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Supporting teen mental health is essential for their holistic growth and well-being. The teen years are special and influential.
Adolescents are more susceptible to mental health issues due to physical, emotional, and social changes, such as poverty, or abuse. For the well-being of adolescents through various life phases, it's essential to protect them from harm, foster socio-emotional learning and psychological well-being, and ensure access to mental health care.
Teen mental health is impacted by numerous variables. The potential impact on teen mental health increases with the number of risk factors they're exposed to. Adolescence is a stressful time for several reasons, including adversity exposure, peer pressure, and identity exploration.
The gap between an adolescent's lived reality and their perceptions or ambitions for the future can be exacerbated by gender stereotypes and media impact. The quality of their family life and relationships with peers are additional significant influences.
How You Can Support Teen Mental Health
There are a number of signs your adolescent may be experiencing mental health issues.
Changes in sleep patterns, loss of interest in routine activities, significant changes in academic performance, changes in appetite, or increased irritability are a few indicators. Here are five tips to support teen mental health:
1) Check-Ins
Regular check-ins are essential for teen mental health. Even if your child isn’t clinically depressed or anxious, they could still have tough feelings that they need your help to work through.
Take some time for a quick check-in with your child to get a sneak peek into their mental health. You can ask them about the emotions they experienced in the last week. You can ask them about their current support system and see if they feel supported by that. Finally, also check if they have felt physically well.
2) Be Informed of Eating Disorders
There's an abundance of positive body acceptance messages on television commercials, magazine covers, social media, and celebrity circuit.
Because of that, we assume teens won't be under pressure to emulate or idealize the ultra-slender appearance. also referred to as the idyllic body image, as they grow up. It may also seem unlikely that they would obsess over their weight, fall victim to comparison traps, or develop an eating disorder.
It turns out that the biggest threat to a teen's mental health is eating disorder. In fact, 95% of 30 million Americans who suffer from eating disorders, many of whom are females, are between the age of 12 and 25.
3) Remain Engaged and Curious
Curiosity and engagement foster teen mental health. Teenagers may occasionally just want to be recognized and appreciated for their work or their unique interests.
Make an attempt to show interest in teen mental health and the activities they're engaged in. You might even be able to connect with them and share some of their hobbies.
That can strengthen your relationship with your teen and give both of you something enjoyable to think about during this challenging period. Take a cooking class or driving class with them. Collaboration is key to your relationship and their mental health.
4) Encourage Emotional Vocabulary
Seek out ways to speak with your child. Ask them a few questions about their day and their activities.
It could be as easy as asking them to assist you with a task like preparing supper so that you can chat with them about their day. Remind them that you're always there for them and are interested in learning their thoughts and feelings. A few words of encouragement can help them feel more at ease talking to you about their feelings. Teen mental health can be supported by helping them build an emotional vocabulary.
Even if it may be awkward, it's crucial to take into account and value the feelings they experience. If they open up to you, you could respond with, "I understand," "it appears to be a difficult situation," or "that makes sense."
Be honest and transparent with your teen. You can let them know if you're feeling stressed out as well. By demonstrating how you handle your challenging emotions, you can assist them to understand how they feel.
5) Work through Conflicts
Teen mental health is also susceptible to conflicts. Try to resolve disputes amicably while listening to your adolescent's opinion.
Keep in mind that stress is a common predicament in teen mental health. Never talk about a problem when you're upset. You can talk to your teen about that later once you walk away, take a deep breath and relax.
Teenagers may find it difficult to maintain control in all moments, as the world seems uncertain, and their alternatives seem limited. Instead of striving to fight back or overwhelm them, empathize with their need to exert control during a frightening period, however challenging that may be at the moment.
Takeaway
Knowledge is power. The more you know about teen mental health, the better equipped you will be to prevent your child from developing a mental health disorder and/or getting them the proper help they need if you have concerns. Teen mental health sets the base for a lifetime.
Janvi Kapur is a counselor with a Master's degree in applied psychology with a specialization in clinical psychology.
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