Dear Amy: I am having trouble isolating myself from the anxiety caused by my young adult children’s life issues. They are 21 and 26 years old. I did what I could as a mom to raise independent adults. They are fine for the most part (youngest still in college) but we are close and they confide in me. This can really send me into a tailspin. Our oldest son has chosen a lifestyle built around the outdoors, but his work can be sporadic and can be very dispersed. I believe…
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AI could be your next therapist for loneliness and anxiety
When you wake up in the middle of the night feeling overwhelmed due to the recent death of a loved one, your new shrink could be an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. It offers advice and suggests techniques to improve one’s mood. And it’s almost like you’re texting with a human therapist. Opening your heart to an AI-enabled empathetic app or text bot doesn’t replicate laying down on a couch to confide in a human psychotherapist or even calling a crisis line. But with proper guardrails, some mental health professionals see…
Read MoreWhat Parents of Kids With Anxiety Need to Know (And 7 Ways to Help Them)
We tend to talk quite openly about our own anxieties as parents, how juggling so many responsibilities and expectations can leave us wide awake with worry in the middle of the night. Childhood, however, should be a time of lighthearted fun, and it can be hard to know how to react when your child is the one whose worries seem to spiral. Child anxiety can manifest itself in many ways, but there are a few main types: Separation anxiety is when your child doesn’t want you to leave them at…
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