Shrinking It Down: Mental Health Made Simple

It's nearly time for a new season of Shrinking It Down! Co-hosts Gene Beresin, MD, MA and Khadijah Booth Watkins, MD, MPH have some great mental health topics and great guests in store for you. But until then, Hold On....Beginning October 20, tune in the 3rd Thursday of every month for new episodes. Subscribe wherever you stream. See you soon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*Content warning: Some of the conversation today includes topics that some listeners may find sensitive including sexuality, gender identity, and violence towards members of the LGBTQIA+ community. What is gender identity? How is it different from sexual orientation? And why are pronouns so important? We talk through all of these questions and more in this week’s episode. Gene and Khadijah are joined by special guest, Marshall Forstein, MD, DLFAPA, to discuss some of these common terms we are hearing more and more every day and give tips on how to have conversations with your kids about all of these topics. Tune in for one of our favorite episodes yet! Media ListFollow along with the conversation.June is LGBT Pride Month (youth.gov)Reflections on Becoming a Father as a Gay Man (MGH Clay Center)How and why to discuss Juneteenth with your children (The Washington Post)LGBTQ+ Glossary (It Gets Better Project)How To Talk To Your Kids About Internet Pornography (MGH Clay Center)The Impact of Reality TV On Our Teen

May is Mental Health Awareness Month! Leading up to this month, we received questions from our Instagram followers. In this podcast miniseries, Dr. Gene Beresin and Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins answer them. Today's question: How does Schizophrenia affect a young person and their caregivers? Dr. Abigail Donovan Joshi of the Mass General First Episode and Early Psychosis Program joins to help answer. Media ListAbigail Donovan, MD (Massachusetts General Hospital)First-Episode and Early Psychosis Program (Massachusetts General Hospital)What Is Family Therapy? (MGH Clay Center)Psychosis in Children and Teens (MGH Clay Center)What Is the Schizophrenia Spectrum? (VeryWell Health) Tune in to "You Ask, Our Docs Answer!" each Tuesday in May for a short episode. Have a question for our docs? E-mail us or tag us on Instagram! Thank you for all you do to support the young developing minds in your life. It really makes a difference. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month! Leading up to this month, we received questions from our Instagram followers. In this podcast miniseries, Dr. Gene Beresin and Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins answer them. Today's question: How do you find out if your teenager has undiagnosed ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder)?Dr. Gagan Joshi of the Mass General Bressler Cetner for Autism joins to help answer.Media ListGagan Joshi, MD (Massachusetts General Hospital)Alan & Lorraine Bressler Clinical Research Program (Facebook)A Closer Look at High-Functioning Autism, featuring Robyn Thom, MD – Shrinking It Down (MGH Clay Center)Webinar: “Autistic Burnout,” featuring Sue Ann Pien (MGH Aspire on Facebook)Request an Appointment (Bressler Clinical and Research Program)Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (CAR Autism Roadmap)Tune in to "You Ask, Our Docs Answer!" each Tuesday in May for a short episode. Have a question for our docs? E-mail us or tag us on Instagram!Thank you for all you do to support the young developin

We all know that parents and other adults tend to be the last people teenagers want to talk to about their problems. At this stage of life teens are more likely to reach out to friends in times of need. With this in mind, Valerie Grison-Alsop, founded Give Us the Floor, a nonprofit organization that promotes peer support for teens, by teens. Give Us the Floor launched an app that provides a safe, anonymous space for teens to reach out to each other for support, with guidance from trained teen advisors as well as adult advisors. This week, Gene and Khadijah are very pleased to welcome Valerie as a special guest, as well as Julia Esposito, a Junior Adult Advisor and former participant of Give Us the Floor. They talk about the benefits of peer-to-peer support and why their app has been so successful in helping teens improve their mental health and overall well-being.  Media ListFollow along with the conversation.Give Us the Floor (Give Us the Floor)Being an Emotional Sponge: Supporting Young People Who Are

May is Mental Health Awareness Month! Leading up to this month, we received several mental health questions from our Instagram followers. In this podcast miniseries, Dr. Gene Beresin and Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins answer them. Tune in to "You Ask, Our Docs Answer!" each Tuesday in May for a short episode answering one of your questions.Today's question: How do you find a therapist for elementary kids with anxiety?Have a question for our docs? E-mail us or tag us on Instagram!Thank you for all you do to support the young developing minds in your life. It really makes a difference. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month! Leading up to this month, we received several mental health questions from our Instagram followers. In this podcast miniseries, Dr. Gene Beresin and Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins answer them.Tune in to "You Ask, Our Docs Answer!" each Tuesday in May for a short episode answering one of your questions.Have a question for our docs? E-mail us or tag us on Instagram!And thank you for all you do to support the young developing minds in your life. It really makes a difference. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The COVID pandemic is like nothing most of us have ever lived through. This is especially true for kids and teens who are still developing mentally and physically. This week we talk with special guest, Annabel Reddick, a high school senior in Davidson, North Carolina about her experience living through the pandemic, and how things are going two years into it. Gene, Khadijah, and Annabel discuss the struggle of remote learning and maintaining relationships, readjusting to school more than a year later, how she and her sister coped, and what she thinks adults should know about teens and mental health. Tune in for a great conversation and to hear a perspective we don’t often get but have a lot to learn from. While Annabel’s experience is just that of one teen, we believe she discusses some universal truths from her story that highlight issues of mental health for many teens out there. Media ListBirdcage Memoirs: A Teen's Reflections on Living Through the Pandemic (MGH Clay Center) 7 Ways to Support Kids and Teen

At what point are we pushing our young athletes too hard? We all watched 15-year-old Russian Olympic skater, Kamila Valieva, exit the ice in tears after a doping scandal. Where did the adults in her life fail her? What can be done to make sure situations like this don’t happen again?These are the questions Gene and Khadijah try to answer this week, with the help of former competitive skater turned child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Mai Uchida, MD.Dr. Uchida is passionate about supporting youth athlete mental health and has written about Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, and interviewed Mirai Nagasu. This week, she shares her perspective and ideas of how to move the athletic world in a healthier direction for our young people.Media List:Figure Skating's Identity Crisis: Supporting Our Young Athletes (MGH Clay Center)Naomi Osaka - Shining Light on Athlete Mental Health (MGH Clay Center)Simone Biles - Choosing Mental Health Over Defending Olympic Gold (MGH Clay Center)Chapter 1: Teen Champion (A Mental Health Conver

Low self-esteem gets all of us down at one point or another. For kids, the goal is to help build them back up. Lots of things can lower our kids’ self-esteem like body image, cyberbullying, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and surprisingly, guilt (along with lots of other things!).This week, Gene and Khadijah break down the ways that we can help our kids elevate their self-esteem and their sense of worth. From giving positive feedback to creating a sense of competency, there are plenty of things parents – and other caring adults – can do to help their kids. If this is something you think your child might be struggling with, tune in below. Media List‘Snow potentially in April’: Massachusetts spring forecast predicts winter setbacks (Boston Herald)‘They draw bombs, tanks and wishes for peach’: Ukraine’s child mental health crisis (The Guardian)Low Self-Esteem: Where does it come from and what can adults do to help? (MGH Clay Center)Trauma: What Parents Should Know (MGH Clay Center)Ways to emotionally

The crisis in Ukraine feels to many like the straw that broke the camel’s back. Between the COVID pandemic, police brutality, the climate crisis, and now the war in Ukraine, the world may feel increasingly unsafe. Very young children, though, actually respond more to their adults’ distress than to the tragic events themselves. That said, repeated media exposure of horrific events can sometimes lead to PTSD in kids who do not experience the tragedies themselves.This week, Gene and Khadijah discuss the important work of protecting our young people from the very real conflict they are witnessing in the media, and hearing about at school and at home. Whether you have friends and family in Ukraine, know someone who does, or are simply a concerned global citizen, this week’s episode covers how to help kids of all ages manage the devastation, while taking care of yourself, too.Tune in for this pressing episode. We hope that our conversation will help you to have yours.Have more questions about how to handle your you

Turning on TV, opening a magazine, or going on our phones these days, kids are overwhelmed with images showing us what we should look like. Even on “reality” TV, none of the people look like your average person. With all of these images circulating in our everyday lives, it is easy for any of us to get caught up and judge our own bodies, but especially young people who soak these images in and can internalize these “ideals”.Today, Gene and Khadijah are joined by special guest Dr. Holly Peek, Assistant Medical Director of the Klarman Eating Disorders Center at McLean Hospital, and former Miss New Orleans, to talk about body image and the ways in which it can affect self-esteem. They also touch on how boys are often left out of this conversation, how media and Hollywood impacts body image, the importance of nutrition, and how parents can help young people cultivate a positive body image for themselves.Tune in for this timely episode. We hope that our conversation will help you to have yours. Media List:·&n

Our recent conversation with Dr. John Kelly of the MGH Recovery Research Institute reinforced even more how important it is to start talking with young people about about alcohol use and it's possible problems, early on. Let us help you get started! From child & adolescent psychiatrist Gene Beresin, MD, MA, here are a few ways to open to door to this ongoing conversation with your grade-school child or middle schooler.If you missed our last episode on alcohol and adolescents, tune in here!We hope that our conversation helps you to have yours. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Did you know that 3 out of 4 addiction cases in the U.S. are alcohol addictions, and that kids who start drinking before age 15 are significantly more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder than those who wait? Alcohol causes more deaths each year than all other drugs combined, including around 5,000 deaths to children under age 21. Yet, culturally, we don’t tend to think of alcohol as a serious psychoactive drug that causes intoxication, toxicity, and addiction.Today, Gene and Khadijah talk about alcohol, adolescents, and what parents should know. To help make sense of it all, they are joined by very special guest, Dr. John Kelly, program director for Mass General’s Recovery Research Institute. Dr. Kelly walks us through how alcohol exposure affects the developing teen brain, how it can lead to other negative health outcomes, including cancer, substance use trends during Covid, and signs to look for you in your child if you’re concerned.Please tune in for this special episode. We hope that our conversatio

COVID-19. We can’t seem to escape it no matter where we turn, even in our own homes. All of us – caregivers and young people, alike – are experiencing feelings of fear, frustration, and anger as we balance trying to stay safe and trying to move on with our lives. It’s mentally and emotionally draining.How do we keep going? That’s what Dr. Gene Beresin and Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins talk about today. Ways to manage our strong emotions in a healthy, sustainable way. They explore why emotions like anger and fear arise, and share concrete tips for responding to the COVID-19 challenges families are facing – including ever-changing news and protocols, and internal family conflict.Thanks for tuning in! We hope our conversation will help you to have yours. Media ListFollow along with the conversation.Prioritizing Parent Mental Health (JED Foundation / MGH Clay Center)Yes, All this COVID-Related News Is Incredibly Exhausting—25 Therapists Explain How They're Coping (Parade)The Power of Music: To Feel, Heal, and C

If your child is struggling to go to school and regularly wanting to stay home, it's important to learn more about what's making things so hard for them. Talking about it can help. Here are a couple ways to start a conversation with your child or teen, from child & adolescent psychiatrist Khadijah Booth Watkins, MD, MPH.If you missed Khadijah and Gene's full discussion about school refusal, tune in here!We hope that our conversation helps you to have yours. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Does your child get stomach aches at the thought of going to school? Does your younger child throw temper tantrums? Does your teenager spend all day in the school counselor’s office, or even refuse to leave the home? When kids struggle to go to school, it can be a really challenging situation. And since the pandemic, child psychiatrists Dr. Gene Beresin and Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins are hearing more concerns about this kind of behavior from the parents they work with.Today, Gene and Khadijah talk through school refusal: what it is, how to recognize signs in your child, and how to help. School refusal is very treatable! But getting to the root cause and responding quickly is key. Tune in for more!Plus, Gene shares the Clay Center’s 2022 word of the year…We hope that our conversation will help you to have yours. Have a question or comment? Write to us!Media ListFollow along with the conversation. School Refusal: When Back-to-School Is a Struggle (MGH Clay Center)Our Word of the Year (Instagram - MGH Clay

As we lead into a New Year, we wish you and your loved ones physical and mental wellness. It has been a challenging two years, with more challenges to come. But together, we can manage this. So for tonight, unwind a bit if you can, draw strength from memories past, and look forward to a new year with new beginnings.Thank you for all you do to support the young people in your life. It really makes a difference.Auld Lang Syne (traditional Scottish folk song)Musicians Gene Beresin and Jim MayerArranged by Gene BeresinPoem by Robert Burns, 1788English Lyrics:Should old acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind?Should old acquaintance be forgot,and old lang syne?CHORUS:For auld lang syne, my dear,For auld lang syne,We’ll take a cup of kindness yet,For auld lang syne.And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!And surely I’ll buy mine!And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,For auld lang syne.CHORUSWe two have run about the slopes,And picked the daisies fine;But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,Since auld lang syne.CHO

Mindfully enjoying the things we look forward to during the holidays is a great way for families to lessen stress and support well-being. What are Gene and Khadijah's favorite things about the holiday season? Tune in!From all of us at the MGH Clay Center, we wish you a wonderful holiday season. May your minds be merry and bright. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Families have felt tremendous stress over the past two years due to the pandemic. But for many, this is a special time of year that we fantasize about and look forward to, and it’s not healthy to go into the holiday season at this heightened state of stress and duress.Perhaps you're anxious about spending time with loved ones in a safe way, or fighting about house rules with your college student who is home. The season may be challenging because it awakens traumas from your past. Or maybe you just want to give your child the emotional break and fun they need, but it’s hard when you can’t unwind yourself.Today, Gene and Khadijah share strategies to help you feel less overwhelmed this season, and wind down a bit leading up to the new year. Plus, they share favorite songs they’ve been sharing with each other.Thank you for joining in this conversation. If you have questions or comments, please write to us!Media List(follow along with the conversation)Coping With Holiday Stress: 11 Parenting Tips (MGH Clay Center)