6. Straight Talk from a Teen

Tess Connolly talks with  Zach Gottlieb -Mental Health from a Teenage Boy Perspective

• Zach’s story of how and why he began talking about mental health, breaking down barriers

• Zach’s mom brought him up talking about feelings and he wants other people feeling comfortable talking about feelings too

• Zach encourages us to not press our kids to talk, let your kids know that you’re there when they are ready to talk “I’m available to talk when you’re ready..”

• Talk about your own feelings to model what you’d like from your teen

• Asking more specific questions to teens rather than a general “how was your day?

• Don’t have a big reaction when listening to your teen and not overreacting 

• Explain why you don't want your teen doing something so they understand better

• Importance of us parents creating a space and being consistently calm to foster a conversation because they feel safe and they are getting “guidance than punishment”

• Biggest struggles for teens right now; there’s more social pressure due to social media and there are positives and negatives with social media-hard for teens to have FOMO

• He talks about his platform on IG@Talk with Zach and teens can anonymously ask him questions and then he answers the teens questions.

• Even if it’s hard, we still need to talk about it

• Males can talk about mental health and feelings too

• Importance of parents modeling good mental health for their teens

• He’s grateful for a parent that let him know feelings are ok and he can express them

You can find out more about Talk with Zach on Instagram @Talk with Zach or on Tik Tok at Talk with Zach 

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