COULEE CONSUMER: Who is more important to teens -- parents or peers?

In addition, friends are a much-needed source of social support during adolescence and can serve as a protective factor against teen depression and suicide.Parental opportunities to influence their child's friendship choices occur before, as well as throughout, adolescence. Parents can influence their children's friendship choices by where they choose to live, the schools they choose for their children to attend, their parenting practices and the values they instill in their children from the earliest stages of life.All these parental choices can have a powerful and lasting (although indirect) influence on the friends that their children choose during the adolescent years.Parents faced with the unique challenges presented by their child's adolescence can benefit from new knowledge and learning specific to that age period � as well as support from others experiencing similar issues.Stephen Small, human development and family relations specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension and director of the UW-Madison Center for Excellence in Family Studies and Rebecca Mather, a UW-Madison graduate student are conducting a study of parents of preteens and teens age 11-16 who are interested in learning more about raising teenagers.

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CURRENTLY PLAYING October 2, 2008

Solo artist Kristina Wong unveils a string of imaginative surprises as she supposedly examines the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian American women. She darts around this grim subject with the kind of meta-theatrical wit that creates one of the funniest shows in town and engenders a level of audience participation that’s enthusiastic without becoming embarrassing. Then she ends with a sobering coda -- another kind of surprise after all the laughs. It’s a wild ride, and Wong’s a magnetically energizing artist. TeAda Productions is the host. Miles Playhouse, Santa Monica. (310) 998-8765. teada.org. Closes Oct. 5.

Wicked. Teal Wicks and Erin Mackey now play Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, in the long-running musical steamroller about the formative years of Oz’s Wicked Witch and Glinda.

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Tips to keep cyberbullies away from your kids and identity thieves

Missouri girl with a history of depression committed suicide after being sent hateful e-mail from what turned out to be an adult posing as a teen boy.

More often, teens use harsh or profane language against other teens they're trying to ostracize from their social groups. This includes spreading false rumors about personal or sexual behavior or simply being catty, by making rude comments about someone's looks. If you have a teenager, then you already understand the hours of time spent texting one another, or the importance — in their minds — of using social marketing Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

Dublin schools are certainly aware of this issue and are working to better educate parents and students.

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Amy Winehouse needs a hug, and some serious help

Once upon a time she was just an awkward looking rebellious teen, breaking the dress codes at school just to piss of her high school teachers.

She was just looking for attention. Winehouse is obviously terribly insecure. We all know how that feels.

Amy's talent is a blessing and a curse at the same time.

It's what keeps the little amount of sanity she still has. It's what makes her know she's special.

It's what has given her access to the drugs she's become addicted to.

It's what has put her under the microscope she can't escape.

Winehouse's personal problems have grown so out of control she's admitted to doing self-harm, suffering from depression, and having eating disorders.

Her grandmother, who first suggested she go to music school, passed away in 2006, causing Winehouse's behavior to spiral further out of control.

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Teen Talk: Read up: Ecstasy has its bad side effects

Research has shown it may cause confusion and memory loss, depression, anxiety, paranoia, mania, sleeplessness and psychotic episodes. This can occur weeks and even months after the drug has been used.

A term has been coined for post-Ecstasy use: the "Tuesday Blues" or "Suicide Tuesday." Not everyone gets it, but it's acknowledged among Ecstasy users that the days following an E-trip can bring on a mild and sometimes major bout of depression.

Anytime you take something to alter your brain chemistry, you are playing with fire. You have to ask yourself, "What am I ultimately putting in my body?"

How do you know where the drug came from, if it's given to you or you buy it off the street? Since this is a synthetic drug, Ecstasy can be altered with different chemicals or contaminants.

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Newport bachelor eats at college cafeteria for 40 years, donates

Depression-era Omaha is where a pre-teen Lindsay collected dandelions to sell as chicken feed, earning a few pennies each week to buy bread for his family.

Walking to school one morning, a skinny, starved Lindsay picked through a neighbor's garbage can and emerged with a not-quite-empty jar of peanut butter.

"Bruce eagerly ate the peanut butter and would never forget how delicious it tasted," according to a self-published biography of Lindsay's life written by a friend.

Now, admittedly, eating from a garbage can � and being so desperate that you enjoy it, no less � might make any reasonable person a tad frugal. For Lindsay, though, financial security became a real obsession.

Even as things began looking up in the 1940s, after his family had moved to California, there was no way he'd let impulse buys send him back to the poorhouse.

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Looking for Anxiety Support?

Everyone needs a little help once in a while. Support with the day-to-day life is one of the most important things you can have. But many people need even more support. They need anxiety support. Anxiety support isn't hard to find. Thankfully, now more than ever in human history, anxiety has lost the stigma associated with it. Professional athletes are now going on diabled lists for anxiety disorders and anxiety support is treated just as physical rehabilitation for these highly paid professionals. Other fields and industries have taken similar steps and anxiety support is part of many health insurance plans.

So how do you get anxiety support? How do you even know if you need anxiety support? Anxiety support is for people that are having trouble with their day-to-day lives. If you have trouble focusing, or if your moods swing wildly throughout, or if you find yourself overwhelmed with irrational worries, chances are that you need some sort of anxiety support. Anxiety support can vary from case to case; you might only need a little bit of anxiety support to feel psychological relief or you might need a lot.

That said, it's best to try smaller bits of home-spun anxiety support before looking at more expensive or time-intensive solutions. Many people, for example, undergo undue financial stress which leads to panic attacks. Perhaps anxiety support isn't what you need, but a financial advisor. In other words, getting down to the bottom of your anxiety might be all the anxiety support you need.

For some, they need a little more help. Anxiety support groups are a great solution. If you do a little searching online you'll find that anxiety support groups are in all 50 states and it's likely that there's one that meets regularly near you. If that doesn't work, consider starting your own anxiety support group.

If you still can't find the anxiety support you need, finally consider a professional therapist. Keep in mind, this can be very expensive if it's not covered in your health insurance plan. Also, it has mixed results for many people looking for anxiety support. Finally, medication has such terrible costs, side effects and track record that you should only consider it as a last-ditch effort for anxiety support. There's plenty of ways to reduce your anxiety without lining the pockets of the big pharmaceutical companies. Whether your panic attacks are mild or severe, infrequent or regular, you are not alone. You can find the anxiety support you need to get your life back under control!

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What Causes Depression?

If you have never been through depression, you may not understand what is and why happens. When something bad happens in our lives, we are generally sad for a while, but we do get over things and life goes back to normal. Those with depression, however, tend to be sad for no obvious reason, or can’t come out of their funk when something bad happens in their lives. This overwhelming sadness can lead to suicide if is not treated properly. Some argue about what causes depression, but most understand is actually an imbalance in the brain that can be treated.

Someone with moderate depression may not know they even have . They may just assume they feel like everyone else. In this case, what causes depression to deepen to dangerous levels can be a bad or troubling event in their life. It might even be a small annoyance, but might be enough to make someone sink into a deeper depression that needs immediate treatment. When the chemicals in the brain are not working correctly, the feel good hormones that make us happy and optimistic are blocked, and that is one of the major causes of depression that can lead to someone ending their lives.

Some debate about what causes depression, but there is one thing that should never be debated. When someone feels that they have to end their life, they need help immediately. There are many medications and even lifestyle changes that can turn what causes depression around, but they can’t be helped if they will not see a doctor. A psychiatrist is trained to spot depression and other mental health issues, and they can pinpoint what causes depression in each person so the proper medications can be given.

If you think you are suffering from depression, but those around you are telling you to ‘get over ’ or to ‘just move on and forget ,’ you have to ignore what they say. Those dark thoughts that lead to suicide are not anything that anyone asks for, and most would never dream they would have them until they happen. Any talk or thought of ending a life should be taken seriously immediately, and proper treatment should be undertaken as soon as possible. What causes depression may be something people cannot agree upon, but that doesn’t mean each and every case should not be taken seriously.

Over-scheduling may be overrated

High school students pressured to beef up their resumes can suffer from depression and anxiety.

It takes a toll on parents as well, not to mention the cost to shuttle kids among all those activities.

Despite what the neighbors might say, the truth is that our kids will still get into college even if they've never watched a Baby Einstein video or been president of the Medieval Literature Club.

"The parents who are over-the-top, you're never going to change," says Alvin Rosenfeld, a child psychiatrist and author of "The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoiding the Hyper-Parenting Trap." "It's about the incessant pressure on the rest of us. It's very hard to have the inner fortitude to resist that pressure."

The irony is that our strengths -- independence, thinking outside the box, creative problem-solving -- develop best when kids have time to play, to dream, to dawdle.

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Nation/World briefs

Expectant mothers with symptoms of severe depression are more than twice as likely to give birth prematurely as those with no signs of depression, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Human Reproduction.

Stevens' jury reports unruly member

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge on Thursday warned jurors at Sen. Ted Stevens' corruption trial to be courteous and respectful of each other after the panel's leader described "violent outbursts" from one of them that threatened to derail final deliberations. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered an alternate juror to be ready to join deliberations today if the issue of a missing juror on a family emergency couldn't be resolved.

NYC mayor wins chance at 3rd term

NEW YORK -- The New York City Council has approved changes in the term-limits law that will allow Mayor Michael Bloomberg to seek re-election next year.

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