This is Ask Lisa, a podcast to help people understand the psychology of parenting.

Psychologist Dr. Lisa DeMore, author of two New York Times best-selling parenting books, takes

your questions.

And I'm co-host, Rina Ninan, a journalist and mom of two.

Some of what we talk about comes from raising children ourselves.

Most of the time, I'll be getting answers to your parenting questions.

So send your questions to Ask Lisa at Dr.Lisademore.com.

Episode 65, my depressed teen refuses therapy.

How do I help?

I always remember you saying it's right around this time of year where you would get a lot more people showing up asking for help.

Yeah, no, it's interesting, you know, I've always done my billing by hand. I actually

keep a written ledger and, you know, it's a little old-fashioned. And so I can see how far down a

page each month goes. And I remember, especially when I was practicing a lot, that suddenly

January and then February, I would go so much further down the page than I did

in other months. It's tough. It's a hard point in the school year under normal conditions.

The weather's bad. The days are short. The light is rare. People feel it. I really feel it in

January and February. I think there are a lot of people struggling just to find somebody they could talk to, a medical professional that they could talk to.

And we got this letter that really caught our attention talking about a depressed teen who needs help.

My son is 17 and in the 12th grade.

His high school experience has been anything but normal due to heavy lockdowns in Ontario.

He's apathetic and spends all his time gaming or on his phone and has few connections in the

non-virtual world. He has very little motivation to prepare for college or to even think about

...