This book is short and insightful. It addresses the difficult subject of depression, despair, and suicide amongst young adults. As the news continues to report, the numbers of teens suffering from mental illness continues to rise. According to the authors, the largest increase in suicide rates is in the 10-14 year old range.

I appreciated the book’s discussion about brain development and despair. The scientific explanation of adolescent brains helped me to better understand how depression and anxiety create a brain spiraling out of control into despair. In young adults, if these conditions persist without notice or assistance, they often turn to self harm as a pain reliever.

I found this book to be very relevant to what is happening in today’s young adult population and as a father, I much appreciated the realistic action points the book details. My main take-away from the book is actually in the title…Seen. We as parents, care-givers, friends, and community leaders need to spend time “seeing” kids. Much of “seeing” actually involves listening and being physically present with your young adult. There are forms of communicating and questions that can help each of us better determine the current state of mind of our kids.

If you are not schooled in counseling or mental health, but are a concerned parent, family member or teacher, I heartily recommend this book as a tool to better equip you with practices for dealing with teens and children.