THE ROADMAP TO TREATMENT

When students persistently feel sad and are withdrawing … it may be a sign your teen or young adult is struggling with depression. A common refrain of nearly every parent of a child, who died by suicide, is, “I wish I had acted sooner and trusted my intuition.”  If you can check three or more boxes of the symptoms below, it is time to seek help.

• Persistent sadness or hopelessness
• Irritability, angry outbursts, heightened agitation
• Difficulty concentrating
• Falling or failing grades
• Shrinking friend group
• Self-harming
• Physical symptoms like headaches and stomach aches
• Napping excessively
• Zoning out of life and into games and social media
• Sleeping too much or too little
• Eating too much or too little
• Feeling worthlessness
• Physical symptoms like headaches or stomach aches
• Persistent crying and swearing
• Melting down
• Isolating
• Missing family dinners and events
• Family “walking on eggshells”
• Lying
• Vaping
• Substance Abuse

Working together as a team, we create a healthy family system with new routines and new ways of thinking. With support and strategies, parents and students can rebuild trust and find their way back to each other. There is hope.