Kriya Lendzion LCMHC/Teen Whisperer

12/24/2025

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-teens-cannabis-impact-emotional-health.html

Using ma*****na just once or twice a month was associated with worse school performance and emotional distress for teens, according to a large national study of adolescents led by Ryan Sultán, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Sur...

12/21/2025

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ie/blog/healing-from-addiction/202512/how-cannabis-hijacks-the-teen-brain

Once cannabis has hijacked the reward center, daily users have no destination in mind. Here's how parents maintain empathy for an addicted child.

12/12/2025

I'm in a GIFT-GIVING mood! AND there's a lot of information on risky behavior, screens and current substance trends that I feel intensely passionate about you all having going into the new year to help the kids we love steer healthily through it all (while strengthening your relationships with them)!

Sooooooo I'm doing a crazy thing and offering up PARENT, STAFF and CLINICIAN Education WEBINARS for HALF my usual rate if you book for January or February. Yes, my people, you read that right. HALF.

Options:
Addiction-Proofing Our Kids/Students
Screen-Conscious Parenting
Not MY Kid: Raising Drug-Resistant Kids
Beyond Just Say No: Empowering Drug-Resistant Students in Our Schools
DeMISTifying Va**ng: Preventing and Intervening in Youth THC & Ni****ne Use
Catching Them Upstream: Impactful Early Intervention in Youth Substance Use

AND I'm offering up a limited amount of Parent Coaching for my OLD 2024 prices through January 21st.

Reach out and pass it on!

12/09/2025

Common Sense Media has created Two Truths & AI, a quick game to build critical thinking skills about AI-generated images.

Two Truths & AI centers around movie posters, an art form familiar to most of us. Students are shown three movie posters: Two are real, but one is generated or altered by AI. For school facilitation or for families to play at home!

https://www.commonsense.org/two-truths-and-ai?lid=qfm7yx4xonz3

Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

12/09/2025

A MUST-WATCH from 60 Minutes, parents (and all raising and working with kids)! AI chatbot risks are REAL for our kids and we've got to be staying on top of this to help THEM steer healthily through it while fighting like hell for safe regulations and ethical practices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nArJwD__aE8

And THEN sign up for WEDNESDAY's webinar from Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development on AI Companions and kids (see my first comment) to learn WHAT to do, and how to talk about it.

Research shows that AI chatbots like Character AI can be harmful to children. Here's what Sharyn Alfonsi learned when she talked with a chatbot modeled after...

12/05/2025

For Evergreen parents past and present! This coming TUESDAY! I've still got some room for more before holiday break, if your school or group of parent friends would like me to school you on how to be conscientious about screens, and help your kids learn to be safe, healthy and responsible with them!

12/04/2025

Along with the scary stories, make sure to also highlight the activism and positive choices and changes kids are making to reverse va**ng/substance use with their peers! https://www.fairfaxconnection.com/news/2025/dec/03/langley-seniors-anti-va**ng-campaign-on-tiktok/

anti va**ng

12/02/2025

Tonight!!! For Francine Delany parents past & present! And I can present this for your kids' school too, near or far!

12/01/2025

I'm getting a lot of questions about ni****ne pouches! Their use has DOUBLED with kids in the last year, so it's something we all need to be updated on. Check out this free webinar TOMORROW!

11/30/2025

Emily Cherkin, the Screentime Consultant, is THE voice I'm listening to right now around the conscious use of ed-tech. Keeping our kids healthy with technology requires schools being as aware and conscientious as many parents are trying to be.

https://open.substack.com/pub/firstfish/p/edtech-is-not-tech-ed?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=c3b3b

11/29/2025

I have SO much to say about this, but just encourage you to read and discuss below! If you see it, share it...since Meta will make sure it doesn't get out, guaranteed!

"The filing includes troves of internal communications showing that Meta conducted numerous internal studies that confirmed Instagram and Facebook created negative outcomes for teens, including addiction, sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression, and body image issues.
'[O]h my gosh yall IG is a drug,' an internal user experience researcher wrote in a chat with a colleague, according to the brief.
'We’re basically pushers,' another researcher responded."

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/meta-researchers-privately-compared-instagram-to-addictive-drug-bombshell-court-filing-shows/

The court filing is part of a years-old lawsuit alleging that major social media companies knowingly created products that would harm teen mental health.