Substance Use, Self-Harm, Anxiety, Poor Mental Health: Dangers of Teens Striving For Perfection and Achievement, With Stanford's Denise Pope, Ph.D.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
To say that high school and college students today are under massive pressure to "succeed" would be an understatement and no one knows more about why that's true than Denise Pope, Ph.D., senior lecturer for Stanford's Graduate School of Education and co-founder of the non-profit, Challenge Success.

After watching the documentary, "Breaking Points" which highlights some of the unhealthy ways young people are striving to achieve success, I knew I needed to dive into this subject.

Young people today are doing things like combining non-prescribed stimulants and opioids in order to get good (perfect) grades, stellar college placement exam scores, and acceptance to "the school" that will supposedly set them up for a life full of achievement and money. Oh, and at the same time they're volunteering, curating the impeccable Instagram feed and playing elite level sports.

At some point, something's gotta give, and often it's our kids' mental and physical health and wellbeing. In this hugely important episode, Denise and I talk about so many important things including:

• what's pushed some kids to use drugs as a negative coping strategy because of the intense pressure for academic achievement
• where is the very common 'fear of failure' coming from?
• what clues should parents look for to understand if their child is experiencing this intense stress and pressure?
• the first question we should ask our kids in order to understand their overall mental and physical health
• how much sleep teens actually need each night to stay healthy
• the dangerous roller coaster when students use stimulants and opioids to keep up with the pressure
• the first response parents should have when they see grades start to slip
• what kids truly feel about their parent's expectations
• the hope Denise sees coming out of COVID
• what research shows about the impact of where you go to college
• tips for parents of kids who are struggling, or for kids who are ok, to keep them that way
• protective factors for keeping kids safe and balanced

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Denise Pope, Ph.D., Stanford Univ. and Challenge Success
• Breaking Points documentary
• About Challenge Success (video)
• PDF (playtime, downtime, family time) for teens (download)
• Challenge Success research papers
• A “Fit” Over Rankings research mentioned in episode
• Stimulants and Benzodiazepine fact sheet

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