Health & Fitness
Top Ten Tips on Adolescent Stress and Mental Health
Ten tips for understanding adolescent mental health and behavior.
- Remember the adolescent brain is not yet fully developed. The major areas for higher-level social understanding and problem solving are still developing.
- Unconditional listening is very important to your adolescent. This means truly listening without commenting, correcting or responding unless asked to.
- Adolescents do want your input. They just don’t want it in the form of sarcasm, put-downs or statements that start with “what were you thinking?”
- Adolescents today are living under a different kind of stress than their parents experienced as children. This includes having all knowledge available at the touch of a key whether it’s developmentally appropriate or not.
- Adolescents are under great deal of pressure to be tuned-in at all times. There is no down-time for rest and recuperation.
- Adolescents are being over-stimulated by their lives. They have very little time to think and mostly just time to react.
- Stress is the number one cause of depression, which is no different in adolescence.
- Adolescent depression can look sad, depressed and withdrawn or it can be angry, irritable and in your face.
- Adolescents with worries and anxiety are as high risk for self-harm as depressed adolescents.
- Adolescent chemical use can be a catalyst for many impulsive, illegal and dangerous behaviors.