Episode Ep 477 August 19, 2026 48 min 57s

Session 477: Surviving Middle School: The Chaos of Adolescence, Explained

From Therapy for Black Girls iHeartPodcasts and Joy Harden Bradford, Ph.D.

Middle school changes kids in ways that can feel unrecognizable. Dr. Russell Ledet, child and adolescent psychiatrist and father of two Black girls, joins Dr. Joy to explain why. They walk through the psychological stages driving adolescence, industry versus inferiority giving way to identity versus role confusion. They talk through what's actually happening in the brain as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex develop on different timelines, a combination Dr. Ledet argues isn't cruel so much as an opening for parents to grow alongside their kids.

Dr. Ledet talks through how friendships form in middle school and what anxiety can look like when it doesn't announce itself. He offers real-time guidance for common flashpoints, a first physical or verbal fight and a first heartbreak, along with how to tell the difference between normal adolescent worry and something that needs more support. He closes on the one thing he thinks most parents get wrong about middle schoolers. They assume kids aren't thinking things through, when really they are thinking about everything at once and mostly need to be heard.

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