Resilience Decoded – What Every Parent Should Know About Teen Mental Health By Dr Sujata Kelkar Shetty

From understanding why your teens seem impulsive or unreachable, to managing digital overwhelm, burnout, and the long-reaching effects of pandemic-era isolation, Resilience Decoded offers parents a roadmap not with judgement, but with tools. Drawing from cutting-edge neuroscience, years of stress research at the National Institutes of Health, and her own experience, Dr. Shetty delivers a clear-eyed, compassionate guide to understanding the adolescent brain, which refuses to view adolescence as a problem to be solved.

This isn’t a book about blaming technology or reminiscing about “simpler times.” It’s about parenting in this world, where your child’s brain is being rewired by social media, online gaming, endless dopamine loops, and even exposure to online porn, often before they’ve had a chance to fully develop emotional defence. In a time of rapid change, Resilience Decoded is a quiet act of clarity. It provides vocabulary for what your child cannot verbalise, and the tools to meet them where they are, not where you wish they’d be.

Dr. Shetty’s message is direct, it offers something many parenting books miss entirely: a mirror for the parent. With burnout checklists, self-assessment tools and nervous system resets, Resilience Decoded understands that your child’s emotional regulation starts with yours. A book that doesn’t separate the reader from itself but instead invites you to be a part of the narrative.

Written in the same voice that made her Mint columns and bestselling book 99 Not Out!, Dr. Sujata Kelkar Shetty provides a breakthrough guide every parent needs in a world forever changed. She reminds us that resilience isn’t about bouncing back. It’s about finding a way forward, through breakdowns, doubts and digital chaos, into strength, creativity and self-belief.

Praise for Resilience Decoded

‘A powerful guide to navigating life’s challenges with courage and confidence, Sujata Kelkar Shetty equips teens and parents with the tools to build unshakable resilience and thrive’

— Rahul Dravid, former India Cricket Captain

‘This book is a labour of love, penned with clarity and empathy. Sujata brings both her professional training and her experience in raising two sons to bear on a topic that is top of mind across society today—teens in trouble. It is an invaluable resource for parents as well as teenagers’

—Rohini Nilekani, founder, Arghyam Foundation

Sujata Kelkar Shetty has created an essential road map for navigating the teen mental health crisis with both scientific precision and profound compassion. This book brilliantly combines cutting-edge neuroscience with practical strategies, offering parents the tools to raise resilient teenagers who can thrive despite unprecedented challenges’

—Dr Rajat Chauhan, sports and exercise medicine physician and founder of La Ultra – The High

About the Author

Dr Sujata Kelkar Shetty is a US-trained biological scientist, bestselling author, and resilience coach who makes science feel like storytelling. After pioneering stress research at the NIH, she returned to India to become a preventive health evangelist, penning hit columns for Mint and the bestselling 99 Not Out! From Infosys to PwC, her workshops crackle with energy, blending science, humour and practical tools to build unshakable wellbeing. When she’s not writing or coaching, you’ll find her reading, practicing yoga or wandering nature trails with her family.