Month: March 2021

Categories
Mental Health

Connectedness Is Key to Good Adolescent Mental Health

Mental health has become a topic of increasing importance for parents with teen children, especially as adolescent mental health problems continue to rise year after year. More children are dealing with symptoms of anxiety and depression, symptoms that can go hand-in-hand with other mental health and behavioral risks. Identifying and addressing mental health issues at home and school remains critically important and difficult.

Parents must be empowered to support their children through helpful resources and professional guidance. That same support is central to the idea of connectedness and the role it plays in helping adolescents tackle the day-to-day challenges associated with poor mental health and reduce the risk of negative health outcomes.

Why Mental Health is Important During Adolescence

Our mental and physical health is inextricably entwined, and our children face sudden and drastic changes regarding both during their teen years. Teens are making the transition towards adulthood and are charged with developing independence and mature social skills and navigating a complicated world.

Adolescence is often the time when we cement many of the habits we continue to employ later in life to cope with failure and pain and seek out help. This is also a time for developing mature behavioral responses towards family and friends and honing one’s interpersonal skills. Patterns of self-care are also important for mental health, including developing healthy sleeping habits and exercising regularly.

Meanwhile, adolescence is also a typical period for the onset of multiple common mental health issues, some of which greatly affect a teen’s risk of developing future social and health problems, including substance abuse. These can further affect and complicate the development of crucial interpersonal and coping skills.

Lastly, mental health issues among teens remain a growing problem. Even as we revise and revisit distinctions and diagnostic criteria, the fact remains that suicidal ideation, feelings of hopelessness, and anxiety have starkly increased in the past decade. Adolescence is not just a time for growth and learning – for teens of this generation, it’s often a time for identifying and confronting difficult feelings of pain and sorrow.

The Role of Connectedness in Adolescent Mental Health

Connectedness is best described as a protective factor consisting largely of important social relationships and a supportive environment. Teens who enjoy greater connectedness have a larger support network, access to better and more resources, friends and family they can talk to about their thoughts and worries, and organizations they can turn to in times of need.

Teens confused or conflicted about their sexual or gender identity, teens feeling hopeless and useless, teens unable to adjust their problematic behaviors, or teens unable to overcome gnawing fears, can draw on the support of their loved ones and open discussions regarding mental health in the community to not feel alone or ignored, and feel empowered to seek out the professional help needed to address these issues – without judgment, prejudice, or harmful intent.

Research shows that building and nurturing this connectedness has long-term effects on a teen’s mental health later in life and that those who felt connected to others and had support networks at school and home were as much as 66 percent less likely to struggle later in life with issues such as substance use, violence towards others, victimization, and adult mental health disorders.

What Parents Can Do to Promote Adolescent Connections

Fostering connectedness at home requires open communication and thorough education. Parents wishing to help their teens can do so by focusing on:

    • Learning as much as they can about their teen’s symptoms and condition, preferably from a professional.
    • Communicating regularly with their teen’s therapist, teachers, and educators.
    • Helping with homework and becoming engaged with what a teen does at school.
    • Spending more time together and encouraging healthy habits through role modeling and bonding activities (such as exercising together, cooking together, enforcing better sleeping schedules.)
    • Researching local resources to help a teen connect with others struggling with similar symptoms, online support groups.

By often communicating, seeking out local opportunities to help your teen, and discussing your options for treatment and support with school authorities and local mental healthcare providers, you can maximize your teen’s connectedness and drastically reduce their health risks.

Connectedness and COVID-19

Achieving adolescent connectedness has arguably never been more important and never been as difficult as today. While some might argue that we are entering the latter half of a global pandemic, there are still restrictions abound. Many teens are struggling with the long-term effects of social isolation during quarantine. Intentional self-harm, symptoms of anxiety, and feelings of depression have drastically increased among young adults and teens as a result of COVID.

Particularly worrying are the potential long-term implications of this isolation period. For some teens, this might mean greater social anxiety levels and agoraphobia, and discomfort with social interaction. These social skills will have to be relearned as COVID wanes, and life returns to its open, “normal,” pre-pandemic state.

The Importance of Support Alongside Self-Care

Self-care refers to techniques and healthy coping mechanisms individuals can employ to avoid or work through difficult episodes, from breathing exercises to mindfulness, connecting with friends, avoiding abusive relationships, or spending a few minutes out in nature. Self-care is only one part of the greater picture, particularly for young teens in need of help and guidance.

Where one’s own agency and motivation limit self-care, support through connectedness can be the lifeline for many, who are struggling far too much to take their mental health into their own hands. Both self-care and connectedness are part of a greater long-term strategy for dealing with mental health issues after treatment.

Both need to be contextualized to a teen’s circumstances and condition. If you or a loved one struggles with symptoms of depression and anxiety, including very low self-esteem, procrastination, low energy, thoughts of self-harm, hopelessness, irritability, and sudden changes in sleep, know that it is important – and healthy – to look for professional help.

Categories
Substance Abuse

Teen Substance Abuse Prevention Starts at Home

Teen drug use may not be the issue decades ago, but many adolescents continue to use and overuse substances, especially alcohol and marijuana. According to the CDC, at least half of all US students between the 9th and 12th grade are estimated to have tried marijuana, and two-thirds of 12th graders have had alcohol. Estimates of recreational or illegal prescription drug use among 12th graders range from 2 to 10 percent.

Parents who might feel powerless over their teen’s decision-making and fear that they cannot prevent or stop their child’s drug use should know that the relationship between parents and their child is one of the strongest bonds in the child’s life. Even among teens, parents wield enormous influence not only with their words and rules but especially with their actions and habits.

Teen substance abuse prevention starts at home. Research shows that parental influence is an often more significant factor in a teen’s behavior and relationship towards drugs than peer influence. Parents play a critical role in preparing their children for the realities and risks of drug use.

Teen Substance Abuse Prevention and Parental Influence

One of the biggest contributors to a teen’s risk of drug abuse is the quality and nature of their relationship with their parents and the behavior and habits their parents engage in. Positive family influences reduce the risk of drug use, and conversely, negative family influences greatly increase it. Examples of what count as important factors for family influence includes:

    • Consistent rules and consequences (i.e., consistent boundaries, clear differences between acceptable and unacceptable behavior, rules applying to the whole family).
    • Family bonding and time spent together.
    • Family monitoring and its influence on teen peer choices (who your child hangs out with).
    • Family conflict (and lack thereof).

Related factors that tend to introduce further stressors – such as being preoccupied with work and unable to engage in family life, poor socioeconomic conditions, ease of access/opportunity – each plays a role in how family life, particularly the relationship with one’s parents, influences a teen’s choices regarding drug use and peer choice.

Peer pressure, while relevant, is also influenced by parental relationships. Parents play a role in who a teen tends to choose as friends, and the likelihood of engaging in drug use is higher among peers who already use drugs and do so regularly in a social context. One of the only factors that potentially becomes less important over time is family bonding.

This drops off once a teen becomes 18 years old on average. This does not mean parents should stop bonding with their adult children, but it does mean that it has less impact on their child’s behavior. Other factors, such as consistent boundaries and rules, family conflict, and parent behavior, remain important.

Parenting style also plays a role. Yes, rules are important, but parents who demanded obedience over understanding and affection (an authoritarian approach) saw higher drug use rates than authoritative or permissive parenting styles. Neglectful parenting (a complete lack of rules) also significantly raised the risk.

Teens Reflect Parental Opinions and Actions

One of the most important targets for effective teen substance abuse prevention is one’s own relationships with drugs. Decades of research point out time and time again that children and teens effectively mirror or mimic their parent’s choices regarding drug use and substance abuse. If a parent wants to stop their teen from drinking, smoking, or taking pills recreationally, one of the most effective ways to do so is to exhibit the kind of behavior they expect to see in their teens – consistently and in the long-term.

Research suggests that children begin to experiment with health risk behaviors as early as age 10 in vulnerable children, including substance use, and are likely to mimic what they see around them – whether in the home, at school, or between friends or even on TV. Consider your own relationship to drugs and how you use them to cope – even if it means cracking open a cold beer after a rough day at work. How often do you drink or smoke? And would you want your child to emulate your habits and behavior?

Choose Your Words and Lessons Carefully

Being a role model for your child does not guarantee that a teen stays away from drugs. There is more to it than just role modeling – parents need to take charge in educating their teens, using reliable sources of information, and ensuring that their teens understand the real dangers of drug use.

Misinformation and exaggerations only serve to hurt the cause here, especially in a day and age where most teens are even more capable than their parents when seeking out information. Your children will be able to refute what you tell them if it is not grounded in the facts. If they feel like you are lying to them, then your attempts at warning your teen about drugs may only serve to erode their trust in you.

Take an objective stance on the issue and address drug use by focusing on its health hazards and effects on the mind and body. Drive home the point that the use of drugs can quickly develop into substance abuse, especially in teens. Take the time to learn more about what certain drugs are, how they are produced and sold, and how your teen might be able to recognize and avoid them in the future.

Children and teens may be more likely to engage in risky behavior than adults. Still, many of them do not understand or know how prescription drugs can be just as dangerous as “street drugs” or how alcohol use and nicotine can be comparably addictive and ruinous at an early age to “hard drugs.”

Address Common Misconceptions and Harmful Tropes

No matter how hard a parent might try, teens will still be subjected to imagery and media promoting or glorifying drug use, whether as part of an artistic vision or a narrative trope. It is becoming harder and harder to manage and filter what media your teens consume, making it more important to educate them on contentious or difficult topics than ever before.

Without proper elucidation, teens might expect that everyone is supposed to drink and drink often, or that marijuana is harmless, or that prescription stimulants help a person study harder. These myths are harmful and common enough that they might negatively impact your teen’s decision-making down the line when you are not there to stop them.

Teen substance abuse prevention starts at home. A fact-based education, a strong parental bond, and role modeling are the key tenets of a good teen substance abuse prevention approach.

Categories
Treatment

Components of an Effective Teen Residential Treatment Program

Regardless of whether your teen has come forward about struggling with drug use, or you have convinced them that you’re all going to need help to get through this as a family, finding the right teen residential treatment program is a critically important and difficult process.

Private treatment facilities are relatively unregulated, and there are no strict standards set in place for these facilities nor the programs they espouse. Parents are required to do their own research and rely on other qualifications and accreditations to ensure that their teen is in the right hands, and that is no easy task.

The FTC asks that all parents go through a step-by-step process when identifying and vetting potential teen residential treatment programs, beginning with a thorough online search, proof for claims regarding qualifications and state- or nationwide accreditations, and a site visit. Here’s what some of the things you should pay attention to when looking for the right teen residential treatment program.

Accredited Program and Trained Staff

While there are no federal standards or guidelines for residential treatment programs and outpatient treatment programs, multiple non-profit organizations provide several regulations and accreditation options for addiction treatment facilities, outpatient facilities, and behavioral health programs. Teen treatment programs offering academic curriculums should also be accredited to offer these educational programs and adhere to the standards set by relevant national and international organizations.

These include organizations such as The Joint Commission and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. When reviewing a facility’s staff and clinical director, consider giving each member their own individual search. The Federation of State Medical Boards website, for example, lets you search whether a medical professional in the team has the board certifications they claim to have through DocInfo.org.

The Internet will be invaluable for learning as much as you can about the people running the show and their reputation in each given field. Any teen residential treatment program should have at least one accredited and trained child and adolescent psychiatrist, as well as multiple medical doctors and nurses. These treatment programs, particularly ones specializing in addiction and co-occurring mental health issues, are equipped to handle certain medical emergencies, from the aftermath of a self-harm episode to a serious physical withdrawal.

Reliance on Evidence-Based Treatments

Dual diagnosis and mental health treatment are evolving research fields, but certain treatments have a larger body of evidence to support them than others. Most treatment programs will rely on a combination of specific pharmacology and targeted psychotherapy, particularly:

Alternative therapies and treatments may also be offered and play a role in the treatment process, yet would not typically take center stage, including equine and pet therapy, acupuncture, and more. You can learn more about what therapies are most often recommended for teens struggling with drug use and co-occurring mental health issues through resources such as the American Psychological Association and the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Long-Term Ongoing Support

Another important predictor for the quality of a program’s treatment process is its emphasis on long-term and ongoing support, even after treatment. Addiction is not wholly addressed within a 1–3-month period, and it can take months or years for a teen to remain reliably sober and learn to cope with co-occurring mental health issues.

Look for programs that offer and encourage extended care, as well as ongoing support, family therapy, referrals to other therapists for ongoing care, and access to community resources so teens can continue to seek help after the treatment period has ended. Programs that focus on promoting sustainable positive change in teen behavior and health, and offer realistic outcomes, are preferred.

Skills Training and Specialized Care

Teen treatment programs often cover care for many complex and varied conditions, with circumstances including a history of trauma, victimization, and more. These treatment programs must be tailored to each teen, based on their respective circumstances and risk factors, symptoms, and more, on a case-by-case basis.

This means programs must often work together with local specialists or include a staff of trained psychiatrists and doctors with experience in these special or unique circumstances to create an environment and treatment program conducive to each teen. Programs that include staff with multiple specialists are recommended.

School and Tutoring Services

Outpatient programs and residential (inpatient) programs might offer various academic programs to help teens enroll in treatment, keep up with their classmates and continue studying. An acknowledged accreditation body must usually accredit these programs.

Questions for Parents to Ask

When determining which of your options is the best fit for your teen helps prepare a few questions.

  1. What sort of accreditations does your program have?

While no federal regulations are surrounding residential and outpatient treatment programs, accreditation programs are the next best for setting an industry standard.

  1. What kind of qualifications does the staff have?

These treatment facilities work with children dealing with many serious mental and physical health crises, so having multiple licensed and experienced medical professionals on-board is important.

  1. What is the site like?

Is it spacious and private? Does it have homely accommodations for each teen in the program?

  1. What is your reputation like?

A program’s online reputation can be a great source of information. Be sure to go over multiple different local forums and groups for a big-picture impression.

  1. Do you provide an academic curriculum?

Teens are usually still in school when they are enrolled in a treatment program, and to this end, many residential treatment programs offer day schools.

  1. How thoroughly vetted are your staff?

Find out what sort of background checks the facility runs on its staff and how thorough these checks are.

  1. Can I keep in contact with my teen?

Some programs heavily restrict or forbid contact with the outside world, including parents. Find out what the rules and limitations are around having contact with your teen during the treatment process.

  1. How will my child’s needs be assessed and reassessed?

Most programs utilize rigorous psychiatric evaluations to determine a teen’s needed level of care and an appropriate treatment program. These evaluations may need to be performed multiple times throughout the program, depending on a teen’s progress.

Finding the right teen residential treatment program will be a multistep process. Understandably, you would want the best possible care for your child, and taking every measure to ensure you make the right choice is worth the time spent on working through the options available to you.

Categories
Mental Health

How a Psychological Evaluation May Help Your Troubled Teen

Psychological evaluations are not a form of indictment or judgment upon a teen’s personality or self. They are an important clinical tool for assessing a child’s wellbeing and psychological needs and represent a critical step towards getting them access to the care they need to live a better life. A psychological evaluation utilizes different tools to identify a teen’s need for treatment. They are no different from any other sort of medical diagnostic procedure. Understanding how these evaluations take place, how they might help your teen, and when they become something for parents to investigate can help you and your teen prepares for what might come next and assuage any fears or misconceptions.

What Is a Psychological Evaluation?

Plainly put, a psychological evaluation is a clinical step towards identifying behavioral, intellectual, psychological symptoms that may suggest a mental health issue and understanding the extent and nature of these symptoms. Teens can be volatile and experience many shifts in mood and thought during their pubescence and the years of early adulthood.

But there are still marked differences between normal teenage behavior and disordered thinking or behavior, characterized by disruptions in everyday life, troubles at home and in school, and clear signs of dysfunction and maladaptation. These evaluations are not about making children fit a mold or controlling a difficult child, but about getting hurt and confused child the help, they need to feel better and get better. It is about identifying and diagnosing disorders that require treatment and often respond best to treatment that is given early and swiftly.

It is about differentiating between typical behavior and thinking that might worsen a parent and symptoms of a serious mental health issue that could present a danger to the teen’s wellbeing. Psychological or psychiatric evaluations are always performed by a trained medical professional, usually a clinical psychologist or a psychiatrist (the difference is that the latter is a medical doctor, but the former can still perform diagnoses).

When Is a Psychological Evaluation Necessary?

Psychological evaluations are usually the first step towards figuring out what might be going on with your teen. If your teenager is acting strange, has had a sudden change in mood and behavior, or continues to show signs of strange or irrational behavior for a consistent period across multiple settings (i.e., they are moody and irritable at home as well as at school, or have been struggling with low mood for multiple weeks without end, or have begun a streak of risky and dangerous behaviors despite clear consequences), then they may need help.

Some clearer signs that a teen might need a psychological evaluation include:

  • Self-imposed isolation.
  • Extreme worries and fears.
  • Unexplained physical pains and recurring headaches.
  • Rapid weight gain or weight loss, changes in appetite.
  • Risky behavior not tied to temperament, i.e., acting unusually carefree.
  • Often discussing or soliloquizing about suicide, death, and disappearing.
  • Trouble forming friendships and attachments, acting strange around others.
  • They no longer enjoy the things they used to enjoy without finding new hobbies.
  • Having difficulties with reality, making confusing or strange statements repeatedly.
  • Consistent and repeated nightmares and strange thoughts, delusions, hearing/seeing things.
  • Signs of substance abuse (late-night drinking, hiding drinking, drug paraphernalia, recreational prescription medication use).
  • There are sudden changes in memory and cognitive skills, trouble telling time and doing simple tasks, or trouble focusing on a single thing at a time.

What Can a Psychological Evaluation Tell Me About My Teen?

Psychological evaluations include a series of interviews, written tests, physical examinations, and neurological assessments to determine a teen’s overall physical and mental health and draw a comprehensive picture to help medical professionals trace their symptoms back to a plausible origin for treatment. Common elements of a complete psychological evaluation may include:

  • Asking questions about family dynamics and relationships at home and school.
  • A detailed family history, especially regarding psychiatric health, but also medical history.
  • Health history, including prior episodes or diagnoses, current and prior medication, previous health conditions.
  • Screening tests to determine behavioral and emotional health, physical health, neurological functioning, cognitive ability, and more.
  • Environmental details, including a teen’s home environment and upbringing, developmental history, instances of trauma or grief, and so on.

A psychological evaluation helps mental health professionals determine the individual’s needs, which is essential to tailoring an individualized treatment plan. Whether you’re interested in teen mental health treatment, teen drug abuse treatment, or adolescent dual diagnosis treatment, the first step to exploring treatment starts with a psychological evaluation.

What is Teen Psychological Evaluations Like?

Psychological evaluations are meant to be neither overwhelming nor immediately intrusive. Most of the assessment takes place in the form of questions, whether they serve to learn more about a teen’s family history or determine their cognitive abilities and symptoms.

Evaluations usually start with the least serious and least intrusive question first – things like how the school has been, what kind of interests a teen has, whether they have been having trouble with their friends. Eventually, questions may delve into deeper self-harm and anxiety, sexuality and drug use, victimization, and family dynamics.

Gathering as much information as possible is important to rule out any number of potential causes for strange behavior, and symptoms, including simple explanations such as complex grief and anger at the loss of a loved one or physical conditions manifesting psychiatric symptoms.

Many psychiatric evaluations occur within a residential program, where parents can take their teens to seek both a diagnosis and a comprehensive treatment. Depending on how an assessment begins and transpires, multiple sessions might be needed for a professional to reach a conclusive diagnosis and prescribe the necessary treatments.

Main Types of Psychological Evaluation

Psychological evaluations can be split into four general types: an assessment of a teen’s behavior, an assessment of their temperament and environment, an assessment of their basic cognitive capabilities, and an assessment of applicable symptoms and potential disorders.

  • Behavioral Assessment. This process is used to assess a teen’s behavioral changes and draw a picture of how they respond to certain questions to get a clearer view of their mindset and emotions.
  • Personality Assessment. This process is used to learn more about a teen’s temperament and inclinations and how they are affected by their upbringing and environment.
  • Assessment of Intellectual Functioning. This process is used to test a teen’s cognitive function. It is generally used more often to diagnose potential cognitive disorders, including Alzheimer’s, or determine the extent of a stroke’s damage.
  • Clinical Interview. This is a general term for the appointments and questions centered around identifying symptoms and eventually diagnosing a potential disorder in teens with signs of serious mental health issues.

These four types are a rough summarization of the psychological evaluation. Medical professionals can go into thorough detail to finetune treatment and determine additional steps such as family therapy, career and life skills training, and more.

Where Can Psychological Evaluations Be Done?

Aside from previously mentioned treatment centers and residential programs, psychological evaluations can be referred by pediatricians or doctors through psychiatric practices. Other places that offer psychiatric evaluations include hospitals, home care services, nursing homes, care facilities, and outpatient program facilities.

Contact Visions Adolescent Treatment Centers for a free assessment today.

Categories
Depression

Choosing the Right Teen Depression Treatment Program

Surveys show that depression remains underdiagnosed among teenagers alone as over 3.2 million experienced at least one major depressive episode in 2017, compared to just about 2 million a decade earlier. While the data suggests that these episodes are more common in girls than boys, neither received as much treatment as they should, with only 45 percent of teenage girls and 33 percent of teenage boys getting help for their symptoms.

Major depressive disorder has been diagnosed in over 1.9 million children between the ages of 3 and 17, and depression and anxiety remain the two most diagnosed mental health disorders in the United States. Treatment for these disorders has come a long way, yet many remain confused about how to address depression at home and where to seek help. Teen depression can sometimes be mistaken for normal behavior, while in other cases, grief or typical sadness are mistaken for depression. Understanding how these conditions manifest and what sets them apart is important.

Understanding Teen Depression

Depressive disorders count as mood disorders caused or influenced by a wide variety of risk factors and potential co-occurring conditions. External and internal factors each play a significant role in mood regulation and motivation. They may contribute to the development of depression, from internal processes that affect how certain neurotransmitters are released and received to the long-term mental and neurological effects of chronic stress or sudden trauma. The defining characteristics of teen depression are a sudden loss of interest in old friends and hobbies, usually accompanied by a recurring or constant:

    • Sadness
    • Lack of energy
    • Lack of motivation
    • And physical symptoms (nagging aches, pains, and restlessness)

One of the hallmarks of teen depression is overwhelming irritability, more so than normal and more often than in adults. Teens who are depressed may suddenly become disinterested, but also more defiant and disrespectful, and unmanageably gloomy. Parents might expect a drop in academic performance, and while this is true for some cases, in other cases, the pressure to perform may fuel a teen’s depression. They may continue to perform well at school (physically and/or virtually) while feeling miserable.

Types of Teen Depression

Depressive disorders come in many shapes and sizes depending on the severity and origin of the depression and assorted symptoms. Teen depression can also be a symptom of other conditions, such as hypothyroidism or substance use disorder. These examples of secondary depression are not listed below. Furthermore, other rarer types of teen depression may also be diagnosed and are not listed.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

Major depressive disorder (MDD), also referred to as major depression and clinical depression, is the most diagnosed type of teen depression. This is a mental health disorder diagnosed in cases where a person displays consistently low mood and other symptoms of depression without an apparent preexisting psychiatric or medical cause for longer than two weeks. Symptoms can range in severity from struggling to feel joy to regularly experiencing suicidal ideation.

Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD)

Persistent depressive disorder (PDD), also referred to as dysthymia, is a milder form of depression that lasts at least two years and can last a lifetime.

Seasonal Depression

Seasonal depression, also referred to as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), is characterized by symptoms being tied to a season, usually the winter, but sometimes the warmer months. Seasonal depression comes and goes, and teen depression treatment is unique in that it might address issues such as lack of natural sunlight via UV light therapy. Sometimes, seasonal depression is tied to the stress that comes from a hectic seasonal job or the financial and social strain of the holidays.

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder, also referred to as manic depression, is a mood disorder characterized by depression and/or mania symptoms. Different types of bipolar disorder exist depending on the severity of either depressive or manic symptoms. In some cases, mania can present itself without depression. While juxtaposed to depression, mania is not “happiness” – instead, it is a state of mental and sometimes physical hyperactivity that may be accompanied by dangerous thoughts, delusions, and insomnia. Social anxiety is also a commonly co-occurring issue.

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is tied to a teen’s menstrual cycle, with symptoms commonly occurring during a teen’s late luteal phase and usually the last one to two weeks. PMDD is recurring and is sometimes characterized as a very severe variant of PMS.

If you or your loved one struggles with low thoughts, low motivation, mood swings, and other signs of depression, be sure to contact a medical professional.

Recognizing Teen Depression

Symptoms of teen depression differ from disorder to disorder. They may sometimes be difficult to recognize due to their similarities with common tropes of teenage behavior and their differences in adult depressive symptoms. Some of the more common symptoms of teenage depression include:

    • High irritability
    • Low self-esteem
    • Unexplained pain
    • Problems with concentration
    • Withdrawal from friends and social contact
    • Loss of appetite or starkly increased appetite
    • Loss of interest in old hobbies and no new ones
    • Frequently expressing feelings of worthlessness
    • Lethargy despite sleeping enough (cannot get out of bed)

Risk Factors for Teen Depression

Depression can occur for multiple reasons across the entire biopsychosocial spectrum. This means that one’s genetics, environment, personal experiences, and thresholds for trauma all play a role in how, when, and whether depressive symptoms develop. Some risk factors include:

    • Substance use
    • Genetic factors
    • Chronic stressors
    • Traumatic experiences
    • Poor familial relationships
    • Victimization online or at school
    • Loss of a loved one or close friend
    • Socioeconomic circumstances (poverty)
    • Negative norms (violence, drug use among peers, competitiveness, and bullying)

Some types of depression are primarily tied to hormones, while others are largely neurological, tied to changes in the brain after trauma, or tied to recurring stressors. Sometimes, it is a little bit of everything. This can make identifying crucial risk factors difficult, which is why finding the right treatment can take time. Employing as many protective factors as possible is also important. Protective factors may lower the risk and help play a role in teen depression treatment. They include:

    • Nutrition
    • Physical activity
    • Familial relationships
    • Developing healthy coping skills
    • Positive norms (cooperative and nurturing environment)
    • Healthier social connections (friendships) and interactions
    • Access to better mental healthcare and healthcare resources

When, Where, and How to Seek Teen Depression Treatment

Treatments for teen addiction center around a combination of talk therapy and pharmacology. The most common and effective medical treatment for depression is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), although alternative antidepressants may be prescribed when multiple SSRIs fail. Some types of depression can only be treated by addressing the underlying condition.

In contrast, others cannot be successfully treated without addressing the co-occurring condition. Alternatives to antidepressants may also play a role in depression treatment, now and in the future. These include off-label treatments such as ketamine, and non-pharmacological options such as transcranial magnetic stimulation.

In nearly all cases of teen depression treatment, long-term CBT-based talk therapy is a central part of the plan and process. Teens with co-occurring disorders may be better treated through residential programs that help immerse them in a healing environment along with other teens. It may take time before you can find the right approach for your teen, which is why helping them create a strong support network is also important.

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