Life Happens

Do you:

• Often feel afraid to let anyone know how bad you feel and why you feel that way?
• Hide your feelings—pretending to be happy and that life is going along as it always did?
• Deny your feelings or cover them up with angry or impulsive behavior—lashing out at parents, family, friends, or teachers?
• Try to numb your feelings with alcohol, drugs, sex, or eating disorders—not always realizing what you're doing and why?

If you can't seem to get in touch with your emotions—and you feel that there's no one you can turn to—then you need Life Happens. Written by specialists in adolescent psychology and medicine, this reassuring guide offers information to help you understand that the way you're feeling is totally normal, even when it seems that you're depressed for no reason at all. Using the voices and letters of teens seeking help, the authors discuss some of today's most difficult situations—from the pressure to get good grades to questions concerning sexuality to dealing with your parents. You'll learn the steps you can take to help yourself, as well as how and where to get professional help, if you want it.Kathy McCoy, Ph.D., is an award-winning author of eleven books, a psychotherapist, and Coordinator of the Clinical Ph.D. Program at the California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles. A former editor for 'Teen, Dr. McCoy has written hundreds of articles for such publications as Redbook, Readers' Digest, The New York Times, Family Circle, Glamour, and Ladies Home Journal. An online expert specializing in adolescent psychology, she has made numerous appearances on "The Today Show," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Hour Magazine," "Sally Jessy Raphael," and "Home and Family."