How much faith should you have in your teen’s mental health diagnosis? Exactly how does someone diagnose a mental health disorder like generalized anxiety, major depression, or bipolar disorder in a tween or teen? Who can make these diagnoses and upon what basis do they make these weighty decisions?

When we ask a professional to assess or evaluate our teen or tween for a possible mental health issue, we simply trust that they’ll give us the correct diagnosis – that they have the training, the experience and the knowledge necessary to consider (whatever it is they’re supposed to consider). But that’s not necessarily the case.

As a matter of fact, there are many experts who even question the validity and accuracy of the very tool they’re supposed to use to make such a diagnosis (the DSM-5-TR or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

Join me in this episode as I examine the fallibility of the mental health diagnosis and reveal what you can do to assure your teen or tween’s diagnosis is as accurate as it can be.

Access TRANSCRIPT here.

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