upshiftwithchad

How to prepare your student for back-to-school season, before the anxiety finds them first. Students in a school hallway Every August, something quietly shifts. The lazy days of summer start to shrink. Group chats are filled with scheduled talk. Kids who seemed totally fine a few weeks ago start sleeping in until noon, snapping at their siblings, or going strangely quiet. As a parent, it is easy to chalk it up to the transition. "They just need a few weeks to adjust." And sometimes that is...

In Chad's work as a mental health speaker, he has seen firsthand how warning signs can go unrecognized, even by people who care deeply. Here are the signs to watch for, and the two questions that can change everything.

A message for Mental Health Awareness Month — from someone who's been in the dark. Every May, the world pauses to talk about mental health. Green ribbons appear. Social media fills with statistics. Campaigns remind us that it's okay not to be okay. And all of that matters, deeply. But I want to go further than awareness. I want to talk about what comes after the awareness. Because knowing you're struggling is just the first gear. "I kept asking myself one question: how do I take the worst...