I honestly wish I had read this book when I was younger and just going through all the things described in the book, because it would have helped me understand what is going on in my brain and how to help deal with it all.

It also changed my career, as I now travel worldwide to discuss the implications of this and my later books on adolescent wellbeing.Some of what is covered in this book will, hopefully, help me understand what my children are going through during this particular time. Her message to teenagers is subtle but clear: “You might even decide to respect your brain and treat it a bit better, once you know what’s going on inside it.

For centuries philosophers and scientists have said that human choice is just a complicated physical process, that there is no 'tiny miracle' that happens in our brains when we choose. My main issue with this was the references in the book to ‘successfully committing suicide’ saying ‘commit’ is outdated as suicide is not a crime now and we are encouraged to move away from talking about a suicide attempt as successful or failed and rather to say completed instead, I would have given more stars but for this. As it targets people with a short attention span, it is very simply written, without deeper analysis or scientific underpinning.

A better understanding of the emotional changes that occurring in these diseases could be helpful early in the course of disease when the diagnosis might not be so obvious," Sturm said. Highly recommended for parents of teenagers wondering why they can never seem to say ANYTHING right. Every new software, every new app, brings about a fresh round of exactly the same cycle of opining: wonder at the possibilities of the technology; alarm about what will happen once we become dependent on it; resignation as we succumb to our digital habits. Teenagers are interested in their own brains but even more so are the people who care about, live and work with them. This means there is lots of potential for new learning – this is why it’s easier to learn new knowledge and skills when you are a teenager than when you are an adult.