Ask any adult about stress in their lives, and the list seems endless: work responsibilities, household chores, finances, and juggling family members' schedules are only some of the daily stressors facing most of us. In comparison, the daily lives of our children can often seem idyllic. They don't have bills to pay or schedules to organize. They don't have to meet deadlines at work or organize the latest school fundraiser. However, they do have real feelings of stress that can lead to feelings of depression or anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and behavioral outbursts.

Stress in children and teenagers is often overlooked. Stress can be caused by all sorts of things such as school assignments, peer relationships, and sibling rivalry. And even though we as parents try to hide our own stress from our kids, they often pick up on the fact that we're overwhelmed, tired, and maybe even frustrated.

Unfortunately children aren't born with knowledge and skills necessary to manage stress. But there are things we can do to help them. The following link is to an article from KidsHealth.org on how to help your children manage stress. It contains several ideas for helping your child learn to label and manage their feelings appropriately.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/stress_coping.html#

An excerpt:
"Put a label on it. Many kids do not yet have words for their feelings. If your child seems angry or frustrated, use those words to help him or her learn to identify the emotions by name. Putting feelings into words helps kids communicate and develop emotional awareness — the ability to recognize their own emotional states. Kids who can do so are less likely to reach the behavioral boiling point where strong emotions get demonstrated through behaviors rather than communicated with words."

Source: KidsHealth.org; Reviewed by D'Arcy Lyness, PhD, February 2009
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The first question I am often asked by patients with chronic pain is, "How can psychology possibly help me with my pain? My pain is real." Some patients also come to the clinic offended that their doctor suggested psychology as part of their pain treatment.  

Let's start with the basic mutual understanding that your pain is REAL! There is no argument that your pain is a very real and very biological process. 

In the article "The Brain in Pain" (1), the author summarizes the pathophysiology of pain and methods of pain control. It is well documented that pain arises in the body, travels up the spinal cord, and is processed in the brain through a complex matrix, resulting in the noxious experience we call "pain." I am always excited to read articles like these that beautifully present the logic behind the therapy offered in our clinic and help de-stigmatize psychology. In essence, the article reviews the state of the science in pain treatment and argues that psychology is more than sitting and talking, it can be an active skill-building process that can literally change your brain.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

"These results showed that subjects could be trained to have voluntary control over a specific area ofthe brain related to pain perception, and that these effects were powerful enough to impact severe, clinical pain.

Perhaps retraining the brain to control the activation of pain pathways has the potential to become an important addition to or even substitution for the use of opioids. Besides avoiding the side effects of opioids and the potential for addiction, brain retraining works on inhibiting the overall perception of pain, rather than dampening the already activated pain signals, which is the mechanism by which most analgesics act."

Reference
1. Rhodes, C. (2011). The brain in pain. The Pain Practitioner, 21 (2), 35-43
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Soon after the launch of our new site, whenever news piques the interest of our providers we will try to jump here and comment on it. :) 
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