Category: Mental Health

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Mental Health

Top 7 Teen Mental Health Issues

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. 

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Mental Health Therapy Treatment

Therapy for Teens: What Parents Should Know

Are you curious about mental health therapy for teens but scared of the stigma?

Well, here’s a damning fact: we are well into the 21st century, with decades of progress in psychiatric medicine, and nearly half of the American workforce still believes that seeking therapy is a sign of weakness.

Research tells us that psychotherapy – a set of guided conversations and exercises between a trained professional and a client/patient – is one of the most effective forms of treatment for the majority of mental health issues that we face. Yet despite growing rates of depression, anxiety, and psychosis, most people either do not get the help they need or do not seek it out, to begin with.

We must do better, especially for our children. The attitudes we take on regarding health, both mental and physical, often reflect in our offspring. The fact is that despite the fear of peer pressure, teens are overwhelmingly influenced by their parents and rely on their parents to be positive role models. Furthermore, teens are struggling.

Rates for anxiety and depression are higher than ever as awareness around mental health issues continues to soar. Yet instead of seeking treatment, many teens with mental health issues become susceptible to other, more maladaptive forms of coping. They may develop self-esteem issues and eating disorders, struggle with substance use, or fall into an online rabbit hole of scams or even hate speech marketed as a form of “self-improvement.”

Many teenagers need help, and therapy for teens can be one of these forms of help. Here’s what parents should know.

Does Therapy for Teens Work?

Yes. There is ample research specifically on the topics of adolescent mental healthcare and the efficacy of talk therapy protocols as treatment modalities for teen patients. Therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy see as much success in teens as they do in adults, in addition to specialized forms of therapy applied to various diagnoses, such as EMDR, exposure therapy, and psychodynamic therapy.

One particular type of therapy that may be more effective for adolescent patients is family therapy. There are different forms of family therapy, but each focuses on addressing issues within a family unit or even a small subsection of a community, rather than focusing solely on an individual.

Family therapy programs center around the idea that treating a patient’s symptoms in isolation is not enough when the root cause or major contributing factors to their condition are still present at home. Family therapy can help parents and other relatives better understand their loved one’s condition, discover interpersonal issues that may be contributing to their mental malady, and improve communication skills between teens and parents alike.

Therapists understand that parents play a vital role in a teen’s therapeutic process. Individual therapy sessions can help teens immensely, but it’s the parent who has the most influence and plays the greatest role in a teen’s behavioral and mental development. Family therapy helps explore this dynamic and utilize it in the best interests of the teen and parents alike.

Does Your Teen Need a Diagnosis to Go to Therapy?

One of the most common misconceptions about therapy is that it is only needed when prescribed by a professional. Although a formal psychological evaluation can help and therapeutic services are more likely to be covered by certain insurance policies if you receive a referral from a professional first, it’s also important to note that you don’t need to wait for a problem to be diagnosed before you can decide to seek someone to talk to, whether you’re an adult or a teen.

Everyone who thinks they might benefit from therapy should ultimately go to therapy. A therapist can help you improve your focus and productivity, address emotional problems at their root, figure out why you struggle with intimacy or have other common relationship issues, and can help you identify and replace maladaptive coping skills with healthier methods of coping regardless of your lack of a specific diagnosis or mental health issue.

Should you feel the need to visit a therapist every time you feel upset or anxious? If it helps you feel better, yes.

On the other hand, there are also circumstances under which a therapist’s help is more than just optional but a necessary part of a long-term recovery and treatment process.

When Should a Teen Go to Therapy?

Teens may get a referral from a mental health professional (a psychiatrist or psychologist) or their primary care physician if they struggle with the following:

Behavioral Problems

These include a wide range of behaviors that may involve acting out aggressively towards others, or showing signs of unprompted rage, extreme narcissism or disregard for others (seeming lack of empathy and compassion), recurring relationship problems, and even recurring legal issues (frequently vandalizing, getting caught stealing, drunk driving or speeding, exhibitionism, substance use, and so on).

Recurring Sadness

Sadness and depression are two very different things, and it’s important for parents to be able to tell the difference. Sadness comes and goes, but depression lingers for weeks at a time, seeping into everything a teen does to the point that they struggle with things they used to excel at or have an easy time with and no longer feel any interest in old hobbies or activities they used to enjoy.

Depression can be brought on by anything or by nothing at all. Some teens begin to struggle with symptoms of depression after a triggering event, such as a breakup or the loss of a loved one. Others may develop depression over time without a clear origin or cause. Not talking about it makes it worse.

Insurmountable Anxiety

Some teens are naturally more anxious than others. But an anxiety disorder can be debilitating, affecting a teen’s personal life, academic life, and future career.

Anxiety disorder symptoms can be manageable at times, but without structure or positive coping mechanisms, teens can fall into maladaptive coping habits and develop other comorbid problems. If your teen is frequently struggling with doubt, fear, and low self-esteem, they may be facing daily anxious thoughts and have no way of dealing with them.

Get Therapy for Teens at Visions Treatment Centers

Therapy for teens can go a long way towards helping a teen understand why they might feel the way they sometimes do and can help them develop the tools they need to combat negative thoughts and emotions, improve their behavior, and lead a more fulfilling life. Support your teen in getting the help they might need.

For more information about therapy for teens and teen mental health services, contact Visions Treatment Centers.

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Depression Feelings Mental Health

How Does Depression Affect Teens?

How does depression affect teens? What does teen depression look like? When exactly is it depression? And when is it moodiness?

While being a teen can be tough, there are a few telltale characteristics that set depression apart from typical teenage angst. Both teens and parents should keep an eye on these characteristics and how they might affect their loved ones and closest friends.

How Does Depression Affect Teens?

So, how does depression affect teens? And what does it look like?

At first glance, depressive symptoms match closely with teenage despair. Depressed teens can be irritable, difficult, might be less likely to respond to being called, and will hole up in their rooms for hours, if not days, at a time. Concerned parents might have a tough time telling a depressive episode apart from a bad breakup.

But one key aspect of depression is time. Depressive symptoms don’t show up for a few days or a week, then disappear. Your teen may take months to get over a breakup, but they aren’t going to be spending those months at the bottom of an endless emotional pit – they may hit the bottom at some point, then slowly, steadily climb out of it.

Depression, on the other hand, shackles you to the seafloor and doesn’t let you go for weeks, months, and sometimes even years.

Signs of Depression in Teens

Some people diagnosed with a depressive disorder will bear the brunt of the condition for a few weeks at a time, then experience a lull in symptoms before it comes back in full force. Others experience a lower intensity of depression symptoms but at every waking moment. Depressive symptoms can come and go at any point, with no warning and no clear cause. They may include:

  • Deep sorrow, feelings of worthlessness, or guilt for no reason.
  • Extremely low self-esteem or active self-loathing/deprecation.
  • A loss of interest in old hobbies and activities.
  • A significant change in diet and appetite (dramatic weight gain or dramatic weight loss).
  • Restlessness and insomnia/oversleeping, poor sleep habits.
  • Sluggishness and fatigue that won’t go away with rest.
  • Total loss of motivation, struggle to get up, difficulty with routine (poorer physical hygiene).
  • Recurring suicidal thoughts or attempts, self-harm, extreme risk-taking, growing pessimism, and cynicism.
  • Unexplained aches and pains and episodes of nausea.

If your teen is upset over something, it may be part of their depression, or it may be a normal teen reaction to an upsetting event. Telling these two apart requires open communication and a willingness to regularly check in with your teen to keep track of their moods and realize when something seems off.

How Is Teen Depression Diagnosed?

Depression comes in many forms. These are called mood disorders, and they include most mental health conditions that center around extraordinarily low or extraordinarily high moods (symptoms of depression and symptoms of mania). Common depressive disorders include:

  • Major depressive disorder: this is the most commonly diagnosed depressive disorder and is often known as clinical depression.
  • Dysthymia: this is a long-term or chronic form of depression, usually involving milder symptoms.
  • Bipolar disorder: this mood disorder shares symptoms of depression as well as mania or hypomania.
  • Premenstrual dysphoric disorder: this form of severe depression is a debilitating form of PMS. Symptoms occur within the first week of every period and often get worse with age until menopause.
  • Postpartum depression: postpartum depression or peripartum depression is diagnosed before and/or after labor and childbirth.
  • Seasonal affective disorder: this form of depression is distinctly tied to a change in seasons, usually from autumn into winter. However, some teens also experience summer-type seasonal affective disorder.

Diagnostic Criteria for Depression

Different depressive disorders have different diagnostic criteria. If a doctor suspects a patient is depressed (during a routine screening, for example), they may be referred to a psychiatric professional for a full diagnosis.

While conditions like depression are not usually diagnosed through blood tests or imaging scans (with unique exceptions) like many other medical conditions, there are certain tests that doctors can conduct to determine whether a teen requires psychological treatment. These tests include one-on-one conversations, a thorough medical and family background, and an observation of a teen’s symptoms and behavior over multiple weeks.

Conditions like major depressive disorder can be identified in about 8.4 percent of the population. But while this particular form of depression is more common than others, it’s also important to note that there are many conditions that are harder to identify or that might be misdiagnosed as a different or more common form of depression. Some mental health conditions might share a few symptoms with depression but have a very different cause or psychological mechanism of action and require a completely different type of treatment.

Depression and Related Disorders

Depressive symptoms may be part of a different diagnosis, or a diagnosis of depression may be one of multiple disorders a teen is struggling with. Teens with depression are much more likely than their peers to also struggle with the following:

Don’t count out the possibility of depression just because your teen may exhibit signs of a different mental health problem. In many cases, these disorders are intertwined, sharing certain risk factors or causes, and contributing to each other in different ways. For example, a teen struggling with addiction may be more likely to suffer from bouts of anxiety or depression as they go through recovery and rehab.

How is Teen Depression Treated?

If your teen is diagnosed with a depressive disorder, their first-line treatment plan may often involve one-on-one talk therapy and modern antidepressants. These are the most effective and most commonly prescribed treatment methods for conditions like major depressive disorder.

Certain other disorders may involve different treatments – such as mood stabilizers for bipolar disorder or birth control for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. If first-line treatments fail, a doctor may prescribe alternative treatment plans. This is where psychiatric facilities, outpatient clinics, and residential facilities for teens can help, especially if comorbid health conditions or a serious risk of personal harm are involved.

For more information about treatment for teen depression, contact Visions Treatment Centers.

Categories
Adolescence Mental Health Wellness

7 New Years Goals for Teens

New years goals for teens and adults can vary, simply due to different stages of life. For some, a new years resolution centers around weight lost, picking up a new hobby, or even getting treatment for mental health.

And for millions of Americans, a new year often comes with new goals and resolutions. But is that a good thing? Most new years resolutions fail to uphold their commitment, which would usually indicate that it isn’t just a question of willpower. Why is it so hard to do the things you should want to do?

The answer, in most cases, is that you don’t really want to do them. New years resolutions typically fail because people tend to select goals that reflect what they should do or be, rather than what they want. It makes little sense to set a goal for yourself that is not ultimately tied to an activity or result that you truly enjoy or crave. Teens struggle with this just as much as adults do.

You Don’t Need to Start Today

A lot of people fail to commit to their new year’s resolutions because they started working on their goals on January 1st, rather than when they were ready. Someone who dives headfirst into a goal without the necessary preparation is more likely to struggle as a result.

Going back to the popular gym and fitness example, you might feel like you don’t know what you’re doing, and it becomes impossible to tell the difference between good and bad advice. Instead, use January as your exploratory month.

Do your research. Consult different experts. Formulate a concrete first goal. Determine what you need to establish your starting position – equipment, setting, space, and community resources. And then, get started in February or March once you’ve answered your day one questions.

New Years Goals for Teens in 2023

Goals that mean something to you – that are linked to your interests or guided by intrinsic motivation – are less likely to fail. Here are some concrete and productive new years goals for teens that you can work toward achieving this year for a better you and to improve your mental health too!

1. Set a Small Screen Time Limit

Excessive screen time is a risk factor for mental health and exacerbates symptoms of depression, lowered self-esteem, and anxiety. You don’t need to go cold turkey on social media or delete Discord from your phone. But do consider keeping a closer eye on your daily computer and smartphone usage, tracking your hours on screens, and setting realistic goals to minimize or introduce breaks for both mental and physical health.

Use those breaks to do something you enjoy – listen to music without looking at a screen, read a physical book, go on a walk, or spend some time gardening. If you have pets, take on more pet-related chores and responsibilities – these can be almost meditative and give you more time to bond with your favorite fur buddy.

2. Dedicate More Time to the Outdoors

Whether it’s something substantial like a monthly hiking trip or just a weekly drive out to the nearest national park for a quick jog or leisurely walk, being outside and in nature can do wonders for both your physical and your mental well-being. Try introducing a few extra nature trips or long walks through the woods into your life this year.

3. Place a Premium on Good Sleep

Sleep hygiene gets emphasized heavily in nearly every single one of these posts and articles, and for a good reason. Everything we do is contextualized by how well-rested we are. Cognitively, socially, and physically, our performance in nearly any aspect of life is colored at least partially by the quality of our sleep.

Making a commitment to head to bed earlier than usual is a good start, but it’s almost impossible to implement. Start with habits that will help you tire out more easily: make sure your room is usually cool and dark in the evenings, rely on warmer lights, cut out blue lights or screens before bed, quit caffeine in the afternoons, and exercise.

4. Go To Therapy (With a Friend)

Mental health treatment is not scary. Nor is it painful. But it is stigmatized, and many teens remain unconvinced that they need or should consider seeking professional help, even as their symptoms get worse.

However, reaching out for help and learning to take care of your mental health are great new years goals for teens. If you think you may be struggling with a mental health condition that is affecting your studies, your relationships, and your day-to-day life, taking the first step toward therapy will be tremendously helpful. But if you need that extra push, consider asking a friend to go with you.

5. Move A Little Bit More

There is more to exercise than running track and field, lifting weights, or going for a swim. Embrace movement in some shape or form, whatever it may be.

We’re ultimately not built to be sedentary for long periods of time, and once you find a form of movement that you enjoy, you can massively improve your general quality of life and regain control over your body.

6. Quit Deprecation

It may just be something small – like insulting yourself in the mirror, berating yourself for trying something or putting yourself down for buying something – but try to make a commitment towards stopping all forms of self-deprecation this year.

Don’t make jokes at your own expense, insult yourself when you’re alone or with others, or take your anger out on your own body. Whenever you feel the urge to say something mean, swallow it – and try to say something positive, anything positive, instead.

7. Try One New Thing

It could be crocheting, pottery, learning to bake, making bread, or even Japanese gunpla. New hobbies are not just an opportunity to expand your interests but an opportunity to meet new people, explore new ideas, find new outlets for stress, and even change your worldview.

A new years resolution can be an impetus for self-improvement and change. But it’s not enough to commit yourself to a vague goal on January 1st without more of a personal connection. It’s important to personalize your goals and pick a realistic approach.

Setting Realistic New Years Goals for Teens

Let’s say, for example, that you have always hated gym class, don’t enjoy most sports, and have spent most of high school being sedentary and enjoying non-athletic hobbies.

You have no personal interest in physical fitness and no real intrinsic motivation to go and begin your gym transformation. You have no concrete knowledge of where to begin in the gym, no foundation of strength or fitness, and no idea whether to prioritize cardio over weights or which supplements to take or ignore.

None of that changes from the night of the 31st into the morning of the 1st.

But, if you are interested in getting fit, you can take your general interest and begin adapting it to more specific, intrinsic motivation. Perhaps there’s a specific fictional character you wish to look like.

There’s probably some merchandise you can wear to help you relate your exercise regimen to that character, like a themed training shirt, hoodie, or shaker. Start your training sessions with arousing music from your favorite game or show. Begin consuming more fitness content that you relate to, or have an interest in. Find exercises that you do enjoy doing.

The Power of Goals

Goals can be powerful tools, but they can also backfire heavily. If your mental and physical well-being is important to you, then setting goals that are achievable should come before setting goals that are aspirational.

For more information about treatment for teen mental health, contact Visions Treatment Centers.

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Mental Health Therapy Treatment

Get Help at a Teen Mental Health Program This Year

We may be in the midst of a teen mental health crisis. Teens are experiencing unprecedented rates of anxiety and depression, both of which continue on a steady climb, while information about available mental health resources – like finding a suitable outpatient or residential teen mental health program – appears to lag behind.

It’s important to know how to identify that your teen may need help – and recognize what kind of help might be best for them.

Does Your Teen Need Mental Health Treatment?

A teen mental health program can become relevant for teens when their emotional state and behaviors begin to negatively impact their lives, to the degree that they repeatedly struggle to stay out of trouble at home or at school.

Teen mental health programs are also important to consider when a teen is badly hurt or even hospitalized as a result of actions that they do not appear to be able to control, whether it’s a self-destructive tendency, an extreme attraction to risk, or other forms of volatile behavior.

A teen might see a therapist after the death of their loved one, especially if their grief has been as severe on the hundredth day as on the first. But they won’t necessarily be referred to a teen treatment program unless a thorough mental assessment first determines a likely diagnosis.

It is a mistake to try and diagnose your teen yourself or indulge in what they think they might have. Symptoms of major depression and anxiety can often mask a different mood disorder or something else entirely, like a personality disorder.

Psychiatrists and trained doctors utilize different behavioral tests and one-on-one assessments to help understand and determine a teen’s troubles, and formulate an individual treatment plan that takes their circumstances into account.

What Does a Teen Mental Health Program Look Like?

A teen mental health program is a dedicated therapeutic plan developed by mental health professionals with the aim of addressing a teen’s individual circumstances on a biopsychosocial level – meaning their home life, physical conditions and medical history, social experiences at school and/or work, and significant risk factors, in addition to their mood and mental health history, comorbid conditions, current medications, and past treatment plans.

Teen mental health programs usually entail different levels of care. For example, an intensive inpatient program will often include a holistic approach that combines traditional psychotherapy with other treatment modalities, such as animal-assisted therapy, experiential therapy, and treatment-resistant modalities such as EMDR or nerve stimulation, all while providing room and board for teens in treatment.

In other words: teen mental health treatment programs come in different levels, and treatment is prescribed as per a teen’s situation, whether a thorough assessment finds that they’re diagnosed with multiple different mental health issues or a single diagnosis with severe symptoms.

Attributes of a Good Teen Mental Health Program

There are several components to a good teen mental health program. These include:

  • Complete care. Mental health programs are not solely to address a teen’s textbook symptoms. Doctors work with each other to identify all of the factors that are negatively affecting a teen’s thoughts and behavior, including their diagnosis, to create better outcomes.
  • Age-specific programming. Teens and children require different contexts and different forms of care from adults. The symptoms of certain disorders, such as PTSD, are different in teens versus adults. Age-specific programming, including age-specific treatment groups, ensures that teen patients receive tailored treatment.
  • Family involvement. More often than not, teens continue to be shaped by the actions and influences of their parents, even more so than their peers. Ensuring that parents or other family members understand the role they play in and outside of treatment helps create a better environment for teens to return to after their program ends.
  • Evidence-based treatment. Some programs incorporate other elements of care, including spiritual or faith-based care, whether in their therapy sessions or as part of the overarching theme of their clinic. But all good mental health programs must rely on a core of evidence-based treatments, including proven psychotherapy methods, alternative treatment methods with a robust body of work, and appropriately approved medications.
  • Assessment and reassessment of outcomes. Good treatment programs and clinics emphasize rigorous testing and evaluation of their methods and outcomes, whether through testimonials or outside reviews. Look for treatment providers who are proud of their reputation and openly allow former clients to talk about their treatment methods and staff. Avoid clinics that promote secrecy or are hesitant to reveal details about how they treat patients.
  • Individualized care. In addition to complete care, a good teen mental health program champions individualized care – every patient receives the treatment they need, with a treatment plan that is formulated for them after their initial assessment and is adjusted as needed.  
  • And more. Mental health treatment can be complex, and treatment facilities can differ in the modalities and specializations that they offer. Some treatment centers focus on addiction or trauma-related illnesses. Some only cater to teens, creating an environment specifically to help adolescent patients. Some treatment centers focus on providing care to women.

While the core tenets of most teen mental health programs are the same, they offer different levels of care to address patients with different needs. Some patients only need a structured treatment plan that asks them to come to see a professional twice a week and complete certain exercises at home.

Other plans are more rigorous or even require teens to live out on a special compound, such as a residential setting or a psychiatric hospital. These levels of care can generally be differentiated as either outpatient care or inpatient care, with varying degrees of intensity.

What Happens After Treatment?

For most teens, going through a mental health program for the first time is just the beginning of a long road. Most clinics and facilities emphasize that they are a stepping stone for long-term mental health treatment – some people require a lifetime of support through medication and different forms of therapy to mediate severe symptoms and function independently. Some people can bring their mental health condition into “remission” and lead a long and fulfilling life with minimal flare-ups, as long as they continue to take care of their stress and mental well-being. Some people experience a resurgence of symptoms and need an intensive care program before they can control their symptoms and live on their own again.

Your teen’s level of care, and the care they might need going forward, will differ from their peers even with the same diagnosis. Some cases are more severe than others, and some teens require different forms of support than others. But it’s important never to give up and to embrace the fact that we all need help, one way or the other.

For more information about enrolling in a residential treatment center for teens, contact Visions Treatment Centers today.

Categories
Mental Health

January Mental Wellness Month: How Can You Celebrate?

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.

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Bipolar Disorder Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Mental Health Therapy

CBT For Bipolar Teens: What It Is And How It Helps

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has a long history as one of the most effective and successful talk therapy methods to be developed in modern psychotherapy. But what is it, and how does CBT for bipolar disorder in teenagers help?

Understanding the power of therapy is important; more than just a friendly conversation, an experienced therapist leads and guides a patient through a structured, long-term dialogue and goal-oriented mission plan, helping patients learn to identify and isolate the thoughts and behaviors that characterize their mental health problems and make improvements day by day.

For people with bipolar disorder, a chronic mood disorder that can drastically change a person’s mindset, personality, and behavior, therapy can be one of the most powerful tools to mediate symptoms and lead a fulfilling and normal life. This is especially important for teens – an early assessment and treatment, like CBT for bipolar disorder, can help teens develop the coping skills they need to continue to take control of their disorder for years to come and recognize when they need outside help and support.

What is Bipolar Disorder?

Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder, the same class of condition as severe or chronic depression. Indeed, depression is one of bipolar disorder’s most common symptoms, in addition to mania or hypomania.

Where depression is a debilitating and inescapable level of sadness and anhedonia (joylessness), mania is the opposite, albeit similarly debilitating mental state, where people experience restlessness and boundless energy in addition to dangerous feelings of grandeur, a loss of natural inhibition, and heightened irritability. It is not uncommon for symptoms of true mania to be severe enough to lead to hospitalization. Meanwhile, hypomania involves a lower intensity of symptoms than regular mania.

A case of bipolar disorder can be classified in multiple different ways.

  • Bipolar I involves at least one severe manic episode, with potential (but not necessary) depressive episodes.
  • Bipolar II describes both hypomanic and depressive episodes, but never just one or the other. A person who has experienced a severe manic episode has bipolar I, even if they experience hypomanic episodes from time to time.
  • Cyclothymia is described as a form of bipolar disorder that features milder symptoms than both bipolar I and II, with moderate symptoms of hypomania and depression. Cyclothymia is only diagnosed after at least two years of chronic mental health symptoms.
  • Other forms of bipolar disorder are either classified as a specified bipolar and related disorder or an unspecified bipolar and related disorder. The former describes symptoms that don’t quite match bipolar I, II, or cyclothymia, while the second is used to label patients who are likely struggling with bipolar disorder but have not been fully or thoroughly assessed yet.

Rapid Cycling in Bipolar Disorder

It should also be noted that, in only about one in ten cases, bipolar disorder can be rapid cycling. In cases of rapid cycling bipolar disorder, depressive and/or manic episodes occur more than four times a year. The average bipolar cycle takes months, contrary to popular belief. People who struggle with bipolar disorder are not constantly changing and shifting in their emotional state from extreme highs to extreme lows. Their mania comes and goes, as does their depression (if they get depressed).

Symptoms of bipolar disorder can take time to properly recognize and professionally assess. Mental health professionals must work with a patient to identify their symptoms and past episodes, and rule out potential conditions that may otherwise explain certain symptoms or might interfere with a diagnosis, such as:

One of the reasons it is important to correctly diagnose a teen with bipolar disorder is that bipolar disorder requires a different treatment process from any of the above mental health issues.

There are also specialized mood stabilizer medications that are typically only prescribed for patients with bipolar disorder. Medication can help moderate-severe symptoms. But medication alone is often insufficient to completely manage bipolar disorder. This is where therapies such as CBT for bipolar disorder and a one-on-one psychotherapy approach become important.

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a form of psychotherapy developed through the combination of two different forms of talk therapy, namely cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy. Both of these treatment methods were developed separately and for different mental health problems.

Cognitive therapy is characterized by a thought-based approach. Patients learn to identify and alter problematic thoughts through a combination of thought exercises, and by learning to separate the thoughts that trigger their negative moods from healthier thinking patterns. The idea, in many cases, is to take a patient away from blaming the past or themselves and to work on being more mindful of how their own thoughts can spiral them into different situations.

CBT for Bipolar in Teens

Behavioral therapy aims to address and alter the things we do. By focusing on actions, behavioral therapy can help teens learn better coping skills, stress management options and identify maladaptive behavior that contributes negatively to their mental health. A big part of behavioral therapy is learning to change these negative behaviors, and encourage positive action.

A combination of thought analysis and maladaptive behavioral pattern recognition can help teens with bipolar disorder through intensive one-on-one sessions, usually lasting an hour or longer.

Research shows that individuals undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy for bipolar disorder usually had fewer hospitalizations, fewer episodes, and lower rates of medication use while improving their psychosocial functioning, reducing the severity of their manic symptoms, and reducing depression.

Do I Need Treatment?

If you or a loved one are struggling with consistent and recurring depressive thoughts, as well as occasional symptoms of mania or manic thought – from completely uncharacteristic feats of performance at work or school after months of being in a slump or unusual energy levels and a change in personality – you may want to talk to a counselor or therapist about getting a professional assessment for your mental and physical health.

Bipolar disorder can be a lifelong condition, and though some people can cope with mild symptoms while undiagnosed, it can be a debilitating condition for millions of others.

Get the help you deserve today. Reach out to Visions Treatment Centers for more information.

Categories
Depression Mental Health Mood Disorders Therapy Treatment

Is Depression Medication for Teens Better Than Therapy?

Teen depression is one of the most common adolescent mental health issues in the world, second only to teen anxiety disorders. Depression is a serious and often debilitating mental health issue among teens and remains the most common cause of disability in the US. And for parents looking for different treatment options for their child, it’s not uncommon to wonder if depression medication for teens would be a better alternative than therapy or if it would be best to seek both.

Let’s talk about it.

When It’s More Than Sadness

More than just sadness, depression is overwhelming fatigue, unexplained aches, total loss of joy, increased pain sensitivity, lack of ability to generate or feel motivation, and unknown flare-ups in symptoms.

Many teens who struggle with depression struggle academically, have a hard time developing to their full potential and go through a much tougher road in life. Thankfully, depression is treatable. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all treatment plan that works.

How Is Depression Treated?

The first line treatment for any teen or adult with major depressive disorder, the most common mood disorder and most common form of depression is a combination of psychotherapy and selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

SSRIs are some of the most recent antidepressants in a long line of different drug families, and they are some of the most well-researched psychiatric drugs in the world. But they are not a miracle cure for depression, and they often don’t work too well just on their own.

Psychotherapy is one-on-one talk therapy between a trained mental health professional and a patient. In the case of depression, the most commonly used therapeutic method is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), a type of talk therapy developed in the 1970s and 1980s by combining the individual successes of cognitive therapy (focused on patient thoughts and thinking patterns) and behavioral therapy (focused on habits, actions, and controlling one’s responses in life).

When combined, modern SSRIs and talk therapy represent the most successful treatment plan for depressed patients. But the success rate is never 100 percent. Furthermore, it can take time for both therapy and the medication to work.

What Are Antidepressants?

There are half a dozen different subtypes of SSRI and well over a dozen branded and generic SSRI drugs. Each of these compounds reacts in different patients differently, with varied potential side effects and side effect severity. Some people react the least to citalopram, while others are better off on sertraline.

When a patient takes a recommended SSRI, it can take multiple weeks for the drug to begin taking effect. If side effects show up and they inhibit a patient’s life, it can take several more weeks for the drug to be completely flushed out before a different compound is used.

SSRIs are not addictive nor particularly dangerous. The side effects can be frustrating – such as weight gain, loss of sex drive, and drowsiness – but SSRIs are very, very rarely associated with serious risks, such as rare cases of increased suicidality or heart arrhythmia. Nevertheless, it can take a few different tries until a patient finds a drug that works best for them.

If no SSRIs work well, a patient may consider different, older classes of antidepressants, such as SNRIs, tricyclic antidepressants, MAOIs, and atypical antidepressants. While these may work, they are usually associated with a higher risk of side effects.

Therapy for Depression

Talk therapy is not a drug and does not have conventional side effects. But as far as treatment methods go, there is no guarantee that a patient will respond well to individual therapy either. Some teens are very receptive, while others have a much harder time responding or opening up in therapy. Some teens do better in a group setting, while others prefer solely one-on-one therapy sessions. While CBT is the premier therapeutic treatment method, there are other valid forms of talk therapy for depression, including dialectic behavioral therapy, behavioral activation therapy, and interpersonal psychotherapy.

Even among first-line treatments – like antidepressants and therapy – it’s hard to say which is better. Furthermore, it’s hard to say which is best for your teen. SSRIs and CBT are the most studied treatment methods, but that does not mean you or your teen won’t respond better to older drugs and a completely different therapy plan.

Are Antidepressants Better Than Placebo?

The research on antidepressants can be confusing. There are studies supporting the continued use of antidepressants in the treatment of depression. There are also conflicting review papers that find that antidepressants match placebo at best and that serotonin availability may not be a factor in depressive symptoms.

One particularly polarizing review involved a thorough analysis of the evidence behind the serotonin theory of depression, one of the cornerstones of antidepressant use. It found that there is no consistent evidence nor support for the hypothesis that depression is caused by lowered serotonin activity based on current research.

Furthermore, the criteria for inclusion in a phase III trial for an antidepressant do not necessarily reflect the reality of the majority of people who are prescribed antidepressants. Many people who take antidepressants would not actually be included in a clinical trial for the drug they are taking.

The rabbit hole of research on the efficacy of depression treatments goes deep. Here are some interesting things research can tell us:

  • Mindset matters a lot. A patient’s receptiveness to both therapy and antidepressant drugs can be highly indicative of their success.
  • Antidepressants need more research. The link between depression and serotonin availability is not clear, and what we do know tells us that medication on its own is not often a useful therapeutic tool.
  • Patients differ wildly. Depression is a condition with many comorbid conditions, all of which can modify and exacerbate depressive symptoms. Teens with depression often also struggle with anxiety, with chronic health issues like asthma and irritable bowel syndrome, or may have a history of drug use. Treatment plans must be highly individualized to help patients.

Depression Medication for Teens or Therapy: Which is Best?

Based on what we currently know, the best available answer is both, although therapy may be more important than medication.

While the serotonin theory of depression may not hold up in the long term, antidepressants seem to work – even if their mechanism of action is not completely understood. What we can agree on is that medication use must occur alongside therapy for the best effect.

Furthermore, not all teens will respond effectively to medication and therapy. Some teens need a different treatment approach or need a treatment plan that takes other factors into consideration, including comorbid mental and physical health conditions.

What About Treatment-Resistant Depression Options?

There are other treatments for depression than just antidepressants and therapy. However, the jury is often still out on these treatments. They include ketamine (a controversial dissociative anesthetic drug), electroconvulsive therapy, and transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Despite being one of the most common mental health conditions on the planet, depression is not completely understood. In any given case, careful consideration of all factors is needed, and treatment must be individualized. More importantly, therapy nearly always plays an important role in depression treatment.

Get Depression Treatment for Teens

Are you or your teen struggling with depression? Reach out to Visions Treatment Center to explore depression treatment for teens today.

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Mental Health Wellness

What Triggers Mental Health Setbacks? (And How to Prevent Them)

You have been here before. You can feel it. You’ve felt the same kind of creeping feeling in the past. In some cases, people describe it as an enveloping feeling, like cold molasses turning your arms and legs to lead. What you may be experiencing is a flare-up or a series of mental health setbacks resulting from a mental health disorder.

Mental Health Setbacks Are Part of the Process

Sometimes, it’s the tightening chest or the shallow breath. And other times, it’s intrusive and unwanted thoughts and memories or the feeling of a cold sweat and a nervous reaction at the sight of something you thought you had gotten used to. Or it’s that intense, unbelievable, inescapable craving.

Mental health setbacks, or flare-ups, are an unfortunate and nearly inescapable fact of struggling with a mental health issue. Whether you struggle with psychosis, depression, anxiety, addiction, trauma, or other facets of mental illness, it’s important to understand that treatment sadly isn’t as easy as a one-and-done, and in many cases, the art lies in learning to cope and lead a good life with – or despite – your diagnosis.

You’re not alone, and you’re not weak, nor are you a failure. You certainly are not getting worse, and having a mental health setback isn’t really a “setback.”

Let’s talk about it.

Life is a Rollercoaster, and Perspective Matters

Mental health is a complicated and abstract concept. It’s hard to set a baseline for human emotion, behavior, and thinking. While we constantly seek to improve the accuracy of the consensus on what should be defined as the boundary between pathological and not pathological, everyone has ups and downs.

The human condition, even while “normal,” includes a great breadth of emotions that span from nonsensically and inexplicably tragic to unfathomably furious and incongruent with reality. You don’t have to be “ill” to seek help, and you don’t have to struggle with your mental health to be hurting.

But as it stands, some people suffer differently and more deeply than others. Mental health issues like depression are not like ordinary sadness or grief. Anxiety is more than a moment of irrational fear. And psychosis is more troubling than feelings of grandeur or fantasy.

For people with diagnosed mental health issues, life’s ups and downs can hit harder and be more difficult to cope with. But that does not necessarily mean that you are failing to deal with your mental health or that treating conditions like depression and anxiety is a Sisyphean task, to begin with. It’s important to remember, throughout it all, that you are always working on getting better – and when things aren’t better, it’s still all part of the process.

Why Are You Experiencing a Flare-Up?

Mental health conditions can flare up in symptoms in response to stress. The mind works a lot like the body in this regard. We know that risk factors that correlate with greater life stress also tend to correlate with higher rates of perceived mental health problems – people who lead harsher, tougher lives tend to struggle more with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and trauma, whether it’s through poverty, war, personal anguish, natural disasters, or other factors.

In much the same way, these stressors can also cause people who are managing their mental health to experience stronger, worse symptoms. It’s normal to struggle more deeply with your symptoms of anxiety around the holidays when the financial strain of the holiday season hits. It’s normal to have a harder time coping with depression when school ramps up around the midterms.

Sometimes There Are No Reasons

Mental health setbacks or flare-ups can occur for any reason, but also no discernable reasons at all. This is one of the most frustrating realities of living with a mental health problem, especially in the early years. Your symptoms will often respond negatively to stress. However, they might also get worse out of the blue, or at least with no discernable stressors.

Stressors and random factors are uncontrollable and part of life. You cannot blame yourself for these “setbacks,” no matter how guilty you feel. It’s infuriating to find control after struggling for years, only to experience a slump and feel like you’ve rolled down a hill you spent months climbing.

But it’s also important to note that you haven’t rolled nearly as far as you might think you did.

If you’ve spent time in treatment, and learned more about how your symptoms affect you and how to cope, then you will have a leg up on your condition as you seek therapy again. You’ll have the experience that comes with treatment and a better understanding of your own mental health.

You will become better at reading the signs of an oncoming flare-up and recognizing your specific triggers. Over time, the factors behind your symptoms will seem less and less random as you build up your resilience against stress and learn ways that you can personally affect your mental health positively and protect it against future flare-ups.

Preventing a Mental Health Setback

Preventing mental health setbacks can be difficult, but there are things you can do to minimize your symptoms and stressors and catch the signs of an oncoming flare-up before it gets worse, such as:

Dealing With a Relapse

Relapses are a “flare-up” of addiction symptoms. But in the same way, it’s important to turn every relapse into an opportunity – an opportunity to identify unique triggers, understand the circumstances around your relapse, and realize what changes you need to make.

It can be excruciatingly difficult to get back on the wagon after an addiction setback. But that is where support becomes critical – whether from friends and relatives or from your sober community members and support group. No one who has been there will judge you for your misstep. For many people – most, even – it’s part of the process.

What’s important is that you keep help close at hand, always. Talk to your close friends and family members about recognizing symptoms and staging an intervention whenever necessary. Eliminate and cope with the stressors and triggers around you. Continue to go to therapy even when you feel better. And don’t ignore the signs when you don’t feel better anymore.

Get Teen Mental Health Treatment at Visions

If you or your teen is struggling with overcoming a mental health disorder, call us today at Visions Treatment Centers. We are here to help.

Categories
Depression Mental Health Mood Disorders

Overcoming Seasonal Affective Disorder in Teens this Season

Holiday stress is a common phenomenon, even among teens. But there’s a stark difference between feeling melancholy over the winter break and developing a cycle of depression around the time snow starts falling. This feeling may be more than just being a little down and could be the result of seasonal affective disorder in teens.

While we don’t fully understand how and why some people are susceptible to mood disorder symptoms during the winter months (and, in some cases, over the summer holidays), we do know that seasonal affective disorder in teens is a very real and underdiagnosed mental health problem.

Here is what you should know.

What is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)?

Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, is a mood disorder characterized by symptoms tied to a change in season, usually either the peak of summer or the peak of winter.

Most people recognize SAD as the “winter blues,” but it is a little more serious than that – while holiday stress is common, only an estimated 10 million Americans are diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder each year, and there are multiple strict prerequisites for a professional diagnosis.

In other words, even if you tend to feel a little more stressed over the holidays, it might not necessarily be SAD – especially if there are other conflating factors or comorbid conditions that might explain your symptoms.

Treatments for SAD differ from case to case but are unique when compared to other mood disorders. For example, teens who develop SAD may be prescribed light therapy, a special type of therapy involving simulated sunlight. While seasonal affective disorder is its own condition, it shares many similarities with other mood disorders, such as major depressive disorder, cyclothymia, and bipolar disorder.

Furthermore, teens with a history of comorbid conditions are much more likely to struggle with seasonal affective disorder, especially conditions like:

Because seasonal affective disorder usually happens at the peak of winter, many researchers believe that sunlight – or the lack thereof – plays a primary role in the development of this mental health condition. However, that doesn’t mean your teen’s symptoms will improve with light therapy alone.

What Does Seasonal Affective Disorder in Teens Look Like?

The symptoms of seasonal affective disorder in teens will usually be like those of major depressive disorder. Major depressive disorder is one of the most common mental health problems in the world and the most well-known mood disorder. Signs and symptoms can include:

  • Feelings of hopelessness
  • Feelings of guilt
  • Mental and physical fatigue
  • Unexplained aches and pains (especially stomach pain) and occasional nausea
  • Lack of joy (anhedonia)
  • Loss of interest in old hobbies
  • Social withdrawal and isolation
  • Low mood/sadness as the new “baseline” for normal emotions
  • Lowered pain threshold, more likely to experience chronic pains
  • Emotional outbursts and increased irritability/agitation
  • Rapid weight gain or rapid weight loss
  • Loss of focus and lowered concentration
  • Signs of self-harm or suicidal ideation
  • Frequently discussing/fantasizing about death or disappearing
  • And more

A diagnosis of seasonal affective disorder in teens requires a thorough psychological assessment. Any teen with depressive symptoms over the course of a seasonal shift may be a candidate for seasonal affective disorder, but to be more specific, a diagnosis is usually only met when:

  • A teen meets most of the criteria for major depressive disorder.
  • A teen’s depressive symptoms occur almost exclusively during specific seasons, such as only feeling depressed or showing signs of major depression in the summer or the winter.
  • A teen’s seasonal shift in mood has been occurring for at least two years in a row. Symptoms of SAD can occur sporadically, meaning they become worse in some years or don’t flare up at all in some years. Therefore, the validity of this specific point might depend on a teen’s mental health history and individual circumstances.
  • A teen’s depressive episodes must be more severe or frequent during the shift in seasons in order to be distinguished as seasonal affective disorder. This is important if a teen has already experienced other mood disorders or has had a history of mental health problems.

Therapy and Other Treatment Options

Seasonal affective disorder is thought to be at least somewhat related to the body’s ability to regulate mood through the release of certain neurotransmitters or brain chemicals like serotonin. The release of serotonin may be linked to the body’s circadian rhythm and may be dependent on a healthy supply of sunlight.

Long-term sunlight deprivation, especially in teens with rigid school schedules (where they might wake up and be in school before the sun has risen and be back on their way home after sunset), can affect a teen’s hormone and neurotransmitter production and may affect their mood and mentality as a result.

Outside of any potential neurochemical origins, seasonal affective disorder in teens might also be linked to an increase in holiday-related stressors, both over the winter and summer months. The weather alone can be a factor – it being consistently too warm or too cold – as are elements such as family stress related to the holidays, financial stressors, or even an increase in rates of domestic violence towards the end of the year.

Addressing seasonal affective disorder in teens means figuring out what any individual teen’s circumstances are. There are no quick fixes or effective cookie-cutter cures – a treatment plan must take a teen’s living situation, concurrent physical and mental health issues, as well as family history into consideration. Here are a few different modalities and common treatments.

  • Light Therapy – For teens with winter-based seasonal affective disorder, a doctor may prescribe a special light box for frequent light therapy. 
  • Medication – Depending on the severity of the condition and comorbid conditions, a teen with seasonal affective disorder may be prescribed antidepressants or other psychiatric medication.
  • Talk Therapy – Cognitive-behavioral therapy is the golden standard for depressive psychotherapy and can also help reduce symptoms of seasonal affective disorder.
  • Sleep Hygiene – Sleep habits can break down over the peak winter or summer months, which can affect mood and mental health. Better sleep hygiene can improve both mental and emotional functioning.

Can Seasonal Affective Disorder Be Prevented?

If a teen’s symptoms tend to ramp up towards the winter months (or the summer months), then a professional mental health treatment plan can be developed to plan ahead accordingly and start addressing the issue before it flares back up.

In some cases, this can mean starting treatment even before the depression usually starts to come back. This can help some teens avoid an episode of seasonal affective disorder altogether.

For more information about depression or seasonal affective disorder, contact Visions Treatment Centers.

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