you need to make changes that will positively impact your relationships. Increasing the positivity of your relationships builds to a more fruitful long-term future – because when it comes down to it, life is about having fulfilling relationships with the people you love and being able to successfully navigate relationships with people you don’t.

3. Therapy can make you feel happier.

True happiness is an elusive thing, and many times people chase the external – money, success, a fancy car – to try to achieve it. Even though it’s an old cliché, there’s truth to the statement that money can’t buy you happiness. Having too little money can cause unhappiness, but money doesn’t have an inherent value that makes our lives more fulfilled. Buying fancy things might give us a temporary thrill or a sense of satisfaction; however, these feelings don’t last and tend to scratch at the surface of true happiness. No one has ever claimed, for example, that the meaning of life is a car; the meaning of life is thought to have more breadth and importance than that.

So how does therapy help you feel happier on a deeper level? Talking over your past, present, and future with a therapist can lead to greater self-understanding. While self-understanding doesn’t always imply self-acceptance, it is the first step towards truly embracing who you are at the core. A related concept is self-compassion. Greater self-compassion helps you handle the bumps in the road that inevitably happen in life without getting stuck in a mire of negativity. Therapists, especially person-centered therapists, often emphasize self-acceptance and self-compassion – and talk us through techniques for increasing both. Learning self-compassion in therapy has tangible benefits: High self-compassion has been found to lead to more health-promoting behaviors (Sirois, Hirsch, & Kitner, 2015), nurture well-being (Neely, Schallert, Mohammed, Roberts, & Chen, 2009), increase empathy and altruism (Neff & Pommier, 2012), and provide a buffer against anxiety (Neff, Kirkpatrick, & Rude, 2007).

4. Through its link to happiness, therapy leads to more productivity.

In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor explains how positive emotions lead to greater productivity: “Happiness gives us a real chemical edge…How? Positive emotions flood our brains with dopamine and serotonin, chemicals that not only make us feel good, but dial up the learning centers of our brains to higher levels” (44). In other words, feeling positive emotions allows you to work harder and learn more because of the “feel good” chemicals in your brain. While productivity isn’t everything, most of us have too much to do and not enough time to do it, especially those of us with demanding jobs or those of us with kids. Increasing your levels of happiness—and with it, your productivity—not only helps you in your career but also helps you cope with the messiness and hectic pace of life.

Therapy can also help you discover obstacles blocking you from performing at your best. These types of road blocks (e.g., perfectionism or overthinking) are challenges a therapist can help you work through to find an effective solution. You and your therapist can also discuss time-management skills and whether changing negative long-term habits—such as poor prioritization or inaccurate assessments—could help with your focus and productivity. These types of changes can lead to long-term benefits such as increased work performance, greater feelings of self-efficacy, and improved relationships. For more information, check out Shawn Achor’s TED Talk “The happy secret to better work.”

5. Therapy can help improve chronic stress.

The ways that therapy can improve long-term stress are numerous. A therapist can teach you methods of calming your body and mind, which might include techniques such as guided visualization, progressive muscle relaxation, and deep breathing. Therapists can also help problem-solve the sources of your stress and teach you stress-reduction techniques. They can introduce you to new concepts such as radical acceptance – that many things in your life are beyond your control and acceptance is the key to reducing your suffering. Best of all, once you learn these techniques, you carry them with you into the rest of your life. In other words, stress relief in the short-term can build into long-term patterns of stress management.

Crucially, a therapist can also be a sounding board who listens to you talk about your life and validates your feelings. This isn’t the same thing as agreeing with you and supporting your every decision, but it can be more valuable – because it nurtures the idea that you’re important, your feelings are worth listening to, and you’re understood. Social support has been shown to be essential for mental health, and, perhaps as importantly, lacking in situations where mental health issues are present. In both the short- and long-term, social support soothes the mind and improves health– as evidenced by numerous studies (Berkman, 1995; Cohen and Janicki-Deverts, 2009; Umberson and Montez, 2010). In short, therapists are effective social support, and feeling supported leads to greater psychological health.

I hope that this blog is an invitation to reexamine how we consider therapy in a wider context. Our culture is ready to accept going to the gym as a way to improve physical health; why not embrace therapy as a way of improving psychological health? Think of therapy as a method of self-improvement, a life-affirming way to make positive changes instead of stagnating. Therapy is not about fixing something that is broken: instead, it is about embracing what we have in order to reach our full, prosperous potential as human beings.

Thank you to Anne Floyd and Rob Winkler for authoring this article! It speaks to the value of Mental Fitness and how to Nurture your Mental Health. See also our FAQ guide for more details.

References:

• Achor, S. (2010). The Happiness Advantage. New York City, New York: Penguin Random House.
• Berkman, L.F. (1995). “The Role of Social Relations in Health Promotion.” Psychosomatic Medicine 57, 245-54.
• Chancellor, J., Layous, K., Margolis, S., & Lyubormirsky, S. (2017). “Clustering by Well-Being in Workplace Social Networks: Homophily and Social Contagion.” Emotion 17(8), 1166-1180.
• Cohen, S., & Janicki-Deverts, D. (2009). “Can We Improve Our Physical Health by Altering our Social Networks?” Perspectives on Psychological Science 4, 375-78.
• Neely, M.E., Schallert, D.L., Mohammed, S.S., Roberts, R.M., & Chen, Y. (2009). “Self-Kindness when Facing Stress: The Role of Self-Compassion, Goal Regulation, and Support in College Students’ Well-Being.” Motiv Emot 33, 88-97.
• Neff, K.D., Kirkpatrick, K.L., Rude, S.S. (2007). “Self-Compassion and Adaptive Psychological Functioning.” Jounral of Research in Personality 41, 139-154.
• Neff, K.D., & Pommier, E. (2012). “The Relationship between Self-Compassion and Other-Focused Concern among College Undergraduates, Community Adults, and Practicing Meditators.” Self and Identity, 1-17.
• Rosenblatt, A., & Greenberg, J. (1988). “Depression and Interpersonal Attraction: The Role of Perceived Similarity.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 55, 112-119.
• Sirois, F.M., Hirsch, J.K., & Kitner, R. (2015). “Self-Compassion, Affect, and Health-Promoting Behaviors.” Health Psychology 34(6), 661-669.
• Umberson, D., & Montez, J.K. (2010). “Social Relationships and Health: A Flashpoint for Health Policy.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 51, S54-66.

To teach your child to be self-aware, you must first develop your own sense of self-awareness. How often do you identify and talk about feelings in your daily routine with your child? Are you OK with anger? Are you OK with your child’s anger? How tuned in are you to your physical states when feeling emotions? Do you know what your personal triggers are? How aware are you of your own self-defeating and default patterns of behavior? What are your values? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Look at the tips below. It may be useful for you to apply them to yourself before you begin working with your child.

• Teach and instill feelings and feelings language
• Accept your feelings without judgment
• Know your triggers
• Identify your self-defeating behaviors
• Identify your values
• Acknowledge and accept your strengths and weaknesses

For more information on raising a self-aware child, see Dr. Hoy’s book, “Mental Fitness for Tweens and Teens.”

Order Here: https://a.co/d/bdBPdFp

The basis behind traditional IQ tests is to measure the genetic potential for learning and believed, for the most part, to be unchangeable. The presumption is that we are all born with a level of intelligence that remains the same throughout our life-span and dictates our success.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) equates to possessing highly developed social skills. It is now common knowledge that kids with higher degrees of emotional intelligence not only get better grades but also stay in school longer. Would you be surprised to learn that positivity predicts college students’ first-year GPAs better than SAT scores? Hard to believe, isn’t it? It’s true. The three strongest predictors of making it through college to graduation are being socially responsible, learning to manage impulses, and having empathy for others. Unlike traditional measures of IQ, emotional intelligence (EQ) doesn’t remain the same over our life span. It is heavily impacted by our environment and our interaction with others. There is much we can do as parents, teachers, coaches, and mentors to help our children raise their EQs! And it is more important than ever as our children are experiencing historic stress related to isolation from each other as a result of living in a digital world and the isolation of the pandemic. Researchers estimate our kids are three years behind socially and emotionally and unprepared to take on the rigors of high school, college and life beyond.

In the next series of blogs I will break down critical components of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, social management, empathy, and motivation. Stay tuned!

Here are some tips from the Parents Network for helping your teen learn to manage money:

• Set them up with bank accounts: Open a checking account for daily spending and a savings account for future goals.
• Put them in charge: You may or may not have heard of the 50/30/20 rule. It is a good way to help teens start thinking about making a budget that works for their current life situation. Fifty percent goes to essentials, 30% is for personal spending, and 20% goes towards savings.
• Teach them some insurance basics: If your teen is close to driving age, explain that the purpose of insurance is to cover big costs that would otherwise be hard to pay on their own.
• Create credit smarts: As scary as it may seem, giving your child a credit card is an opportunity to teach them about the difference between credit and cash and build a credit history.
• Plant a retirement seed: Let them know that retirement is the biggest expense they will ever have. If they are employed and are earning an income, think about opening an individual retirement account (IRA).

Check out the link below from the Public Library Association for resources on teaching your child to achieve financial literacy for success as they mature into adulthood.

https://www.ala.org/pla/resources/tools/youth-services/teen-financial-literacy

Time management skills allow teens and young adults to prioritize their activities, maintaining a healthy balance between school, extracurricular activities, and personal life. Time management is also linked to higher GPAs and has been shown to lower anxiety and reduce stress by creating a sense of control, ultimately leading to improved mental fitness. Now is the time to get your child on a time management plan. Here are some suggestions for getting started:

• Time management tools.Whether it’s a planner that your teen writes everything in or an app that manages their schedule, help them find the tools that will work best. Talk about the importance of creating a schedule and using lists to prioritize time wisely.
• Write down a schedule.Teach your teen to schedule their day so they can set aside time for chores, homework, and other responsibilities. You can also encourage them to schedule free time.
• Prioritize activities.It’s common for teens to run into conflicts in their schedules. Teach them how to prioritize activities based on values and commitments.
• Develop routines.Encourage your teen to establish routines, like doing chores right after school. Routines help teens stay on track and task.
• Set limits on electronics. Negotiate a plan to help your child create healthy habits with cell phones and other digital devices.
• Model good time management habits.Be on time for your child and model punctuality by making it to appointments when scheduled. Demonstrate your ability to use time management habits to balance work, personal, and family life.

Take a look at the links below for more information on how parents can help teens and young adults with time management skills.

https://timehackhero.com/time-management-for-teens-tips-for-parents/

https://www.verywellfamily.com/teaching-time-management-skills-to-teens-2608794

All this information and more available in David Hoy’s New book: Mental Fitness for Tweens and Teens

Book available for purchase: https://a.co/d/7jnyIJ6

Lack of sleep in teens has been found to delay the development and functions of their brains. The brain’s prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision making, impulse control and emotional regulation, is particularly vulnerable. Sleep deprived teenagers experience difficulties with concentration and attention, poor academic performance, behavioral and emotional problems, and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders. Proper sleep will improve your child’s ability to focus in school and promote mental fitness for success in all aspects of life.

Here are some tips on helping your child with sleep:

• Ban electronics from the bedroom
• Make it a family practice to charge cell phones in an isolated space to reduce temptations at bed time
• Keep consistent sleep schedules
• Discourage afternoon naps
• Don’t procrastinate on school work that can keep your child up late into the evening
• Limit caffeine later in the day.

Check out the links below for more information on the benefits of sleep to teen mental health and additional tips for creating restful evenings.

https://www.prb.org/resources/more-sleep-could-improve-many-u-s-teenagers-mental-health/

https://www.readingeagle.com/2022/01/08/how-can-parents-help-teens-get-enough-rest-ask-the-pediatrician/

All of this information and more is available in David Hoy’s new book: Mental Fitness for Tweens and Teens.

Available for Pre-order now: https://a.co/d/2R4ZXJu

One of my fondest memories as a child was running with my father. At age 39, he finally kicked a nicotine habit that he had tried to beat for many years. He did it by taking up running. When he started, he ran in place in our basement for just a few minutes and got so overheated that he would come up stairs and stick his head in the refrigerator. Eventually he took his runs outside and I began to tag along with him. We both became enamored with it and began running full distance marathons. I have run 24 marathons and have since taken up biking.

Physical activity has always been a life saver for me, being a bit on the anxious side with problems relaxing and maintaining focus in academic and career pursuits. Runner’s high is a real thing! Exercise (particularly cardiovascular) releases endorphins which are the body’s natural “happy chemicals” and reduces levels of cortisol, the body’s stress hormone. Exercise also boosts production of serotonin and norepinephrine which help regulate mood and prevent mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression and attention deficit disorder.

Exercise has also been linked to higher grade point averages in school. Here’s how it works. When we exercise carbohydrates are broken down into glucose which are sugars. Glucose is literally food for the brain. Regular exercise creates a storage of glucose in two parts of the brain critical for memory and learning-the hippocampus and the neocortex.  Teens need an hour of physical activity most every day. Unfortunately only 3 in 10 meet these guidelines and have been compared in research to 60 year olds in terms of exercise habits. We have to get these kids moving!

Here are a few tips to get your kids in motion:

• Start with small changes
• Make it more fun than intense
• Focus on health, not weight loss
• Find activities they like
• Find activities you can do together
• Model good exercise habits for your child.

In a fast paced digital world, it is easy to forget how important body movement is for school performance and maintaining mental fitness. Check out the links below for more information and additional tips on getting your child moving.

https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adding-pa/activities-children.html

https://www.newportacademy.com/resources/mental-health/sports-and-mental-health/

https://www.thoughtco.com/exercise-can-improve-your-academic-performance-4117580#:~:text=D%2C%20director%20of%20Campus%20Recreation,higher%20than%20their%20counterparts%20who

Nutritional psychologists and researchers have made ground-breaking discoveries showing a link between gut function and mental health. For example, our guts are connected to our brains by the vagus nerve that acts as a super highway sending essential neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and GABA to our brains. These neurotransmitters are crucial for regulating mood, ability to focus, energy levels, problem solving abilities and sleep. Excessive junk food deprives our guts of the ability to produce healthy bacteria and essential microbiomes that send these very important neurotransmitters to the brain. This can manifest as anxiety, depression, attention deficit disorder, and a variety of other mental health conditions.

With 60% of the American diet consisting of processed foods, what the heck can we do to protect our children?! Don’t lose hope. Start with small steps by introducing fiber rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains that are naturally high in probiotics and prebiotics. Here are a couple of links to help you get started. Bona Appetit!

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e1/05/b4/e105b43f54b2964642a87923fd86ba1b.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e1/05/b4/e105b43f54b2964642a87923fd86ba1b.jpg

All of this information and more is available in David Hoy’s new book: Mental Fitness for Tweens and Teens!

Order yours today: https://a.co/d/dVabA0s

Examples of brain rich foods:

• Fish including: salmon, trout, sardines, tuna, and mackerel
• Berries
• Nuts and Seeds
• Avocado
• Leafy Greens
• Whole Grains
• Dark Chocolate

Let’s start with breakfast. It creates the foundation of a productive and successful day for our kids. I know you are busy and it can be challenging to make sure your child is getting what they need in the midst of preparing for work in the morning and sending them off to school. Be that as it may, a few minutes of prep time will ultimately save you time and make the morning less chaotic. Here are some suggestions for a healthy breakfast:

• Instant oatmeal
• Whole grain cereal with dried fruits, nuts, and low-fat milk or soy milk
• Egg breakfasts with a minimum of fat
• High protein yogurt with fruit
• Whole wheat bread with peanut butter or cheese
• Fruit salad with cottage cheese
• A shake blended with yogurt, milk or soy milk, and fruit.

Check out these links for ideas on how to take time to make time and get your child properly fueled for a successful day of school.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/easy-breakfast-recipes-for-working-moms-dads/

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/266642/egg-bites/

https://www.pureprotein.com/

Written by David Hoy PhD, MA, LP

Executive Director David Hoy & Associates