Growing up can be tough at any age. As you get older, you’ll need to learn to deal with a lot of big feelings and know what to do to keep yourself healthy and safe. Some kids and teens might have experiences that threaten their mental health, like stress from school, fights with friends, family issues, or problems with their boyfriend or girlfriend.
You might be bullied, or you might bully yourself, putting yourself down and feeling bad until you end up hurting yourself. It’s important to learn how to deal with negative feelings, events, and experiences and know what to do if you’re in a situation that could be hurtful or dangerous.
Mental Health Resources
Resources for Children and Adolescents
- The Basics of Children’s Mental Health: When you are mentally healthy, you can handle tough feelings, deal with problems, learn at school, and work with others easily.
- Signs of Mental Illness in Children: Common mental illnesses in kids include anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.
- Body Image in Childhood: Kids who spend a lot of time on social media are more likely to feel bad about their bodies, and this can lead to unhealthy behaviors.
- Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia can be very dangerous to a person’s health and even threaten their life.
- Children and Anxiety Disorders: If you have a hard time concentrating on things, can’t fall asleep at night, or feel tense or fidgety a lot, you might have an anxiety disorder.
Resources for Teens
- Peer Support Programs Help Teens With Anxiety and Depression: Teens can feel more comfortable talking about their mental health concerns with friends than with adults.
- Guide to Teen Depression: This guide was written to help parents of teens, but it can also help you to spot when a friend is struggling.
- Understanding Teenage Depression: Some teens can inherit a depressive tendency. Others may feel depressed because events in their home or school life make them feel powerless.
- Mindfulness for Teens: Practicing mindfulness skills can improve your concentration and focus and help you stay calm when life is stressful.
- Teen Mental Health: Depression is one of the leading causes of illness among teens, but most mental health disorders are undetected by family members.
Social and Emotional Health Resources
Resources for Children
- Why Your Social Identity Is Important: Kids need to develop a good feeling about who they are and their place in their family, school, and community.
- The Importance of Positive Self-Esteem: Self-esteem is how much you value yourself. Kids who value themselves are less likely to hurt themselves and will speak up if someone tries to hurt them.
- Anger Management for Kids: Everyone gets mad sometimes, but it’s important to learn what to do with this feeling so you don’t hurt yourself or others.
- Building Social Skills Through Play: Playing is a type of learning, too. Playing with friends helps you learn about working with others.
Resources for Teens
- Teen Identity: Figuring Out Who You Are: Teens often adapt to fit the people or situations around them. Teens with a strong identity can hold on to their principles even in the face of peer pressure.
- The Effect of the Internet on Teens’ Identity: Being able to create your own online identity can pose dangers, but it can also be an opportunity to try different things while you figure out who you really are.
- Steps to Build Self-Esteem in Teens: While this article is written for parents, it has a lot of tips you can use yourself.
- Body Image and Self-Esteem: When you keep putting yourself down, it can be really harmful to your mental health.
- Self-Esteem-Building Activities: Try these activities to help you remember what’s great about you and build your self-esteem.
Family and Relationships Resources
Resources for Children
- Why Do Parents Get Divorced? Sometimes, parents don’t want to be married anymore, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t love their kids anymore.
- Mister Rogers Talks About Divorce: In these episodes of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Prince Tuesday meets a friend with divorced parents and worries about whether his parents will get divorced, too.
- What Is Divorce? On Sesame Street, Abby talks about the big feelings she has about her parents’ divorce.
- Blended Families Can Work: It can be hard when your mom or dad marries someone who has kids, but if you and your parents are patient and work together, you can make a blended family work for everyone.
Resources for Teens
- Conflict Resolution for Teens: Learn about the types of conflict you might experience and how you can deal with them in a healthy way.
- Teens and Domestic Violence: Abusing others is never OK, even if they’re family or a boyfriend or girlfriend. It’s important to learn healthy ways to deal with negative feelings, and it’s also important to speaking up about domestic or relationship violence.
- Ten Things Every Teenager Should Know About Consent: Your body is yours, and you have the right to say no to anything that makes you uncomfortable at any time.
- Healthy vs. Unhealthy Relationships: Learn what a healthy relationship looks like, and don’t stay in a relationship that isn’t healthy.
- Ten Teen Parenting Tips: Teens who suddenly become parents have a whole new set of challenges to face, and this list can help you figure out what you need to do to be a better parent.
Health and Safety Resources
Resources for Children
- Stranger Danger: Follow these tips to keep yourself safe from people who might want to hurt you.
- Child Abuse: Learn about the ways that children can be abused and what you can do to stop it.
- Kiko and the Hand : Read this book to learn about the Underwear Rule, which explains how some kinds of touching are not OK.
- Kids and Suicide: When some kids aren’t very mentally healthy, they might want to end their lives. It’s important to know the signs to look for so you can help a friend to get the help they need.
- Four Ways to Say No to Drugs: If someone tries to get you to use drugs, you need to be ready to say no to keep yourself safe and avoid breaking the law.
Resources for Teens
- Your Brain and Drug Addiction: Drug abuse can cause permanent damage to your brain.
- Nine Safety Tips for Going Out Alone: Sometimes, your parents might let you go out with friends or on your own, but it’s important to know how to stay safe when your parents aren’t around.
- Tips for Safe Social Networking: Having fun with friends online or on your phone can be dangerous, so it’s important to act to keep yourself safe.