Hi, I'm Rina Ninean and this is Ask Lisa, the Psychology of Parenting Podcast.

It's a podcast to help parents better understand their kids. Dr. Lisa DeMore, a psychologist with three

decades of experience, and the author of three New York Times best-selling parenting

books takes your questions. Both of us are moms ourselves, and we're eager to hear from you.

So send us your questions to Ask Lisa at Dr.Lisadamore.com and join our community by following us

on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter at Ask Lisa Podcast.

On core episode 129, my kid was dumped by her friends. How can I help?

Why do kids suddenly turn on friends and ice them out of a group? It's something Dr. Lisa

says she hears commonly within her practice, and especially

during the months where kids need shared interests to hold those groups together, that social

glue was actually depleted by the pandemic. We take a look at how this negative behavior

can emerge in friend groups and quickly become destructive. I ask if adults should call out mean behavior or

reach out to other parents when social groups turn sour. Dr. Lisa covers what kids should do when

classmates are nice to them one-on-one, but won't include them in groups. Are we done yet with this

pandemic? I know, Rina. Everybody is so over it.

What are you hearing?

What I'm hearing is almost impossible to distinguish from clinical depression.

Wow.

You know, when I'm talking with people, adults and kids and teenagers, the mood they're describing, the low feelings they have, as I sit there

listening as a clinician, I'm like, okay, is this two plus years in a pandemic plus the long,

dark winter, or is this clinical depression? I mean, they really sound similar right now.

Why do you think so many people feel like they're at a low point

...