Month: March 2014

My Teen is Depressed

Adolescence is a trying time for both teenagers and parents. Teenagers are old enough to begin to desire more freedom yet most are not yet responsible enough to be granted all the freedom they desire. Parents have to deal with their child whom they no longer can treat and control like a kid but who is not yet an adult, yet insists on being treated like one. Raging hormones and predilection for risk-taking makes it very probable that a teen will get involved in activities and pick up habits that are detrimental to their physical, mental, social, and spiritual health.  

While growing up, teenagers, who until the onset of puberty have been seeking the approval and acceptance of their parents, relatives, and older siblings, suddenly want to be accepted by their peers. We all know that children can be cruel, making it harder for a teenager to fit in. To fit in, a teenager can sometimes resort to engaging in activities that are harmful.

Changes taking place in their bodies can result in a teenager having body image issues and low self-esteem, which makes them more prone to peer pressure and makes them more likely to want to fit in with the crowd no matter the cost. They pick up non-healthy practices as a result and in some cases that might escalate to various disorders such as bulimia and anorexia.

Not feeling accepted, beautiful, smart or charming as they would like to be, combined with what they may be going through at home or at school such as teasing and bullying, can make teenagers more prone to mood swings and stress, and that sometimes may lead to depression. Dealing with a depressed teenager is extremely challenging for parents as it is rare that the teenager will confide in their parents or guardians since they treasure their privacy like never before in their life.

It is therefore important for a parent to be on the lookout for signs of stress and depression and to make sure that the problem is confronted as soon as possible. There are various ways of dealing with stress and depression in a healthy way such as sports and art instead of destructive means like drugs.

A safe environment and open communication is also important in detecting, averting and reversing teenage depression at home.

Is It My Fault My Child is Hurting Themselves

It is normal for parents to feel anguished and distressed when they find out that their child is engaging in self-injury. No parent can be adequately prepared to deal with their child cutting or burning themselves. The fact that children, especially teenagers, are secretive and can successfully hide that they are suffering from child depression makes it harder for a parent to come to terms with the negative habit their child is involved in.  

Shock, shame, guilt, and helplessness are common emotions for a parent whose child is suffering from depression or hurting themselves. For one, most people think that children and people hurt themselves to get attention. This kind of thinking leaves the parent wondering if they have failed to give enough time and attention to their child. This can make them feel like they are directly responsible.

A parent may also feel guilty and responsible for not being attentive and keen enough to catch signs earlier. This makes them more reluctant to share their problems with other parents or professionals who are better equipped to deal with the problem.

However, parents should realize that most children who engage in self-injury are not suicidal though they may accidentally kill themselves when inflicting injuries on themselves, especially by cutting. Self-injury does not necessarily mean that someone is miserable but it does indicate a serious underlying problem, such as child depression or psychological issues and/or addiction in older children.

Children who engage in self-injury are not usually seeking attention as widely believed and go to great lengths to ensure that they keep others in the dark about it. They will usually succeed in keeping it a secret for some time, and those close to them are usually left feeling guilty that they did not discover it earlier.

A parent should not feel guilty because their child is involved in self-injury or like they may have missed signs of child depression right under their noses. The important thing to remember is that people harm themselves for various reasons and not necessarily depression or self-hating. It is therefore important for a parent to not expend energy and time feeling guilty but to focus on helping their child recover.

Find Help for My Child Who Smokes Marijuana

You just discovered that your son or daughter is smoking marijuana. How do you react? Many parents find themselves in shock. A few have actually gone ahead to throw out the child’s stuff out of emotion, in some serious cases even sending such children away from home. The truth though is that such actions may be of very little help. They reduce the chances of the child listening to what you have to say, reducing your ability to affect change.   

Drug addiction experts advise that you should start with the least intrusive methods as you move upwards, disregarding stages that fail to make an impact.

• Always start from within the family

At this level, engage the child in real communication. Start by talking about how important their health and general well being is to you. Chances are that the child already has enough information about the drug, maybe even more than you do. Even if this information might be incorrect, you may not be in a position to contradict them with accurate facts because they most likely believe that what they know is the truth. That’s why you may need professional help.

• Seek the help of a professional

The professional should help you understand the real risks of marijuana. You should also be able to learn how to pass the information to the child without scaring them. And be careful not to blow the risks out of proportion as it may cost you your credibility. You must be ready to reward the child for any improvements noticed.

If there is no improvement, it’s time to take the child to a professional counselor

• Counseling

There will be individual as well as family counseling sessions and as a parent you’ll have to be supportive of both. Even if you have to pay for the sessions, consider it money well spent.

• Child  rehab

This should be a last resort. If other methods fail to work, don’t be scared of putting the child into rehab. While there they will undergo intense therapies, a forced period away from the drug and enough time to regain self-awareness.

Summary

Marijuana use in kids can be frustrating but if you approach the issue with patience and understanding, you can get through to them.

Schedule your consultation or call us at 886-889-3665.

The entire family system needs to be held in the safety of empathic,

savvy clinicians and caregivers who can view each family individually rather than as cookie-cutter cutouts. We understand that each family is different and dealing with issues unique to their family system, however, there are similarities that occur in all families that find themselves confronted with mental health and substance abuse: abandonment, fear, shame, anger, resentment, sadness, confusion, and denial. Visions is a treatment community passionately working with families to facilitate healing from the roots up.  We recognize that many families feel unheard, as though cries for help or worries about loved ones have fallen upon deaf ears. Our family program recognizes this and provides several avenues of care; families find themselves and their difficulties to be seen, heard, and validated.

The goal is to redirect a family from using the familiar, albeit maladaptive methods of anger, frustration and substance abuse to manage difficulties. When a family is screaming at each other, communication is at a standstill. When a family is numbing out with drugs and alcohol, communication is at a standstill. When a family is enmeshed with an addict or alcoholic, the communication is at a standstill. These are all unhealthy ways of self-regulation and communication.

Families come to treatment seeking relief from the pain of watching their child suffer and from the effects of that suffering; they want their child to get better and they want their lives back. Sometimes, after their child gets healthy, they find themselves continuing to feel angry and frustrated. Visions asks that parents come to family groups, individual family sessions with a therapist, and even seek outside help to address these feelings. We all have things we need to look at, and nothing brings things to the surface like a tear in the family fabric. One person healing doesn’t mean everyone else automatically heals too; everyone has to do the work.

Visions encourages parents to utilize outside resources for self-investigation and to heal:

• Individual therapy
• Al-anon
• CoDA
• Parent Support Groups

It is our goal to provide the utmost support and care for the families that come through Visions. We want to see the family system thrive again, not just one branch of it. Help is just a phone call away.

My Child is Cutting Themselves – Why?

It is a frightening and disheartening thing for a parent to find out that their child is injuring themselves. In a moment of panic, one might even think that their child is attempting to commit suicide, especially if the child is cutting themselves. This is a misconception since most people engaging in self-injury and cutting use it as a coping mechanism to deal with distress. They are not trying to find a way to permanently end it all, but this is but a small consolation for parents who discover that their child is involved in self-injury.  

However, trying to deal with such a delicate situation without knowing the facts behind why people get into the habit of self-harm in general and in particular, why one’s child is cutting themselves up, can lead to disastrous results. There are many reasons why people inflict injury and physical pain on themselves and it is important to understand what the root cause of the behavior is and how best to deal with it.

In the past, it was believed that self-injury was a way of one trying to get attention but this has been proven to not be true. Most people who hurt themselves are children and teenagers who can start cutting themselves as early as when they are nine years old and usually hide it successfully from their parents. Teenagers get into risk-taking and dangerous things.

Whereas almost everyone will enjoy and feel the rush of taking drugs, if someone is experiencing the same effects by cutting themselves, then it shows that there is a deeper underlying issue that needs to be addressed. One of the major reasons why some young people engage in self-injury is to deal with emotional pain.

When children are dealing with emotional pain caused by physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, rejection, feelings of shame and disgust, or for any other reason, physical pain can dull the emotional pain. Girls are more likely to get into the habit of cutting themselves than boys and are usually dealing with emotional and psychological issues such as being abused or dealing with a break up. Boys will usually do it due to social and psychological issues.

It is important to communicate with the child or teen to understand their motivation, since injuring does not necessarily mean they are unhappy, as they may simply be doing it out of curiosity or experimentation.

Find My Teen Help For Eating Disorders in California

More and more teenagers are suffering from eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating in California, USA and elsewhere in the world. Girls suffer from eating disorders more than boys although boys do suffer from eating disorders as well. It is imperative that a parent knows what they are dealing with when faced with a child suffering from eating disorders since they are not only dangerous to the health and well-being of the child but also a symptom of a much larger issue.  

There are many reasons why children and adults develop eating disorders. One of the most common reason is to feel more attractive and desirable. Western media and culture extols leanness and being slim as the hallmarks of beauty and teenagers, in their desire to feel needed and wanted, may resort to negative habits such as inducing vomiting after meals in a bid to get slimmer. This may be in spite of the fact that they are already slim or of a normal body weight.

Low self-esteem and emotional distress can also trigger eating disorders in teens. They may become bulimic or anorexic in a bid to become more attractive or start eating food for comfort or due to boredom, resulting in binge eating. Other causes of eating disorders include depression, perfectionism, peer pressure, and being involved in activities where being slim is perceived as an advantage.

Teen eating disorders have many negative effects on the person who is suffering from them such as tooth decay and loss, thinning hair, and loss of muscle and bone density to name only a few. Those who use eating disorders as a way of dealing with depression get trapped in a vicious cycle since improper eating habits cause depression which makes the problem worse.

Understanding the cause of a teen’s eating disorder and opening up communication channels with the child are the first steps towards dealing with the problem. It is also important to learn what it will take for a child suffering from an eating disorder to recover, something a professional counselor is qualified to help with.

It is therefore important for a parent to be on the lookout for signs that would indicate that their child is suffering from an eating disorder and to find a way to gently but firmly get the teenager on the road to recovery.

Top Teen Mental Health Care in Southern California

The transition from childhood to adulthood is not easy. The numerous changes; physical, social, intellectual, hormonal, sexual and emotional, usually come with several challenges which may sometimes overwhelm teenagers. For many kids, a combination of all these challenges often results in one mental health disorder or another; most of which are a cause for concern, some even life-threatening. Mental health disorders include anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, attention deficit disorder (ADD), post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and bipolar stress among others. If they are not helped in time, the teens can resort to drugs, alcohol and eating disorders.  

How to tell if he or she needs teen mental health care

Mood swings – as a parent you know your teen better than anyone else. You should be able to tell if it’s a teen mood swing or a mental problem.

Self medicating – if there are any indicators of use of drugs, an eating disorder, self harm or other forms of escape, it might be time to seek teen mental healthcare.

Performance in school – mental problems can affect grades at school. You can tell this by dwindling performances.

Relationship with peers – teens with mental disorders also show signs of strained relationships with their peers.

Behavioral changes – again you should be able to tell if your teen is behaving abnormally.

Physical symptoms – these usually include decreased energy, changes in eating habits, frequent headaches & stomachaches and even backaches.

Teen mental health care: what are the available treatment options?

Mental disorders in teens are treatable. Depending on the seriousness of the condition, the teen will need inpatient or outpatient treatment.

• Inpatient programs – if the condition is already in its advanced stages, the teen will need inpatient treatment in the facility.
• Outpatient treatment – for moderate disorders, the teen can be allowed to receive intensive care during the day and return home for the night. He or she will have several sessions with a counselor every month. The family might be asked to periodically attend selected sessions.

There are usually therapies for both the teen and the family. Teens are generally taught how mental illness works and coached on how to control it. The family is educated on how to help the teen and the signs of relapse.

Call Visions Adolescent Treatment Center at 866-889-3665. Or click below to schedule your consultation.

When a parent discovers that their child is taking drugs, they normally do not know what to make of it and reactions vary. Feelings of anger, betrayal, fear, helplessness and guilt make it harder for a parent to handle the matter objectively.

CDC puts the number of teens using heroin at around 3%, with the number being feared to be higher.  A worrying trend is the increasing cases of heroin use in teens from the middle class and living in the suburbs. This trend has been attributed to the abuse of prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Xanax and Vicodin.

There are a number of reasons why teens turn to heroin. Obvious reasons include ease of access to heroin and peer pressure. Subtler reasons are usually psychological, emotional or social such as a need to fit in, problems at home and high-risk taking behavior that comes with adolescence.

The abuse of prescription drugs is one of the leading reasons for the increasing heroin use in teens. They have been identified as gateway drugs to heroin use in teens. Prescription painkillers are made from opiates, and teens are able to access the prescription drugs easily from home or their friends.

The need for a stronger high at a lower cost and the fact that prescription drugs contain opiates makes some of the teens turn to heroin. Prescription drugs are more expensive than heroin for attaining the same high and more accessible to teen, thus the teen starts using heroin.

Another leading cause of heroin use in teens is for recreation, peer pressure and emotional distress. Given that the number of 7-12 years old using heroin has been on the increase, the chances of a teen using heroin have also increased. This is due to peer pressure and wanting to fit it, or simply out of boredom and flirting with danger and terming is as fun. Problems at home or school makes it easier for a kid to get into the wrong company and start using heroin or to seek it out.

Given that heroin use in teens is on the rise, it is advisable for a parent to ensure that their child is not abusing heroin or other substances. In case a parent fears that their child is using, it is imperative that they seek help from professionals, such as Visions Adolescent Treatment Centers.

As parents we never expect to be asking ourselves this question; yet denying that it applies to our child is to stand by and watch them surrender themselves fully to addiction, and possibly watch them forever be out of reach of our help.  You anticipate that you will give your child all the best of everything; that you can provide for them better than your parent’s did for you and that they will grow up to be healthy and happy; one never foresees the depths and devastation of addiction taking hold of our child and removing from them every joy and bit of family peace your home once had.

So just where do parents turn when their worst nightmare has come true and addiction has stolen from them the single most important thing in their life? Parents can turn to Visions Teen Treatment Facility in Southern California. 50% of Visions Teen program participants come from the state of California; the other 50% come from around the U.S. and even countries outside the U.S.  Teens come from all over because Visions Teen offers a specific individualized treatment plan that addresses not only the addiction of your teen, but the affects the addiction has had upon the family, and we structure specific treatments to promote recovery for the entire family.

Our Visions Teen programs offer recovery treatments to meet all three of the basic needs addicted teens have; problems that affect them substantially physically, mentally and spiritually.  We design an individualized program to meet the physical and mental needs of your teen and discover the root of the problems and the best methods of treatment for the teen’s entire condition, both in their addiction as well as their mental health. Our programs are fully encompassing, offering your teen a choice of treatment in a residential setting, outpatient care, and long term residential treatment.

Each teen will have a team of professionals to address the underlying reasons behind their drug use and mental distress.  Participants are assessed and seen by a psychiatrist; a therapist, who works in conjunction with the family; a counselor and mentor. The Visions Teen treatment philosophy ensures that your teen always has someone to speak to aid them in addressing their subconscious reasons for drug use. Let Vision Teen aid your family in returning to the healthy state you thought forever lost; our counselors are standing by at 866-889-3665.

Teens and people suffering from bipolar disorder experience mood swings and can quickly switch from having a manic episode, when they feel hyperactive and high, to having a depressive one, when they feel low and sometimes even suicidal. It is believed to be predominantly be a result of genetic changes in one’s body, though drug use and other factors are believed to contributing factors.

Bipolar disorder affects about 1% of the population and usually manifests itself by the age of 35. Though it rarely affects children, it does affect children as young as 6 years old. Since a teenager’s body is undergoing a lot of changes, bipolar teen disorder cases are more prevalent among teens than younger children. Adolescents with teen bipolar disorder find it harder to control their impulses, have a hard time performing well in school despite being bright, get in trouble more often and may be depressed and even suicidal.

Those suffering from bipolar teen disorder display manic and/ or depressive symptoms. The depressive symptoms include lethargy, feelings of low self-esteem, loss of interest in things that the adolescent was into, poor concentration and feeling worthless. Manic symptoms displayed by teen bipolar disorder sufferers include overconfidence in one’s abilities and an inflated ego, high-risk taking behavior because of the overconfidence, insomnia, hyperactivity, being highly distractible and loquacity.

Since manic symptoms displayed by those affected by teen bipolar disorder closely resemble those of children or teens suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it is important for a parent to ensure that their child is correctly diagnosed. This is due to the fact that ADHD’s treatment typically consists of stimulants, which adversely affect people suffering from bipolar disorders by triggering manic episodes.  Symptoms could also be a result of conduct problems, making the correct diagnosis critical to ensure the right problem is being addressed.

Adolescents suffering from teen bipolar disorder face many challenges dealing with themselves and others, making it critical to get help. An incorrect diagnosis could actually make the condition worse, which makes important for a parent who thinks that their kid is suffering from teen bipolar disorder to ensure that their child gets proper diagnosis and treatment.

Professionals in rehabilitation and therapy centers such as Visions Teens Adolescent Treatment Centers do thorough evaluations to ensure that those with teen bipolar disorder in Southern California and elsewhere are correctly diagnosed and treated. Call today.