On Saturday, the New York Times’ Alan Schwarz told us about the rising tide of teens and young adults who turn to stimulants — specifically medications used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) — to help their school performance. The next day, Matthew Herper over at Forbes asked where the news was in this story, given that there’s no significant rise in the use of these medications by teens and young adults over the past decade.

He also called out the myth perpetrated by Schwarz — that ADHD medications like Adderall and Ritalin work one way in people with ADHD, but in a different way in people without ADHD. This is not true, and you’d think a NY Times writer (or his editors) would catch that.

But I wonder — why do we find it surprising people make use of something that will improve their school (or work) performance? And is this a problem, or an enhancement we should all embrace?

No doubt many of us have expressed a desire to return to our childhoods — a less taxing time when we didn’t have to work, pay the bills or perform the many other responsibilities of being a full-fledged adult.

But we forget that childhood can be stressful. In fact, kids often suffer in silence, according to Michelle L. Bailey, M.D., FAAP, a pediatrician who teaches mindfulness-based stress reduction skills to children and authored the book Parenting Your Stressed Child.

In her book, Bailey cites research that shows that kids struggle with moderate to extreme levels of stress. They may be stressed out about everything from their academic performance to their peer relationships to their family’s finances.

And that stress can have a big effect on kids.

Many doctors appear to believe they aren’t human — and don’t have normal human needs like the rest of us. At least according to two new studies recently released.

In an opinion piece published in Sunday’s New York Times, researcher Leeat Granek shares the results of two studies that suggest to her that, “Not only do doctors experience grief, but the professional taboo on the emotion also has negative consequences for the doctors themselves, as well as for the quality of care they provide.”

A different study released by the JAMA journal, Archives of Surgery, last week found that residents don’t get as much sleep as ordinary professionals get — which directly impacts their ability to concentrate and be mentally attentive.

Combined, these studies add to the picture that’s been painted for years by research — that doctors believe they are somehow “super human” and beyond the reach of normal human needs, for both their body and their mind. It’s a disturbing picture, and one that the medical education establishment needs to remedy sooner rather than later.

Imagine that you’re 4 years old and that it’s 1968.

You’re brought into a small room, a “game room,” with a table, chair and three sugary snacks. You’re asked to pick one treat. You choose the marshmallow. Then you’re told that you can either have the marshmallow right away by ringing a bell, or wait a few minutes and get two marshmallows. Then you’re left alone for 15 minutes.

This seemingly simple experiment conducted by Austrian-born clinical psychologist Walter Mischel at Stanford University became known as “The Marshmallow Study.” But don’t let the silly name fool you. This study tested over 600 kids at the Bing Nursery School and has become one of the longest-running studies in psychology.

What Mischel actually wanted to explore had zero to do with kids’ desire for sweets, of course. The lead investigator wanted to test the concept of delayed gratification.

I am one of those few 20-somethings who would prefer a simple Samsung model over an iPhone or Blackberry when shopping at AT&T. And yes, I do get the odd stare from the sales associate who isn’t sure why I wouldn’t pine for that touchscreen. I typically shrug and convey how I prefer to keep it simple, and will gladly purchase a phone that has an ideal keyboard for texting.

Texting has become an everyday facet of our lives. The feature serves as a platform that absolutely allows us to stay connected to others with instant communication. However, there is something to be said about the ways in which it has the potential to diminish our social skills, if we choose to allow it to do so.

Texting has the ability to reinforce ineffective communication. Individuals can ‘hide behind a screen’ to escape confrontation in friendships or romantic relationships.

Bullying has swept into the general public’s consciousness in the past decade more so than in any other time in our society. Awareness of the issue is a good start, because it’s a problem that’s been going on for a very long time.

But the stereotype of bullying isn’t limited to a big burly kid threatening a smaller, scrawnier kid on the playground. Bullying happens in far more ways — and in more places — than it did 20 or 30 years ago. One of the more insidious and harder-to-see forms of bullying happens online. In countless tumblrs, comment sections and smaller communities online, bullying is often the norm.

Bullying isn’t limited to kids, either. Adults suffer at the hands of bullies, too. No more famous example of that is Steve Jobs, who was probably one of the country’s biggest adult bullies. The bad example he set has mistakenly led other management executives to believe that bullying was one of the key traits leading to Apple’s success. The truth is that Apple was successful despite Jobs’ bad behavior — not because of it.

Which makes me very pleased to introduce our new blog on bullying, Beating the Bully: Cope with Bullying At Any Age with Katherine Prudente, LCAT, RDT. This blog will help readers understand how to overcome bullying — whether your a teen, a child or an adult. What can you do to defuse a bully’s power? How can you best cope with the feelings of being bullied?

If you’re a college student and you’re depressed, chances are you have a student counseling center that’s available to you, at no charge.

Sounds good, right? In an ideal world, the student counseling center would properly assess, diagnose and even treat students with mental health concerns — such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, and more.

But we don’t live in an ideal world and student counseling centers don’t make a university any money. So they aren’t necessarily well-funded, overflowing with well-paid staff or have access to all the resources they need.

That’s why Emily Merlino’s column about her experience at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), supposedly one of the better universities in the country, was a bit disheartening to read. In it, she details how she was experiencing depressive feelings and sought out help from a professional at the UMass Mental Health Services clinic.

Like adults, kids also get stressed out. They stress over school, bullies and fights with friends. They worry when their parents argue. They experience loneliness and have fears about many things from failing an important test to not fitting in.

In her book The Power of Your Child’s Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success, child educational psychologist and UCLA professor Charlotte Reznick, Ph.D, shares nine tools that help kids access their inner world so they can better traverse the trials and tribulations of growing up.

Here’s a brief look at Reznick’s valuable tools.

Mental health issues affect everyone, but some populations are more vulnerable than others.

Most people might …

Many of us couldn’t imagine our lives without books. We remember the books we read as kids and the books that were read to us. We remember our favorite quotes, our favorite characters.

We remember the books that became our friends, the ones that supported us through adolescent angst, first loves, breakups, friendship or family fiascoes, lonely days and other tough and joyful times.

We remember the books that gave us the inspiration to scribble quotes in our journals, to write stories and to follow our dreams.

Books have the power to open up perspectives, to take us places we otherwise wouldn’t be able to go.

Soaking in their words and fastening our own helps us express ourselves, communicate quality information to others and connect to the world. Words give us the strength and know-how to make smart decisions and chart our own lives.

Thankfully, for most of us, reading is as natural as seeing or speaking or brushing our teeth.

Unfortunately, for millions of people around the world reading isn’t any of these things. At least 793 million people worldwide can’t read and end up missing out on the sheer joy and valuable lessons and opportunities that reading brings.

That’s why I’m honored to share an important upcoming date with you along with an amazing organization.

Although rare, school shootings like the one in Chardon, Ohio capture the horror imagination of every parent and teenager. And many people’s immediate reaction is, “Why would someone do that?”

The alleged shooter, TJ Lane, will now be psychoanalyzed from afar in the media, with various experts throwing in their two cents about his motivations and explaining his actions. Paula Mooney has provided initial fodder, by giving us TJ Lane’s Facebook page. “Experts” will try and piece together a portrait of TJ Lane with these kinds of bits and pieces of random, self-selected personal information.

I’ll try and refrain from any psychological analysis of TJ Lane, since as a professional, I’ve never met him or interviewed him. But I do want to discuss the school shooting in a broader context of whether there are any lessons here we can learn.

Throughout the years, I’ve lost many people to depression, and I’ve had many people in my life who have struggled and survived. Although many were in their 20s, some were as young as 16 years old. The biggest problem is that depression isn’t visible like the chickenpox. It’s easy to hide and can show up out of the blue. One day everything could be wonderful and perfect and the next day could be a dark one.

Luckily, these feelings of sadness, anxiety, and depression are not as rare as they may seem; people like you and me may conceal them every day and no one would ever know it. Instead we wait until we’re home alone or with our loved ones to unleash the dragon. Because depression is so widespread, it’s important to remember that we are never alone. Someone always has it worse. We should be grateful for what we do have, and bad things will soon subside. Similar to the change of seasons, depression will bloom and wilt, but we can try to conquer it for good.

I have a lot of experience with depression — through family, friends, and even myself as a teenager. The biggest issue we face as young adults is that we don’t want to admit when we feel depressed, so we start to shut people out and ignore these powerful feelings that could end up destroying us.