Mental & Health Concerns In Teens
If you are concerned about the mental health of your teen,
you are not alone.
Studies indicate that as many as 20% of children and teens in the US
suffer the effects of mental health problems.
Breaking the child’s anger habit
To help the child break the anger habit, you must help him or her develop an awareness of the events, circumstances, and behaviors of others that “trigger” the anger.
Children often confuse anger with aggression.
Children often have the misconception that anger is an emotion that should not be felt.
They feel that getting angry is a “bad” thing.
It is important for the child to understand that anger is a completely natural way to feel, it is a part of what makes us human. It is not anger that gets us into trouble, it is what anger can lead us to.
This awareness also involves understanding the negative consequences that result from anger.
Our technologically wonderful world seems to have left many of its young emotionally impoverished, filled with angst, void of meaning and purpose.
We are learning that too much choice is as difficult for children and adolescents to deal with as is too little, and many of our children seem to be paying a high price for unlimited abundance
We are also just beginning to understand the role of genetics in mental health problems, and how the environment interacts with physiological propensities to influence the mental health of our teens.
We hope that the information provided below will help you and your teen begin to understand otherwise baffling problems.
It is our desire and purpose to help you make informed decisions that will help your teen create a better life at home, in school, and among peers.
Children are learning more every day. They often struggle to deal with the imperfect world they are in.
It can be very difficult for a child to learn proper management of his or her anger.
Avoiding childhood obesity
This factsheet is for parents who have obese children or want to know more about childhood obesity.
Children need lots of energy because they are growing.
A varied and nutritious diet is essential for their development.
However, like adults, if they take in more energy – in the form of food – than they use up,
the extra energy is stored in their bodies as fat.
In the UK an estimated one in four 11 to 15 year olds are overweight or obese
and the problem is growing every year.
- A serious problem
- Why are more children overweight?
- What is a healthy weight for a child?
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- The emotional factors
- Prevention
- Further information
- Sources
More information on:
Bulimia nervosa
More information on:
Anorexia nervosa
The Importance of
Temperament
Julie just turned 16. She almost always seems happy and energetic.
She participates in community theater, plays varsity basketball, is quick to volunteer for school projects, and manages to maintain a B average.
She has lots of friends and seems to genuinely enjoy life.
Her brother, Dylan, is 14 and about to finish middle school.
Although his parents believe that Dylan is as capable as his sister, they are concerned because he seldom participates in school and community activities.
Dylan usually comes straight home after school, watches TV and spends more time on his computer than his parents would like.
Although Dylan maintains better grades than his sister and has a penchant for classical literature, his parents can’t understand what they interpret as Dylan’s complacency.
His parents are glad Dylan has one good friend, but often find themselves pushing him to get more involved, a scenario that usually ends in an argument.
How can two kids growing up in the same family and only 1& 1/2 years apart in age be so different?
Is it just a difference of gender? Or is it more than that?
What lies at the heart of the different ways Julie and Dylan see and react to the world is their
fundamentally different temperaments.
- What is Temperament?
- Introversion and Extraversion
- Responding Positively To Your Teen’s Temperament
- Resources & References
Parent-Teen Communication
What parent hasn’t at times experienced difficulty communicating with his or her teenage daughter or son?
Who hasn’t said something like, “I just can’t talk to her any more.
I don’t know what happened, we used to be so close.” Or, “
My son used to tell me everything that happened in his life, and now if I ask the most innocent
question about his day, he practically screams at me to stay out of his business.
” Parents complain that they work hard at being a good parent,
but end up feeling shut out of their teen’s life, or disrespected and unappreciated.
Many of the problems in parent-teen communication result from the opposing parent
and teen life development tasks that are underway.
It is the parents’ job to insure the safety and welfare of their children,
which necessitates a certain amount of control.
On the other hand:
it is the job of a teen to separate from his parents in order to discover himself,
to determine who he is, what he is capable of doing,
and what kind of people he wants to associate with.
Seen in this context, some degree of conflict is inevitable, appropriate and even desirable.
The key to working through the conflict is leaning to communicate
from the heart, rather than from fear, anxiety, and anger.
Applying the ideas presented in Restoring Trust and Love, found below, will take any family a long way toward creating the kind of communication between parents and their children that is longed for; i.e., honest, loving, kind communication in which real feelings are shared, secrets are not held, and each individual is SPECIAL!…
THE ROAD MAY SEEM LONG…
BUT IT’S WORTH THE RIDE!
YOUR NOT ALONE……….
YOUR “child/children” IS YOUR TREASURE!!
More information on Parent-Teen Communication:
Tags: anorexia, bulimia, child, love, obesity, parent, teen, temperament, trust
