Category: Mental Health

From the moment a child reaches puberty up until their mid-20s, they begin the long journey of physically and neurologically developing into adulthood. This is a biological, psychological, and social journey. Even 18-year-olds – who are, by definition of the law, adults – have a lot of growing up left to do. 

Teens are on the cusp of being independent and responsible members of society, and with that comes an innumerable list of uncomfortable physical changes, volatile emotions, complex interpersonal relationships, and a growing list of expectations and social mores. 

When teens lack healthy coping skills, and the guidance to work through these day-to-day challenges, they may be more likely to struggle with feelings of anxiety, or even depression. 

Understanding the most common mood and thought disorders can help teens and parents alike recognize and address their symptoms and provide the necessary support to better manage symptoms in adulthood. 

Here are five common teen mood and thought disorders.

What is a Mood Disorder?

Mood disorders are a class of mental health problem characterized by an unconventionally low mood (depression), or an unconventionally high mood (mania). An important characteristic for most mood disorders is that these feelings of overwhelming sadness or bursts of energy have no reasonable cause or explanation. 

A teen isn’t necessarily struggling with depression if they feel sad about a classmate’s death. But the loss of a close friend may be a trigger for the onset of a mood disorder, especially if they struggle to cope with their friend’s passing. 

Common Mood Disorders in Teens

Most mood disorders feature some form of depression, and depression itself is considered the second most common type of mental health issue in the world (next to anxiety).

However, some conditions – specifically bipolar disorder – also feature symptoms of mania, which include racing thoughts, insomnia, uncharacteristic productivity or creative energy, delusions of grandeur, and an exaggerated self-confidence. 

Current definitions of mood disorders and known mood disorders are based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR). Under the DSM, common mood disorders include: 

1. Major depressive disorder
2. Bipolar I disorder
3. Bipolar II disorder
4. Cyclothymic disorder
5. Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder
6. Persistent depressive disorder
7. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder

In addition to these conditions, the DSM also identifies other types of mood disorders, including depressive or bipolar symptoms triggered by another medical condition (with physiological causes, such as an endocrine disease), substance or medication-induced mood disorder, and other specified or unspecified mood disorder. 

Major Depressive Disorder

Usually known as clinical depression, major depressive disorder (MDD) is the most common mood disorder in the world. 

It is diagnosed when symptoms of depression last for at least two weeks with no apparent physical or identifiable cause, characterized by feelings of emptiness and hopelessness. 

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder may refer to up to five different mood disorders, but most people will recognize three: bipolar I, bipolar II, and cyclothymia. 

Bipolar I is characterized by symptoms of mania, or intense euphoric and irritable moods. Sometimes, these can lead to behavior that lands a person in the hospital. People with mania can work feverishly on a project for days before crashing, and do not consider negative consequences for themselves or others. 

Bipolar II more frequently features cycles of depression, alongside hypomania, or less severe manic symptoms. 

Cyclothymia is characterized by mild manic and depressive symptoms that do not qualify for bipolar I or II, but have been ongoing for at least two years. 

Contrary to popular belief, bipolar disorder does not typically cycle between states in rapid succession. A person with bipolar disorder will usually experience a handful of shifts or episodes per year. 

Persistent Depressive Disorder

Persistent depressive disorder, chronic depressive disorder, or dysthymia is diagnosed when a person is experiencing a depressive episode for at least two years. These long-term episodes may be less intense but can be just as severe. 

Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder

Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) is a mood disorder diagnosed in children between the ages of 6 and 18, characterized by extreme irritability and temper tantrums, at the drop of a hat. DMDD exceeds normal moodiness. A teen must exhibit inappropriate temper tantrums across different settings with intense mood swings between tantrums to qualify for a DMDD diagnosis. It is a relatively new diagnosis, and a controversial one. 

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a complicated and recently recognized mood disorder closely related to premenstrual syndrome (PMS). While teens with PMDD share some of PMS’ symptoms such as cyclical symptoms, food cravings, and irritability, PMDD is much more severe, with often debilitating depressive symptoms, anxiety, and suicidal ideation in the weeks leading up to a teen’s period. These feelings wane two to three days after the period starts and return in the next cycle. 

Like other forms of depression, PMDD is largely hereditary. Our current understanding of PMDD assumes that it’s caused by an abnormal reaction in the brain’s neurochemistry to the hormonal changes that occur after ovulation, and before menstruation. 

Is My Teen Sad or Depressed?

When talking to your teen about mood disorders and mental health issues, it helps to be able to distinguish between “normal” and concerning behavior and thought patterns. 

The truth is that it can be hard to make these individual distinctions, and it often isn’t appropriate to make sweeping generalizations about what is and isn’t within the realm of a teen’s healthy spectrum of thoughts and behaviors. A few red flags to keep in mind may include: 

• Extreme or sudden changes in behavior or personality. If your teen was previously outgoing, but has become intensely reclusive, it may be a serious sign of danger. 
• Frequently talking about death, especially one’s own passing. Suicidal ideation can be masked and is often very private, but it may drop as hints in conversations. 
• Loss of affection in relationships, loss of interest in physical contact. For teens with close partners, common signs of a depressive episode include pulling away from intimacy and becoming emotionally colder. 
• Signs of substance use. Whether as a consequence or symptom of a mood disorder, or as one of the causes, substance use in teens is often a significant mental red flag. 

One of the biggest challenges when talking about mental health is recognizing that there often isn’t a single cause or villain to every story. It’s not satisfying to blame a mixture of circumstances and neurological predisposition for a person’s depressive episodes, but that’s often the truth: while tough times can make depression harder, people can also be depressed for no reason, or seek to harm or kill themselves at a time when they’re ostensibly at their “happiest” and most successful. 

Depression is exceptionally insidious because it does not offer a clear answer or a satisfying why. 

It’s often erroneously portrayed as a result of dire circumstances, when it can happen to anyone, at any point, for no reason. Expecting a reason or cause for depression leads to the unhelpful expectation that outwardly happy people are doing okay, or that there must have been a cause for them to feel worse. 

Recognizing and understanding that is crucial to making resources and help for depressive symptoms available to all people, regardless of their circumstances. 

Should you encourage your teen to make friends? Absolutely! Encourage them to make all sorts of friends. Friendships are great; not only is connecting with other people cognitively gratifying in that you can learn all sorts of things through others, it’s also emotionally and even physically beneficial. Friends can get you into better habits and sports you might never have given a try before. They can get you to explore hobbies and interests you wouldn’t have. Friends widen our horizons. They can be a great source of joy. 

In this article, we’re looking closely at one of the most common questions we hear from teens – what are the benefits of teen friendships?

Friendships Can Reduce Anxiety

Teen anxiety is a vast and growing mental health crisis. A disproportionate physical and emotional stress response is at the root of every case of anxiety. It’s normal to be anxious under certain circumstances.

Teens are often anxious the day before a big test. They’re naturally going to be anxious about confessing to a crush or asking someone out to the prom. Most teens worry about getting into a good college or doing well in their sport or profession of choice. Many teens worry about things that adults might not find as necessary, such as school clout and online popularity. Some socially conscious teens will be anxious about things like global warming, the direct effects of policy on their lives, or their prospects in tomorrow’s job market. 

While many of these things are anxiety-inducing, people often mistake them for the causes of anxiety. Anxiety is not just the manifestation of stress. 

On a more psychiatric or clinical note, anxiety disorders are mental health issues wherein a patient displays disproportionate reactions to stressors or experiences a sense of dread and worry without a meaningful cause or stressor. 

Friends can play an essential role in mitigating these stressors, helping teens cope with their anxiety, being understanding supporters throughout the recovery and treatment process, and helping your teen continue to focus on their anxiety treatment.

Friendships are a Core Part of Adolescence

Have you ever wondered why making friends as an adult is harder? Most people blame factors like a lack of time and resources and fairly few opportunities to go out and meet new people. While some of these things are true, take note of another important factor: your brain. 

Most teens are explicitly wired to make friends, and accepting new people into their lives usually comes more naturally to adolescents than it might to some adults. Meanwhile, many adults face opportunities to introduce themselves to strangers and make new friends nearly daily– yet, we typically don’t. 

This isn’t always true – especially teens who struggle with social anxiety in adolescence but not in adulthood, will find it easier to bond with people they like as they get older – but generally speaking, teens are in a developmental stage in their lives where it’s normal to turn toward your peers and develop deeper bonds of friendship with those around you. 

It’s also one of the reasons teens find it so crucial to fit in. Teens are much more predisposed towards groupthink and peer pressure because they want to belong to a larger contingent. Some of this comes down to evolutionary psychology – the idea that many human behaviors result from survivalist behaviors handed down from generation to generation. 

We’re innately social creatures, not just because we continue to rely on each other in society but because we have always relied on each other to hunt, raise children, protect one another, and secure our futures. Teens are children on the cusp of independence in the wider adult world and seek to align themselves with other adults to find strength in numbers. 

These survivalist tendencies are not always positive. Popularity does not predict the health or strength of a friend group or any given friendship. But it does explain why teens are particularly drawn to the popular and why popularity and cliques play an even greater role in adolescence than they do later in life. 

In other words, your teen years are the ideal years for you to develop your social skills, hang out with people, meet new people, and explore the different facets of interpersonal relationships; to make mistakes, to trust, to be hurt, and to learn. 

Friendships Can Prolong and Enrich Life

Teen friendships are an essential part of a healthy and happy teen life, and the quality of a teen’s relationships with others can be a factor in their mental wellbeing in adulthood. 

Research shows that teens with deep, close friendships with other people generally show lower rates of anxiety, depression, and poor self-worth than teens who grew up as part of larger friend groups but with more external connections. 

True friends are great. They keep it straight with us. They remind us of our weaknesses and celebrate our strengths. They look out for us. They encourage us to be better, to embrace the best parts of ourselves, and to do what is best for ourselves. They become confidants in times of stress and turmoil and people to share and enjoy life with when it’s at its best. They make every moment of joy and bliss even sweeter and more memorable. 

Not all friendships are like that, though. Encourage your teen to nurture and cherish their closest and oldest friends, not to grow apart, to keep in touch, and to reap the benefits of friendship well into adulthood. 

Of course, friendships can also come with drawbacks. Some friendships turn out not to be friendships at all. Some people go out of their way to hurt others quickly and sometimes over the years. It may take your teen some time to figure out the difference and learn to eliminate toxic relationships over time. But even those lessons are valuable and help prepare them to find and avoid similar experiences in adulthood when they can be arguably far more harmful. 

When the printing press made books available to the general public at an unprecedented rate, generations of children had their bad manners and poor habits blamed on time spent burrowed between pages rather than household chores. When television took over every household in the developed world, spoiled behavior and dropping grades were blamed on too much TV. Now, we live in the Internet and social media age – but does that mean it’s the same story, with different characters?

Not necessarily. While it’s true that smartphones and social media make a convenient scapegoat for the same generational gripes that have existed since the days of ancient Greece, we have more to go on these days than public opinion and the words of a famous philosopher. 

Teenagers are at risk of developing mental health issues due to mobile phone usage. In this article, we’re taking a closer look at one of the most common questions we hear from parents – does social media affect teen mental health?

How Does Social Media Affect Teen Mental Health?

Research shows us that there are more direct links between the long-term chronic use of social media and poorer teenage mental health – even when that research is being funded by companies that have a vested interest in the exact opposite findings. 

Yes, correlation is not the same thing as causation, and while it’s true that smartphones, likes, and retweets can elicit feelings of “addictive” joy through dopamine dumps, the same goes for any enjoyable activity – whether it’s reading a thriller novel, going to the movies, or sitting on the sidelines of a major sporting event. 

But there are a few unique things about social media that make it a serious concern for today’s youth and the youth of the near future. 

So, how does social media affect teen mental health?

Social Media and Self-Image

Social media refers to any platform that caters to a network of individuals and encourages people to connect to each other via online accounts. Most social media platforms encourage using real names, locations, and personal details, and very few ask users to stay anonymous for their safety. 

Social media is unlike anything we’ve seen before. It is constant. It is pervasive. And for billions of people worldwide, it plays a significant role in their daily lives. 

Social media is more than radio or television – it is a second life, a life on the internet, or a lens through which others can voyeuristically view your real life in bite-sized, curated, unfiltered, raw moments screencaps. It affects a person’s self-worth and self-image, especially among adolescents. 

Nevertheless, many teens are smart enough not to post everything online. Instead, they take a number of different approaches to online social networking. 

1. The first is the typical curated account. This is more of a social portfolio – a look into a version of themselves that teens carefully cultivate and edit to evoke a certain aesthetic, appeal to a certain group of peers or fit into a clique. These accounts are, for all intents and purposes, networking tools. 
2. The second is the private account or the finsta. Sometimes these second accounts are secret and reserved for close friends or an inner circle. They’re like a digitally-hosted communal album experience – one part of a larger social collage created by a group of friends. 
3. The third is the anonymous account. This could be a meme page, a gimmick account, or any other anonymous account created for posting jokes, sharing content, or creating a community online. 

Regardless of what kind of account a teen runs – and teens often have multiple accounts on the same platform for this very reason – these accounts can change a teen’s self-image for better or worse.

A curated profile can help teens boost their self-confidence by choosing how they present themselves to the world around them. But this has the downside of causing teens to prefer the “filtered” version of themselves while perhaps resenting how they really see themselves. 

For teens with existing mental health issues, the dangers of putting oneself “on display,” even if it’s a curated digital analog, can be myriad. 

Social Media and the Erosion of Privacy

Even while curating the content, they create, teens keep less and less of themselves to themselves nowadays. There is an expectation of candid honesty, a societal pressure between teens and influencers to present a “day in the life of” for every teen who wishes to be accepted, let alone popular.

Teens growing up in a post-Patriot Act would have a very different expectation of privacy, to begin with. Still, Internet culture’s shift away from anonymous posters to constant, infinite interconnectivity and online social influence has built a culture of oversharing. 

Even ten years ago, surveys showed that as many as 77 percent of teens were at risk for identity theft due to the amount of information they published about themselves. Ten years is a long time in the Internet age, and things have only worsened. 

Whether it’s public chatrooms, daily TikTok posts, or hourly Tweets about college life, teens are leaving more and more of themselves for the rest of the world to watch and participate in – not just ephemerally but as a permanent record. We’ve already seen real-life examples of people suffering career consequences for the thoughtless ramblings they had as teens on Facebook and Twitter. 

Not only are the consequences of a lack of privacy immense, but they can carry a mental toll. More and more teens are victims of cyberbullying and place great weight and importance on their popularity on social media platforms. Some of the other long-term mental health consequences of social media overuse include: 

• Higher risk of eating disorders
• Higher risk of suicidal thoughts
• Risk of depression
• Greater levels of anxiety
• Poorer sleep due to excessive screen time
• And more.

Is Social Media Bad For Teens?

Some research points directly at social media as a potential cause for teen ills. Other research is inconclusive. If we want to draw our own conclusions, we can pick social media – especially the overuse of social media – as a scapegoat for teen problems. 

But social media is often just one part of a bigger problem. 

Teens today are growing up in a world still shaken by a global pandemic, facing the looming threat of global warming and other societal issues. In addition to these pressures, teens still worry mostly about the same things as ever, such as whether their crush likes them, getting good grades, making their parents proud, and picking the right career path. 

Teens spend a lot of time in front of their screens. But they also smoke less, drink less, do fewer drugs, and have sex at a later age. While many teens struggle with adulthood, that’s nothing new – and millions upon millions of American teens continue to enter the workforce every year. 

Social media has a definite negative impact on many teens, especially those already susceptible to self-image issues and depression. 

It can make them feel like they aren’t living up to the fake standards set by their peers or by popular influencers, the same way fashion magazines and advertisements have made women feel self-conscious about their weight for decades. 

Excessive screen time among teens is also linked to poorer sleep, less than recommended physical activity levels, and a worse mental state.  

But social media can have its benefits. It allows friends to stay friends across state lines and even national borders. It gives teens access to greater information, provided they are taught to be media literate. And regardless of whether parents agree with it, social media is a crucial part of social life in the modern world. It can become actively harder to interact, network, and communicate with your peers without an account on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.  

Rather than taking your teen off the internet, help them navigate it more safely, with respect to their own privacy and with respect to the dangers of being excessively online. 

Are you worried about your child experiencing one of the more common teen mental health issues?

For many adults, being a teen again might feel like a blessing. Chances are you might not have had to worry about filing your tax returns, paying your bills, or managing a business as a teenager. Teens are less likely to feel a stiff back in the morning or suffer from bad knees. Meanwhile, teens have much to look forward to in life – from their first real romance to starting college, or forging through a career path from scratch. 

But adolescence is far from a walk in the park, especially today. Teens live in an increasingly digitalized and isolated world, one that perhaps expects more from them than it did from previous generations. And while teens lead safer lives than their parents did, they are also less prepared for adulthood. How can parents help their teens work their way through the struggles of adolescence, especially with mental health issues? 

For starters, it’s important to sit down and listen. It may have been a while since you were last a teen and knowing more about where your teen is coming from can help you find the right words to guide them. 

In this article, you will discover the top seven teen mental health issues.

Teen Mental Health Issues

While teens today seem more anxious and depressed, it’s also important to remember that our understanding of mental health has changed dramatically over the last few decades. While some of it remains, the stigma around mental health problems has lessened, and teens are more likely to come forward. In other words, teens today are not just inherently more stressed than previous generations; they are also more likely to willingly identify their maladies.

If you think your teen might be struggling mentally, better understanding what they might be going through can help you both. Talk to a professional today about teen mental health, and the signs you should be looking out for.

As a parent, you worry about your teenage child and want to ensure they’re okay. Here are the top seven teen mental health issues.

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are an unfortunately common adolescent mental health problem and one that is statistically devastating. 

More so than nearly any other mental health condition, eating disorders can often be fatal. They include the urge towards starvation, as well as unhealthy binges, and the consumption of non-edible and even dangerous objects. Bulimia and Anorexia stem from issues with self-esteem and self-image, especially body dysmorphia. Other times, eating disorders can result from trauma or childhood abuse and chronic depression. 

Some people are predisposed to having problems with eating disorders. Suppose your family has a history of eating disorders like binge eating, bulimia nervosa, or anorexia nervosa. In that case, your teen might be at an increased risk of developing an eating disorder throughout adolescence.

Substance Use Disorders

Substance use disorders will often co-occur in teens alongside other mental health issues. Teens with an anxiety disorder or a mood disorder are more likely to start drinking early, and more likely to use illicit drugs. Furthermore, teens with untreated ADHD are more likely to use drugs, and struggle with addiction. 

Substance use disorder is both a physical illness and a mental health issue. A holistic treatment approach is needed to help teens recover from the neurological and physical effects of long-term drug use, and develop the necessary coping skills and psychological framework to avoid relapses in the future. 

Signs of drug use in teens depend on the type of substances they use. Some teens use prescription medication, such as anti-anxiety medications, as a party drug. Others use medications such as Ritalin to focus for a test, despite not having ADHD. And while teens are not legally allowed to drink, about 24 percent of teens aged 14 to 15 admit to alcohol use. Research tells us that the earlier someone starts drinking alcohol regularly, the more likely they are to struggle with alcoholism in adulthood. 

If your teen is struggling with a different mental health issue, they are generally more susceptible to the addictive effects of illicit drugs. Whereas mental health therapies work to improve a teen’s symptoms over long periods of time, certain drugs offer an immediate mood boost. While most teens are aware that these drugs can carry lifelong risks, they often lack the mental faculties to fully acknowledge or appreciate what that risk looks like. 

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common neurodevelopmental conditions in childhood and adolescence and can also be considered a mental health disorder. 

Teenagers with ADHD have brains that develop differently from their peers and require support in matters such as learning, task management, executive functioning, and motivation. They are more likely to struggle with drug use if their ADHD is left unaddressed and are more likely to develop other concurrent mental health issues over time, such as generalized anxiety, panic attacks, or major depressive disorder. 

Managing ADHD through behavioral therapy and individualized medication protocols can help teens function on par with their peers and develop the self-sufficiency needed for adulthood. 

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, is a common anxiety disorder that usually begins in adolescence and continues throughout adulthood. Teenagers with OCD may begin with mild symptoms that get worse with age. 

OCD comes in different forms and can have varying degrees of severity. Classic examples include excessive cleaning or counting rituals, but other people with OCD develop strange habits and tics to combat and address intrusive thoughts about religion, sexual orientation, or even unwanted violent fantasies. 

It is estimated that about 90 percent of people with OCD have at least one other mental health problem, often exacerbating the condition. Concurrent treatment is important – addressing not one, but all of a teen’s mental and physical health concerns, and the way they interact with each other. 

Conduct Disorders

Some teens are unruly. Some teens are especially argumentative, and most teens will defy authority in one way or another. But a conduct disorder goes above and beyond expected teen behavior. 

If your teen is routinely combative, and even outright dangerous, they may be struggling with impulse control. Conduct disorders are most common in children and teens, and involve patterns of property destruction, theft, physical violence, or pathological lying. Many conduct disorders are closely related to personality disorders. 

Mood Disorders

Mood disorders are the second most common type of mental health problems in the world. Mood disorders include conditions such as major depressive disorder, dysthymia, and bipolar disorder. Not all mood disorders are related by cause. Some are linked largely to hormonal changes, while others are linked to a change in local environments or stress. Some are linked to seasonal changes – winter depression, or seasonal affective disorder, may even be exacerbated by a lack of sunlight. 

Mood disorders affect roughly 14 percent of teens in the US. Not all treatments are the same, either – while modern antidepressants often play a large role in successful treatment, therapy is just as important, and incredibly varied. In addition to talk therapy, mood disorders may be addressed through neurofeedback, nerve stimulation, and rTMS treatments. 

Anxiety Disorders

While depression is often the de facto mental health concern for parents and educators, anxiety disorders are the worlds most common mental health problem. An estimated 19 percent of adults and 32 percent of adolescents have some form of anxiety disorder. Among teens with identified anxiety disorders, over 8 percent struggled with severe life-changing impairment. 

Anxiety disorders range wildly from rarer conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder to specific phobias, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. While medication may be used in treatment, therapy is key. Long-term behavioral and cognitive therapy can help teens improve their symptoms, especially if their condition does not cause severe impairment. 

How Can I Help My Teen?

Helping a teen manage their mental health without the framework of professional treatment is not a good idea. 

There are many things a family can do to help improve some of their teen’s symptoms – implementing certain changes, such as more time spent together on the weekends, a better diet at home, setting better boundaries, and improving communication between family members are some universal pieces of advice. But they do not come close to addressing some of the inherent issues that a teen with a mental health disorder may be facing. 

Talk to a therapist about individual and family therapy, and find out how you can specifically help your teen throughout their treatment. 

New year’s resolutions are an unfairly maligned tool – while goalsetting can be unmotivating or even self-destructive, using the new year as an impetus for self-improvement can still be a good idea with the right approach. For January Mental Wellness Month, let’s commit to making real progress on improving our mental health and wellness – and embrace mental wellness not just as a goal for feeling better but as a long-term mission towards achieving a healthier state of mind, from mood to self-esteem and social value.

What is January Mental Wellness Month?

Mental Wellness Month is observed and celebrated every January as an opportunity to increase awareness on matters of mental wellness and emotional balance.

While the public has become increasingly aware of the risk of mental health issues and the growing problems of depression and anxiety in modern communities, Mental Wellness Month aims to drive home the point that our mental well-being is a universal issue and that everyone can benefit from learning more about improving their mental health, regardless of whether they personally share a history of mental health problems and diagnosed conditions.

January Mental Wellness Month gives us a chance to talk to our loved ones about taking some steps to protect against lifelong stressors, prevent burnout, and address many of the risk factors that continue to impact most people on a day-to-day basis, including social isolation, societal worries, financial insecurity, poor sleep quality, hate speech, and sedentary living.

You can celebrate Mental Wellness Month in January by taking steps yourself or with your friends and family to improve your coping skills, adopt healthier stress management habits, identify and address specific risk factors, and recognize when you or a loved one might need professional help.

A New Year, A New You?

Many people struggle to accomplish their new year’s resolutions for a number of reasons. Because Mental Wellness Month is observed in January, we can take the opportunity to address the biggest goal-setting mistakes – and how proper goal-setting can help build important habits that leave a lasting impact on your life, including both your mental and physical wellness.

• Goals that are too abstract (i.e., achieving “well-being”).
• Goals that are attached to meaninglessness (i.e., you’re told you should lose weight or look better, but there’s no intrinsic reward or motivation in that).
• Goals that are too harsh (i.e., putting on 20 lbs of muscle in six months or going to the gym every day for a year).
• Goals that ultimately aren’t worth it (i.e., your heart isn’t really in it, and you don’t care as much as you’re trying to pretend to).

With all these issues combined, we can start working backward to identify goals and habits that are going to be much easier and more fulfilling to accomplish in the New Year and beyond. These include:

• Smaller goals.
• Tying positive or healthy habits to impulsive temptations (i.e., going for a walk whenever you get the urge to smoke).
• Do more research and establish a step-by-step plan before jumping in (you don’t need to start right now!).
• Seeking accountability (alone or with a friend).
• Identifying things you really want, like beating an old personal record, finally committing to an instrument you’ve spent years toying around with, etc.).
• Turn a lapse or relapse into a stumbling block, not a failure state. Just keep going!

Ultimately, it’s also important to remember that one of the biggest reasons people fail to set and achieve their goals in the New Year is that their impetus is based on a date rather than personal motivation. The best indicator for success in habit forming is wanting to change genuinely. People who are desperate for a change in their lives won’t wait for the first day of the new year to get started.

But that does not make the effort useless. You may fail. But remind yourself that you can just try again. Start from the beginning or in the middle stages. Continue where you left off. Nothing is keeping you from doing so.

Celebrate Your Accomplishments

For some people, starting the new year with a month dedicated to all the things you need to change might not make the right first impression. Instead, take a moment to consider what you’ve already accomplished and celebrate your successes, no matter how few or how little they might seem to you at the moment.

It could be a successful move to a new home or town, graduation, your first job, spending more time exercising last year than the year before, or any other changes you’re proud of. Establish what you’ve already achieved – and allow yourself to feel contentment.

Reaffirming Priorities

A lot of the time, mental well-being is more about being at peace with what it is than it is about changing anything. You can achieve a healthier state of mind by learning to cope with who you are and what you do than rushing to alter your habits and behaviors at an unrealistic rate.

Once you begin to embrace your positive attributes, you can slowly begin to alter the negative ones and work towards a better mental and physical state after you have established the personal attributes and characteristics that you are happy with, such as your positive sleeping habits, your ability to be creative and productive in short bursts, your personal talents, or your strong suits as a student.

You Don’t Need Illness to Seek Help

January Mental Wellness Month aims to take the conversation around mental health and reframe it as one that is not just relevant to people with severe symptoms of mental illness.

In the same way that we all need to stay hydrated, sleep enough, eat good food, and go on a walk every now and again, we need to apply protective habits to improve and safeguard our mental wellness and prevent episodes of anxiety or depression through a healthier relationship with our own thoughts, feelings, and actions.

To that end, the same way you might see your doctor for a yearly checkup, you should consider talking to a counselor or seeing a therapist to discuss your thoughts and feelings.

For more information about teen mental health and wellness, reach out to Visions Treatment Centers.