How to Bolster Your Teen’s Mental Health During the Pandemic

Mom and Teen Daughter Using Cell Phone and Smiling

It’s not your imagination: Many parents have noticed their teens struggling with the pandemic shutdown. There’s even new research to back this up.  The University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital released a survey of over 900 parents, and 45% reported new or worsening mental health behaviors in their teens (ages 13 to 18).   Also, FAIR Health reports that insurance claims…

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6 Ways to Help Your Teen Make Smarter Decisions About Alcohol

Family walking on the street

Teens often encounter alcohol in middle and high school. They may come across it at parties, friends’ houses, or even your own liquor cabinet. While it’s easy to find and access, parents have more influence than they think when it comes to helping teens make choices about alcohol use.  The reasons why teens choose to drink can vary:  Peer pressure and social drinking  Curiosity  Boredom  Rebellion  Increased independence  Depression, overwhelming stress,…

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Why Do My Parents Need DBT Skills?

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There’s this thing called DBT, it means Dialectical Behavior Therapy. You have been told that it is really great for both mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety, and substance use. When you get treatment for your mental health, hopefully the facility you choose will use DBT, it is one of the best treatments for…

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About Last Summer

You came, you worked, you laughed, and you cried. Embark Behavioral Health is more than just a day camp or summer camp, though. The work you did here was meant to change the way you think, the way you view life, and to change your actual life. Not just now, but forever. Hopefully, you also…

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Putting the “I” in Family

Life is hard today. We are asking young people to make bigger choices even younger, we are spending more time in school and homework, taking higher-level classes, and facing more pressure and competition to get into good colleges, only to end up with higher debt levels at the end. Technology helps so much, but it…

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Remembering Me

We are naturally wired to be self-centered. Think about it, survival instincts are to first save ourselves. If we are hungry, we want food. For ourselves. If we are tired, we want to go to sleep. Whatever we want, our brain tells us to get it. That is how we survive, it is a natural…

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Why Family is Worth the Work

Have you ever asked yourself how you got this family? Do you ever feel like you couldn’t be more different from them, that maybe you were switched at birth? Or do they just drive you crazy and you wish you could choose another family? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you…

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