Category: Mental Health

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Mental Health

My Teen Has a Mental Health Illness: Now What?

The number of young people diagnosed with mental illness has been on the rise as we continue to expand our understanding of how these conditions work, and how best to diagnose and treat them. More than one-third of high schoolers struggle with persistent sadness or signs of depression, a 40 percent uptick from 2009.

While our ability to recognize and diagnose mental health issues has improved, there are other reasons why teens nowadays are more anxious and depressed than ever. Environmental conditions, piling crises, and historical events have all contributed to growing neuroses among adolescents. If your teen has been diagnosed with anxiety or depression, it is sufficient to say they are not alone. And neither are you. 

This is not the end – far from it, in fact. Here’s what you should know. 

Talk To a Professional

First things first – mental health issues should be treated like any other long-term, at times chronic medical condition. This means you listen to the advice of medical professionals and consult them as often as possible. It can be difficult and confusing to try and communicate with someone who is anxious or depressed. Their behavior, their thinking, and the things they say sometimes make little sense. Everything you try to do to make it better seems to backfire. Kind words seem to sting them like insults. 

It’s important to understand that some mental health conditions can make your mind operate on a different level and change the logic behind your thinking. Your teens may be stuck in a cycle they can’t escape alone. Helping them work with a therapist can be an excellent first start – but you need to work with one, too. Talk to them about your teen, and about how you’ve been feeling. Get a better understanding of what your teen is going through, and what you should do to help. 

It’s Not Your Fault (And It’s Not Theirs)

It can be particularly hard to hear this, but it isn’t always someone’s fault. It is essential to realize that, in most cases, no one can be blamed for a mental health issue. And even when there is someone to blame – a perpetrator of abuse or the cause of your teen’s trauma – that anger and hatred might not necessarily bring any amount of healing or closure. 

It doesn’t help your teen if you get angry on their behalf. On the other hand, it’s natural to be upset – but remember that your priorities should lie with what’s best for your teen and not what feels most satisfying at the moment. 

Learn More About Supporting Them

Education is paramount. It’s one thing to know your teen is depressed, but it is another to discover that it is a form of seasonal depression and that specific triggers and factors – including a change towards wintertime, holiday preparations, and end-of-the-year stressors – are significant contributors to their distress. 

Talk to your teen and their counselor or therapist about how they’re doing, what they’re feeling, and how their condition might continue to affect them at home and throughout the day. Some teens may experience dual diagnosis disorders, which combine one or more disorders, such as substance abuse disorder, depression, and more.

Take Care of Yourself

Your own mental well-being is important, too. Not only should you take care of yourself for your own sake, but you need to do it for your teen. If your mental and physical health begins to deteriorate due to your dedication to your teen’s treatment, that can quickly backfire and affect them, too. 

Guilt is a powerful emotion and a common one for a lot of teens who discover that they have a mental health condition. No one wants to feel like a burden. Self-care can come in many different shapes – whether reading some of your comfort books more often, taking the dog out alone for some meditative time, keeping a private journal, or finding the time to exercise after work. Put aside enough time and resources for your own wellbeing. 

It Does Get Better

One of the more difficult parts about supporting someone in treatment or being part of a long-term support network for a loved one is the fatigue. While sometimes, mental health problems get better and “go away,” they’re not something we can control or cure. 

We can manage symptoms, improve mood and wellbeing, and adopt healthier coping mechanisms. Some teens become more successful at independently managing their mental health than others. Some just become good at hiding their symptoms for the sake of their loved ones, so they can stop worrying. But in many cases, it never completely goes away. 

But that doesn’t mean it’s always bad. It gets better – especially when things are at their worst. That’s when you can always be sure that they get better again. Life with mental illness is full of ups and downs. 

You’re More Important Than You Think

Once you start bringing your teen to different experts and schedule meetings with therapists and psychiatrists, the whole process can begin to feel overwhelming – and you begin to feel that there’s very little you can do to help them feel better. 

But don’t let that kind of thinking fool you. Therapy can go a long way, but a teen’s home environment, the behavior of their primary role models (you), and parental guidance play immense roles as protective factors against worsening symptoms and recovery relapse. No matter what happens, you will continue to be a cornerstone for their mental health and wellbeing, and a significant part of their health journey may involve you learning how to best support them. 

By creating a solid support network at home, welcoming your teen for who they are, learning more about how their condition works, and being patient and communicating with your teen’s therapists, you can continue to have a positive everyday impact on your teen’s emotional and psychological wellbeing, even if it doesn’t feel that way on a day-to-day basis. 

There are constant ups and downs when tackling mental illness, and it’s a rollercoaster struggle. Some weeks feel full of hope as you stride towards real actionable change in your teen’s behavior. Other weeks feel bleak. It’s important not to give up or let the bad weeks wear you down too much. Change in mental health occurs gradually, requiring constant reminders to manage and make peace with stress and focus on healthy coping skills. 

Categories
Mental Health PTSD Stress Trauma

Can Teens Have PTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often associated with combat veterans and victims of sexual assault. It is a widespread condition with a spectrum of symptoms brought on by any form of trauma at any age. So, what about teens? Can teens have PTSD too?

Nearly 7 percent of adults experience PTSD at some point in their lives, and women experience PTSD more regularly each year (5.2 percent) than men (1.8 percent). However, among teens alone, about 5 percent experience PTSD any given year (8 percent among girls, 2.3 percent among boys). Children can experience PTSD as well, usually in response to abuse or the loss of a parent. PTSD symptoms appear a little different in children and teens than they do in adults.

Recognizing the signs of PTSD can help parents and friends get their loved ones the care they need and minimize the chances of long-term recurring mental health problems, such as high levels of stress and anxiety, recurring depressive thoughts, and even suicidal ideation.

What is PTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a type of stress disorder or anxiety disorder caused by trauma. Whereas other anxiety disorders may also figure in a traumatic or harrowing experience as part of its causes, PTSD can usually be directly attributed to a single event or series of events, such as a natural disaster, death of a loved one, or habitual family abuse. PTSD is triggered by a traumatic event but does have genetic causes. Some people are more likely to develop PTSD symptoms in response to trauma than others.

PTSD Symptoms in Teens and Children

In addition to being a mental health issue, PTSD has physical symptoms. The brain changes in response to trauma, sometimes being “locked” into a state of hypervigilance or awareness. Children, teens, and adults with PTSD have marked differences in the way their brain processes startling stimuli. As a result, people with PTSD are more prone to entering fight-or-flight, are more easily startled, and may be much more irritable and on-edge than others.

PTSD has several characteristic symptoms that can be categorized as either remembering/re-experiencing, avoidance, unwanted thoughts, or physical and emotional changes, such as heightened anxiety, difficulty controlling emotions, recurring depressive episodes, insomnia, jitters, nervousness, restlessness, and an uncontrollable startle reflex.

Can Teens Have PTSD? How Does it Differ from Adults?

Post-traumatic stress disorder is not a simple condition, and symptoms can vary depending on the nature of the trauma, the severity of the condition itself, and the age of the person. Children and teens will usually experience PTSD differently than adults.

In general, teens are more prone to anger and irritability after a traumatic experience. Teens with PTSD have a harder time with emotional regulation and will be more emotionally unstable as a result of their condition. They are more likely to turn towards violent actions against themselves or others following a traumatic experience and more likely to experience outbursts of anger, either against themselves or others. Teens are also likely to “retaliate” to abuse by engaging in self-harm, high-risk behavior, sexual behavior, or substance use.

Children and PTSD

Aside from greater emotionality and irritability, symptoms between teens and adults are mostly the same. Children, on the other hand, are more likely to incorporate elements of their trauma into play as part of their “flashbacks” or re-experiencing symptoms. A child under the age of six may re-experience their trauma through roleplaying or reenactments with toys. They are also more prone to nightmares and other frightening dreams that incorporate elements of their traumatic experience.

Time-Skewing and Omen Formation

Two other unique elements in pre-adolescent PTSD are time-skewing and omen formation. In other words, children are more likely to mess up the sequence of events in which their trauma took place, among other memory problems. They will have a harder time remembering exactly in what order things happened to them, perhaps due to the way their brain prioritizes the severity of the event over its chronological order.

Omen formation refers to the way children will attempt to understand what happened to them through pattern recognition. They may pick random signs that occurred prior to the trauma as predictive factors for a repeated event. In this way, they will try to stay alert for anything that might signal another traumatic experience, even if it had nothing to do with their abuse or trauma.

As with older teens and adults, children experience cognitive trouble and memory problems because of untreated trauma. They may do worse in school, and symptoms can continue for years after the event.

PTSD vs. Other Anxiety Disorders

PTSD can be classified as an anxiety disorder because its characteristic symptoms center around a nervous response to a traumatic event, and this can reinforce existing feelings of insecurity and anxiousness or create new ones.

Teens and adults with PTSD are also more prone to social and generalized anxiety (growing feelings of worry, despite no direct cause), panic attacks, and depressive symptoms, including overwhelming feelings of guilt and self-blame, and resulting episodes of self-harm or suicidal ideation.

However, most other anxiety disorders are not directly linked to a single event or traumatic cause. Anxiety disorders like social anxiety disorder or generalized anxiety usually develop independently of any event, with the most common age of onset being adolescence.

How is PTSD in Teens Treated?

Some medications can help teens with PTSD manage stress symptoms and depressive symptoms, such as antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication, but the bulk of a teen’s treatment relies on therapeutic methods, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).

These therapies approach PTSD in different ways but ultimately circle back to helping teens work through their trauma, overcome, and deconstruct misattributed feelings of guilt or shame, and develop healthy coping skills to manage future stressors and lead a symptom-free life.

Specialized treatment may be needed in cases where PTSD is coupled with another diagnosis, such as substance use disorder or major depressive disorder. Co-occurring mental health conditions can complicate treatment and require an approach that addresses multiple issues concurrently through a lens of holistic mental care.

Finding Treatment for PTSD in Teens

It’s important to treat and address PTSD in teens to prevent other long-term mental health issues. If you suspect your teen of experiencing PTSD, contact us today.

Visions Treatment Centers is focused on treating teen mental health needs using specialty clinic modalities by licensed clinical psychologists. We also offer teen residential treatment programs and much more.

Categories
Mental Health Personality Disorder

Schizoid and Schizotypal: The Difference

We all need support, but our teens may need it most of all. Growing into adulthood comes with its own set of trials, and dealing with a diagnosis of a mental health issue–for example, schizoid and schizotypal–on top of it can overwhelm most teens.

But it’s not always enough to just want the best for our children. Understanding your teen’s mental health is key to learning how to help them, and that can mean differentiating between their condition and countless other mental health issues.

If your teen was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, or schizophrenia, then understanding how each one is radically different from the others can give you a clearer context on not just how your teen is doing, but how different mental health issues are categorized, how they connect to one another, and what you should look out for in the long-term.

What is a Personality Disorder?

Personality disorders are a set of ten distinct diagnoses centered around odd or disordered behavior and thinking in a teen or adult. A personality disorder is different from another mental health disorder in that individuals with personality disorders may be developing a lifelong set of symptoms related to their very being, meaning long-term treatment and stress management is crucial.

Like any other mental health issue, however, it is important not to misattribute personality disorders to a person’s moral fiber or being. Teens with personality disorders are not “bad.” With support, professional treatment, and long-term coping skills, they can lead a healthy and thriving life in spite of their diagnosis. But early treatment is important.

Personality disorders develop through a combination of internal and external factors. That means genetic predisposition plays one role, but the environment is also a contributing factor. Chronic stressors, traumatic experiences, and strange life circumstances can lead to a personality disorder in adolescence and beyond.

These conditions must cause distress to be considered a disorder. Not everyone with an abrasive or unliked personality requires professional treatment. Teens who are distinctly suffering because of their own thoughts and behavior may be diagnosed with a personality disorder.

Among the ten types, there are three categories each type fits into. These are called the A, B, and C clusters, also known as the eccentric cluster, the dramatic cluster, and the anxious cluster, respectively.

Schizoid and schizotypal personality disorders are often mistaken for one another but are two completely separate and distinct personality disorders with their very own set of symptoms. That being said, both fall under cluster A, or the eccentric cluster.

What is Schizoid Personality Disorder?

A schizoid personality disorder is characterized by intense introversion and social isolation. A teen diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder will feel distant, almost emotionless, or robotic and will struggle or avoid forming social relationships of their own. They seem uninterested in praise or criticism.

The root of the confusion comes from the prefix schizo—originally a Greek root word, it means schism, or a split. In the context of a schizoid personality disorder, the patient is split from other people, emotionally distant, and socially isolated, often by their own choice. Getting through to a teen with schizoid personality disorder can be difficult.

What is Schizotypal Personality Disorder?

Whereas a schizoid personality disorder is characterized by being split from people in general, a schizotypal personality disorder is more closely linked to the meaning we generally attribute to the term, which is being split from reality. Schizotypal personality disorders are characterized by so-called “odd thinking,” which includes strange magical or superstitious beliefs, complex and individual belief systems, peculiar speech patterns, and a very strong social anxiety and fear of close relationships.

The main difference between a teen with schizoid personality disorder and a teen with schizotypal personality disorder is that the former will not necessarily show signs of an unconventional relationship with reality, and their reluctance to form bonds with others is centered on disinterest rather than anxiety, while the latter may appear distant to others out of a poor experience with friends or family, while sharing a strange or eccentric understanding of the world.

Personality Disorders vs. Schizophrenia

Schizotypal personality disorder is often compared to schizophrenia due to its eccentric or unrealistic worldview and characteristic superstitious thoughts. But teens and adults with schizotypal personality disorder are not experiencing delusions or psychotic (break-from-reality) episodes.

The core of a schizotypal personality disorder is a lack of social skills and the way that social anxiety interacts with their mood and memory. In addition to strange beliefs, schizotypal teens may also have memory problems and depressive thoughts.

Their eccentric beliefs may instead be a defense mechanism for their social anxiety, a sort of shield to create a more fantastical explanation for why they wish to be apart from others. While they may truly believe the things they say, teens with schizotypal personality disorder are not struggling with hallucinations or psychotic breaks.

Meanwhile, a teen with schizophrenia may struggle to differentiate between what is really going on around them and what has happened in their head. They may experience audiovisual hallucinations or delusional thinking. Seeing things that aren’t there, hearing things that aren’t there, and thinking things are a certain way (even if they aren’t) are hallmarks of schizophrenia.

The main link between the two conditions is a genetic one. People with schizotypal personality disorder are more likely to have a relative with schizophrenia, and vice versa. Yet, despite the biological link, the two conditions are separate and treated differently.

The Importance of a Professional Diagnosis

Regardless of whether your teen is struggling with a schizotypal personality disorder, a schizoid personality disorder, or schizophrenia, getting the right and appropriate form of help is crucial.

Every teen requires a unique approach, especially in the case of serious mental health symptoms like hallucination and psychosis. Getting your teen the best possible help as early as you can is key to helping them manage their symptoms and lead a more comfortable life. If you believe your teen or loved one is struggling with symptoms of teen depression, teenage anxiety, social isolation, or psychosis, then convincing them to see a professional together is important.

Take your time and walk them through the idea slowly. They need to know that you’re trying to help them put an ease to their mind and stop the distress. Mental health treatment isn’t about eliminating what makes your teen unique or molding them into someone they aren’t. It’s about helping them find their place in the world and minimize the discomfort their condition might be causing, with your help and the support of their other friends and loved ones.

Get Schizoid and Schizotypal Treatment at Visions

If your teen is struggling with schizoid or schizotypal personality disorder, get help today. At Visions Treatment Centers, we can provide the proper tools, resources, and therapeutic modalities to treat these conditions.

For more information, visit us online or give us a call.

Categories
Communication Mental Health Parenting

5 Ways to Scope Out Your Teens Mental Health Status

Maybe they’re not eating as much as they used to. Maybe the enthusiasm in their voice has disappeared. Or maybe, they just seem different, and it’s got you a little bit worried. But you’re not sure how to approach the topic, or even how to scope out your teen’s mental health status. Asking them about it, you get little more than a grunt, a deflection, or an unconvincing “I’m fine.” Are they? You can’t tell.

Scoping out a teen’s thoughts and emotions isn’t easy. While we’ve all been teens at some point, it’s often pretty difficult to put yourself in the shoes of your child. Teens, after all, think a bit differently than adults tend to.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t probe them the right way. Even if your teen really is fine, it’s still a good idea to ask them about their mental health from time to time. But how?

Ask the Right Questions

Open-ended questions get you unsatisfying answers. The right questions can get you a little closer to the truth. If you want to figure out how your teen is doing, you need to evoke the kind of responses that give you better context clues as to how they feel.

It’s not enough to use a lead-in sentence. Saying: “I’ve noticed you haven’t been eating well lately, are you okay?” might net you an “I’m fine” or an irritated “I’m just not hungry.” Instead of “are you okay?”, ask: “What’s bothering you? You seem distracted, and your head’s been all over the place lately.” If your teen is acting much more scatterbrained than usual, it’s something they probably can’t deny. Alternatively, try:

  • “When was the last time you spent some time with your girl/boyfriend?”
  • “When was the last time you hung out with your friends?”
  • “Did you have a bad day? Wanna talk about it? Tell me what happened.”

It’s Not Always About Solutions

If and when your teen does start talking about the way they feel, don’t take it as an open invitation to offer nothing but solutions.

Sometimes, a helpful solution can be just what the doctor ordered. A nice piece of advice forged by insightful experiences. But a canned response, or a clichéd statement, is more likely to push your teen away than get them to continue talking to you.

If your teen is feeling anxious about something, it’s not exactly helpful to tell them to take it easy or that they’ll be fine. They want you to hear them, to validate how they’re feeling, to share your own experiences of being scared, of being anxious, and of overcoming that feeling.

Take them seriously. Listen to what they have to say. Don’t try to offer up a solution right away, especially if you don’t know exactly how your teen is feeling.

Notice the Red Flags

The common stereotype is that teens are unruly and emotional, so it’s hard to differentiate between a normal mood swing and a mental health issue. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Despite a few irrationalities, teen behavior can and does make sense – and there are always red flags that help parents indicate something is seriously wrong. A few things to keep an eye out for include:

  • A sudden and dramatic change in weight. Weight loss or weight gain is normal, but a drastic weight change may sometimes indicate a physical, mental, or eating disorder problem.
  • Physical signs of excessive stress. Frequent or chronic headaches and stomach aches, unexplained pains (i.e., no indication of why pain is being felt), signs of hairpulling, nail-biting, or nervous tics.
  • Signs of self-harm include hiding scars or cuts, self-starvation, or excessive exercise (to the point of chronic injury or deteriorating health).
  • Signs of drug use include empty pill bottles, fake prescriptions, other people’s medication, hidden alcohol bottles, or drug paraphernalia.
  • Excessive and sudden anger issues/irritability, including getting physical or frequent shouting. Unusual temperament changes, almost like a different personality.
  • And more.

Keep In Touch with Their Friends

It’s always a good idea to know who your teen hangs out with, not just because it gives you a better idea of what they’re up to, but because it can help you keep in touch with your teen, give you better context for what’s happening to them or how they’re feeling, and gives you people to ask when things don’t see to be going well for your teen.

If your teen won’t tell you what’s going on, try to ask their friends.

Reassure Your Teen

Some teens try and hide their problems from their parents for multiple reasons – but the most common ones include wanting to keep their parents from worrying and avoiding a parent’s judgment.

If you’re busy a lot of the time, then your teen might feel like bringing this up with you is just adding to your plate – especially if you’ve been having a hard time keeping up with them lately, neglecting to ask them how they’re doing, or shutting them down when they were about to tell you about their day.

Prioritize Good Communication

Prioritizing healthy communication with your teen is important, especially as they complete their transition into adulthood. Teens are increasingly independent individuals and continuously seek to define themselves while seeking distance from their parents. Giving them further reasons to push away can alienate you from your children and make it harder for you to reconnect and keep connected over time.

On the other hand, not all homes are safe spaces, and sometimes, your teen might not feel comfortable talking about how they really feel. Perhaps it’s because of something you’ve said in the past, an unfortunate association between their symptoms and someone you don’t like, or a parenting style that has eroded the trust between you.

Establishing a safe space for your teen at home is important to help them not just talk more freely about how they feel but also make progress in their treatment. Shaming your teen or making them feel even worse about how they think or what they’re doing will only send them down a deeper spiral.

Affirming Unconditional Love

Regardless of the context for why your teen might not be talking about how they’re feeling, reassurance is important, affirming your teen’s identity and worth as a person with or without their symptoms, and affirming your unconditional love for them, and the trust you want to foster between each other.

Make sure your teen knows that they can count on you and should always count on you to be in your corner. Help them come to terms with who they are in a positive sense, so they can tackle their mental health in earnest and separate themselves from their condition.

Don’t Forget Your Own Mental Health Status

Parents want the best for their children. But it’s important not to neglect your own needs in the process. You cannot offer effective support to your loved ones without doing the work to maintain your mental health status as well.

That’s a lot to ask. But you’re not in it alone. Just as you should support your teen, find others who can help support you. Friends. Family. Partners. People you can lean on in tough times, people you can talk to, people to open up to.

Stress management and adequate coping skills matter too. That means utilizing constructive coping skills – exercise rather than drinking, for example.

Taking care of yourself both mentally and physically can have a direct and positive impact on your teen, as well. While we like to think that our influence as a parent will wane strongly with each passing day after a teen turns sixteen, parents continue to be the most important role model for a teen’s behavior until well into adulthood. Children tend to continue to mirror their parents, even if they don’t want to. Improving the way you take care of yourself can help your teen take better care of themselves, too.

Get Help at Visions Treatment Centers

If your teen is struggling with a mental health issue, contact us today. For more information, visit us at Visions Treatment Centers. We offer professional help for teen mental health conditions via residential treatment and a range of modalities, using specialized treatment plans.

Don’t wait. Reach out now for an evaluation and testing.

Categories
Feelings Mental Health Self-Care Wellness

Adopting Positive Thoughts for a Healthy Mind

The power of positive thinking and positive thoughts is more than a mere joke. The way we approach life and our mindset during any given set of circumstances can contribute to positive outcomes. They also play a great role in our perception of life. In other words, convincing yourself of a positive interpretation of your current day-to-day circumstances can both help you be happier and lead to better, more positive outcomes.

Is it any different from lying to yourself? Yes, it is. Positive thoughts are not about trying to make up a different reality from the one you currently occupy, but rather, they are meant to help spurn us towards investing in constructive coping skills, becoming more adept at dealing with our surroundings, and building a greater level of resilience against stressors.

Positive thoughts are not about dissociating from certain struggles or the negative aspects of life but about regaining control over the things we can change, eliminating negative thoughts that contribute to maladaptive coping, and building a healthy support network for tough times.

Positive and Negative Thinking

Not all thoughts are necessarily positive or negative. Making a statement in your head about needing to remind yourself to grab some orange juice in the near future does not fit into the dichotomy of “good” and “bad” thoughts. Neither is it healthy to try and categorize every thought you have.

In most cases, positive and negative thoughts are more about learning to identify with the signs and symptoms of a low mood, or poor emotional state, and turning them around through self-care, support, and affirmations.

A pattern of negative thoughts may hint at a depressive episode or may be more common in people with a history of depression and other mental health issues. Meanwhile, positive thoughts can have a positive impact on these mental health issues and remain a central tenet in the practice of cognitive behavioral therapy, the most common type of talk therapy for addressing conditions like major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder GAD.

Some common forms of negative thinking include:

  • Focusing entirely on negative outcomes and aspects of your life.
  • Blaming yourself for every bad outcome.
  • Spiraling thoughts (losing control of your thoughts, ruminating on negative thoughts).
  • Automatically anticipating the worst.
  • Constantly telling yourself you “should” do something, then blaming yourself when you don’t.
  • Maintaining impossible standards, effectively setting yourself up for failure.
  • Seeing everything as good or bad (and often more bad than good).

On the other hand, some common forms of positive thinking include:

  • Taking time for self-reflection and thoughts of gratitude.
  • Re-evaluating the last few weeks to identify good things or things you’re proud of.
  • Engaging in humor often, laughing more, seeking out comedies in life.
  • A healthier lifestyle – better sleep, good food, regular exercise, frequent water breaks.
  • A more positive inner circle of friends and family, working to eliminate toxic relationships.
  • Frequently uttering affirmations or personal mantras.

Some of these “thoughts” constitute as behaviors, but it’s often a very cyclical relationship – positive thoughts help foster positive actions towards yourself, whereas negative thoughts lead to negative spirals.

Some affirmations work better for certain people than others. You might not be the type to stand in front of a mirror and psych yourself up with niceties. Perhaps you’re more the type to find a quiet corner, ball your fists, and recite a positive, life-affirming mantra. Or perhaps you do your best positive thinking while on a jog or a walk through the woods.

Associating certain behaviors with positive thoughts and vice versa can help you work towards converting your negative thoughts into healthier, self-affirming positive ones. It’s a long process, but it starts with just a single simple step in the right direction.

The Physical Benefits of Positive Thoughts

The benefits of more positive thinking extend beyond improving mood and mental states. Your mental and physical well-being is intertwined, and a positive mindset can contribute to better overall physical health. Studies show a strong correlation between a positive mindset and:

  • Greater longevity
  • Lowered rates of anxiety and depression
  • Higher pain threshold and lower reported levels of pain
  • Greater resistance to physical illness
  • Reduced cancer death risk
  • Reduced heart disease death risk
  • Improved cardiovascular health
  • And more.

How can a positive mindset reduce the risk of death from something like cancer? Or reduce pain? Well, it’s complicated. We have to make it clear that promoting “mind-over-matter” thought is neither ethical nor scientifically accurate – you cannot will yourself out of a heart attack.

However, positive thinking can negate or reduce negative thinking, which can exacerbate worse health outcomes at the hand of many of these illnesses. Similarly, low mood and depression can actively inhibit your pain resistance, causing unexplained pains and raising your sensitivity to the slightest discomfort.

Furthermore, a positive mindset correlates with a healthier lifestyle and lower risk of death, as well as greater longevity. Positive thinking also contributes to better coping skills against daily stressors, reducing the impact of both chronic stress and acute stress on the mind and body alike.

The Importance of a Support Network

Affirmative thinking can help you negate negative thoughts and reinforce healthier behaviors. But positive thinking alone won’t always be enough. It’s important to have a number of people you can rely on to help lift your spirits or be there for you when times are tough.

A strong support network is not just central for mental health recovery or treatment. We all need people we can rely on, whether they’re friends, family, or a bit of both.

Seeking Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Positive thinking can go a long way towards helping you improve your mental and physical health. But it is no substitute for guided therapy or the help of a mental health professional. If you feel you need help and don’t know where to look, seek the services of a therapist.

Therapists are trained to utilize talk therapy methods, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, to help patients identify self-destructive habits and thought patterns and replace them over time.

A professional therapist can help you adjust your coping skills, pick up better habits, and develop a better toolkit for long-term mental health.

Improve Your Mental Health at Visions Treatment Centers

Are you or someone you know looking to improve their mental health? Then visit us online at Visions Treatment Centers. You may also contact us directly through our online form or get in touch with us by phone.

Categories
Communication Family Mental Health Parenting Transparency

Mental Health Literacy: A Convo Guide for Parents

Finding ways to help their child is every parent’s top priority – but mental health topics can be difficult conversation starters. How do you approach a teen’s recent behavior without shutting them down? How can you safely lead the conversation in the direction of help and understanding without seeming overbearing, condescending, or controlling? In what ways can an understanding of mental health literacy assist parents lead such conversations?

Picking the Right Time

The first step, in every case, is to pick the right time. Teens are naturally emotional, regardless of temperament or personality. There’s a lot going on during adolescence, and it can be difficult to unpack it all. Picking the right time to address your worries can help defuse a potentially difficult situation. That means waiting for a good day, avoiding ambushes, and maybe finding an opportunity to talk to your teen in private (in their room, while doing chores together at home, on the ride back from school, etc.).

Once you’ve found the right time, it’s important to pick the right conversation opener. Fumbling your opportunity to discuss your concerns can keep your kid on guard for the rest of the week or longer. No matter how conflicted you might feel, remember to focus on what’s important: your goal is to help your teen, not judge them.

Starting the Conversation

To start things off, research goes a long way. Learning about mental health issues on your own time, understanding mental health literacy, and speaking with mental health professionals can give you a better understanding of what your teen might be going through, and differentiate between regular teenage problems and the signs of a more serious mental health issue.

Approach the Topic Naturally and with Observations

If you feel that your teen is going through something they need help with, approaching the topic naturally is important. Begin with observations. Obviously, you’ve noticed something. Bring up what you’ve noticed, and why it concerns you. Then, listen.

Some teens might feel relieved that their parents picked up on what’s going on. Others might be worried that they’re being judged or alienated from the rest of the family. It’s important to make sure your teen understands that your concern for them comes from a place of love and inclusion, and that they’re free to say what’s truly on their mind.

Don’t be Afraid to Say Something

If you’ve done prior research, don’t be afraid to bring it up. You don’t need to help confirm your teen’s self-diagnosis or make a judgment call of your own – diagnostic work is best left to experienced psychiatrists. But showing that you’ve moved on from concern to action might help your teen realize that you’re invested in helping them, and want to understand how they feel. It can be comforting to know that you’re open-minded and on their side.

Learning to Listen

There are important dos and don’ts to keep the conversation going once your teen is open to discussing how they feel with you. These include:

  • DO give your teen the time to finish their sentences, and don’t interrupt or stop them.
  • DO normalize how they feel, letting them know that you’ve read about many other teens feeling the same way and that there are ways to get help.
  • DO keep their information confidential – if your teen has only told you, don’t go on discussing it with other members of the family without first bringing it up with your teen, let alone a mental health professional (unless their situation and behavior are life-threatening).
  • DO acknowledge your own fear and anxieties in these situations. It doesn’t help to bottle your feelings up because you’re scared of affecting your teen.
  • DO continue to learn about what your teen is going through, even after they’ve started therapy (especially after they’ve started therapy!).
  • DON’T minimize how they feel or tell them that they “shouldn’t feel this way”, or that you “know exactly” how they feel without having previously been diagnosed with the same condition and the same circumstances.
  • DON’T feed excuses or blame other people. It’s always tempting to find something to blame, but no case of a mental disorder can be squarely blamed on a single factor. It’s almost always a convalescence of complex internal and external factors, melding together in an unfortunate way. Instead of directing your anger at something, use it to help your teen get better.
  • DON’T compare your teen to their siblings or ask them why they couldn’t have been more like your other kids.

Mental Health Literacy: Recognizing Mental Health Issues

Teen temperament can feel disjointed or confusing, so it’s important to separate “normal” teen behavior from potential red flags for a mental health issue. Some things to keep in mind include:

Is it Consistent?

Consistency is important. If your teen’s mood has been consistently low for several weeks now, chances are it’s more than just a rough patch for them. Conditions like depression can affect the way we perceive things around us, actively inhibiting the ability to feel joy or pleasure.

If your teen hasn’t talked about their favorite hobbies in weeks, hasn’t hung out with friends in a while, and generally hasn’t laughed or been in a good mood for a noticeable period, they may be going through more than just a period of grief.

Has Academic Performance Changed?

Academic performance may be a helpful metric but shouldn’t be the absolute focus here. How well your teen is retaining information and focusing on their studies can be affected by the onset and growth of a mental health issue, but there are dozens of other factors that can affect a teen’s grades without necessarily affecting their mental health.

Furthermore, while your teen’s grades might be important to you (and them!), focusing on them might make your teen feel that your priorities are misplaced (i.e., putting their grades above the way they feel).

Nervous vs. Anxious

Nervousness is one thing, especially if your teen has been rather skittish since early childhood. But anxiety symptoms are something else. If your teen seems constantly worried about the same things, is having trouble concentrating or focusing on anything, easily loses their cool, and struggles to perform under pressure – whether it’s during a driving lesson or a breakdown during school exams – they may be overly sensitive to their surrounding stressors, or worse.

Anxiety disorders are the most common kind of mental health issue worldwide, ranging from complex disorders like OCD to a generalized feeling of worry and dread that affects a person’s mood, personality, and behavior on a daily basis.

Susceptibility to Addictive Behavior and Long-Term Substance Abuse

Teens are smart, often smarter than we might give them credit for. But they still make mistakes, lack experience, and are usually more short-sighted than adults through no fault of their own. This is part of the reason why teens are more susceptible to addictive behavior, and why early onset of addiction usually predicts long-term or life-long substance abuse.

If you suspect that your teen is struggling due to an ongoing substance problem – whether it’s frequent drinking binges with friends or sharing prescription pills at school – keep an eye out for some of the more obvious signs, including hidden stashes, physical symptoms (bloodshot eyes, constantly tired, slurred speech, frequent hangovers), and mental symptoms (irritability, memory problems, altered behavior, becoming defensive).

Issues with Eating

Eating disorders also disproportionately affect adolescents and are some of the most dangerous mental health disorders we know of. Signs of an eating disorder include constant cycles of self-deprecation and shame, followed by binge eating, signs of binge eating such as wrappers and hidden stashes of food, frequent bathroom breaks between and during meals, diuretic or laxative drugs, and calluses on the index knuckle from induced vomiting.

When Is Professional Help Needed?

In general, the moment you no longer know how to help your teen is the moment you should consider approaching a mental health professional for help – even if it isn’t to schedule an appointment for your child or figure out an intervention. Mental health professionals also work to assist parents in understanding what might be going on in their teen’s lives, and helping them navigate their way around a conversation with their child.

If your teen approaches you about therapy, then they’ve thought it over and likely made the decision to seek help – with your assistance. Work with them to find a mental health professional they are comfortable with. First and foremost, their comfort is paramount. Trust is an important aspect of therapy, and teens will be unlikely to get the help they need if they cannot set up a strong bond with their therapist.

If your teen is struggling with a mental health issue, reach out to Visions Treatment Centers. Let’s start the conversation together.

Categories
Education Mental Health Recovery Therapy

Teen Academic Support During Therapy

In both inpatient and outpatient cases, teens undergoing treatment for a psychiatric condition will face daily challenges and undergo a long-term transformation. Yet, in inpatient treatment cases, teens will often be asked to leave behind their friends, school, and family to spend time in a completely different setting, whether for just a few weeks or several months. And while this is happening, it’s natural to ponder about continuing academia or teen academic support during therapy.

This can be a reason for some teens to reconsider or worry about the implications of mental health treatment. Is it worth putting everything on hold to “get better”? And what if it doesn’t work?

Not Being Left Behind

Life is challenging as it is – juggling relationships, family, and school responsibilities can be daunting, and for many teens, seeking help might mean having to forego some of these responsibilities. Teens don’t want to be left behind, whether it’s academically or socially.

Assuaging these fears is important. And this is why academic support is crucial.

A New Setting Can be Overwhelming

Residential treatment centers usually entail taking a teen out of their usual environment and putting them in a completely new setting, with new peers, new therapists, and different faces. This can be overwhelming – but it’s not all new. Teens in residential therapy will still have school responsibilities, they will still have teachers, they will still have lessons and curriculums, and they will still have peers to talk to.

Consistency is Key

Having these elements stay consistent in a teen’s life, both within and outside the context of therapy, is important. Conditions like depression, anxiety, and even psychosis can thrive in chaos and confusion. Consistent schedules, ongoing responsibilities, and opportunities for self-improvement can help teens focus on the day-to-day task at hand, avoid rumination, and build up their self-esteem – while keeping them on an equal playing field with their friends and peers back in school.

Should Teens in School Go into Treatment?

This is a trick question – mental health treatment needs to be made available to everyone who needs it and wants it, and everyone who needs or wants it should be able to confidently seek help from a mental health professional and get a treatment plan tailored to their circumstances and symptoms.

Teens are no exception, and in fact, adolescence is one of the most important periods to tackle mental health issues, as it provides greater opportunities for therapists and mental health professionals to impart the importance of healthy coping skills, and help teens tackle their symptoms before they grow worse in adulthood or lead to co-dependent health issues later in life.

However, treatment for teens needs to take their circumstances into account just as much as it does for adults. Adults who cannot afford to leave work won’t be able to consider residential treatment as an option, for example.

Teen Residential Treatment and Therapeutic Day School

In the case of teen treatment, residential treatment can be made possible through a robust and accredited academic program that continues to instruct teens as per state- or school-specific curriculum, offering them the opportunity to keep up with their peers while seeking help for their symptoms.

It’s still work. Teens in treatment will be expected to show up to lessons, do homework, and prepare for exams – all while continuing to attend treatment sessions, both individually and in groups, and participating in group activities. Preparing for your SATs or college application deadlines while going to therapy for a dual diagnosis can be tough.

But a day school in a residential treatment facility sets itself apart from a regular day-to-day classroom in that teens in treatment can seek individualized tutoring and may be better able to learn within the setting of a residential treatment clinic versus a conventional classroom.

Synergizing Academic Achievement and Mental Health Treatment

Meanwhile, there is synergy between promoting academic achievement and the mental health treatment process. Just as doing better mentally can help you study, an individually tailored academic program can help you feel better mentally.

Some teens don’t respond well to the typical structure of a school day or haven’t managed to find a way to study that suits them, especially if they’re struggling with the symptoms of a neurobehavioral disorder like ADHD.

Individualized Support and Education

Individualized support in the form of a day school at a residential treatment center can help teens balance studying with their mental health, improve their ability to cope with stressors while retaining information, and find alternative ways to prepare for tests and learn without the pressure and classroom setting of a normal school. Furthermore, day school programs help teens ensure that they aren’t left behind while in therapy and synergize treatment with a teen’s day-to-day academic responsibilities.

Helping teens improve their responses to stressors and prepare for the challenges that lie ahead are important parts of therapy. Some teens are too afraid to speak up about their depressive feelings or anxiety symptoms because they don’t want these things to jeopardize their chances at college, affect their relationships, or be a burden on their grades. But they are – if left untreated.

Teens with mental health issues have a much harder time retaining information and doing well at school – and these issues can continue to be exacerbated later in adulthood.

Furthermore, adolescence is a crucial chapter in the rest of a teen’s life – academic performance can have an impact on career options and college opportunities. Helping teens improve their grades through residential treatment serves as a major boon for the rest of their lives.

Choosing a Residential Treatment Clinic

Residential treatment centers differ in the modalities they offer and the facilities they have. Not all residential treatment clinics offer a day school and teen academic support programs for teens. When choosing a treatment clinic for yourself or your loved one, choose one with an accredited academic program and a reputation for helping teens continue their studies while in treatment.

A residential or inpatient treatment clinic is often just the first step in a longer journey. In many cases, mental health isn’t about curing a defect, but about learning to cope with one’s unique circumstances, and living a full and happy life in spite of the challenges one faces.

Teen Academic Support During Therapy at Visions Treatment Centers

If you or your teen is considering entering into residential treatment but worried about falling behind in academics, contact us today.

At Visions Treatment Centers, we offer Day School for teen academic support while receiving therapy. With a consistent schedule and custom-made curriculum plan, you or your teen will get the professional help they need while maintaining grades, social activities, and more.

Categories
Mental Health Trauma

7 Signs of Trauma in Teens (And how to cope)

Traumatic experiences can alter a person’s psyche dramatically, weighing on them both consciously and subconsciously, and changing their decision making, their thought processes, and their behavior. These changes can alter personalities and continue to affect a person even long after they’ve “made peace” with the past. And like adults, teens can also experience trauma or a trauma disorder too. But what are the signs of trauma in teens? How are these signs recognized? And how does one cope?

In teens especially, trauma can lead to emotional and psychological maladjustment, presenting difficulties in achieving independence in adulthood, communicating with others, retaining and understanding information, and engaging with people socially.

To understand why and how trauma can affect teens, we need to understand the effect trauma has on the brain, and why treatment can be difficult.

What is Teen Trauma?

Traumatic experiences are subjective, meaning an event that traumatizes one person might not necessarily traumatize the other, even if they were both present that day.

But nearly all traumatic experiences are characterized by their shock and horror – usually, events involving mass death, abuse, violence, cruelty, long-term neglect, or forces of nature. Trauma may be caused by an acute event or a period of horror.

When trauma occurs, the mind is affected in a way that isn’t typical of stressful situations. We are equipped to deal with stress, and we learn through both negative and positive reinforcement. But there’s a difference between “one of life’s lessons” and an event so impactful that it leaves an unwanted mark on our way of thinking for years to come. The latter is a traumatic event. Trauma is characterized by intrusive thoughts and emotions, changes in mood and cognition, jumbled or lost memories, and more.

Teens experience trauma similarly to adults, with a few key differences. The biggest is a greater tendency towards impulsive, risk-taking, self-destructive, and violent behaviors. Teens are more likely than adults to turn towards self-harm, dangerous sexual behavior, and drug use after a traumatic event.

Now, let’s look at some of the signs of trauma in teens and their effects.

Recognizing Signs of Trauma in Teens

Psychologically, trauma is understood as an open and unhealing wound in the mind. The mind may respond in a few different ways, which brings us to the telltale signs of post-traumatic stress. These include:

  • Hyperarousal/hypervigilance, such as overreacting emotionally and physically to certain stimuli, like unexpected touch or a loud noise.
  • Depersonalization/dissociation, such as remembering trauma as something that happened to someone else, or completely forgetting/burying the event.
  • Extreme avoidance of potential triggers.
  • Development of phobias, or extreme fears related to the event.
  • Unwanted or intrusive thoughts, including memories or flashbacks, panic attacks, and frightening thoughts.
  • Changes in mood and cognition, including memory problems, having a harder time retaining information, not enjoying things as much as before, being more depressed, feeling down more often for no discernable reason, and a more negative worldview.
  • Irritability and aggressive thoughts/behavior, especially in teens.

1. Hyperarousal

Hyperarousal is one of the primary symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Hyperarousal can be recognized through constant overarching anxiety, always being “on edge”, being easily startled, bouts of insomnia, and an elevated fight-or-flight response.

2. Dissociation

Dissociation and its similar symptoms usually involve some sort of distortion in the perception of a traumatic event to avoid the pain associated with it, whether by forgetting it completely, only remembering vague memories, or associating it with someone else.

A teen who is dissociating from their trauma is still heavily affected by it, and may experience hyperarousal and hypervigilance, as well as strong anxiety symptoms.

3. Avoidance

Avoidance is a normal response to something awful, but avoidance symptoms in the context of trauma may go to extreme lengths, such as never stepping foot inside an elevator again, avoiding cars for years, or developing maladaptive coping mechanisms to avoid and forget, including binge drinking and other forms of drug use.

4. Phobias and Panic

Trauma can lead to the development of phobias and frequent unexplained panic attacks. These may include a phobia of crowds, a phobia of certain animals, or even a phobia of men.

In contrast to other fear or anxiety-based symptoms, phobias represent an overwhelming, constantly present fear, to the point the thought of the danger can cause panic even when the danger itself isn’t present.

5. Intrusive Thoughts

Unwanted and intrusive thoughts can range from flashbacks to violent or unwanted fantasies, morbid thoughts, and frequent unwanted thoughts or daydreaming about violence, violent circumstances, and so on. These thoughts are oppressive and difficult to overcome. They can fuel maladaptive coping mechanisms, such as drinking, as a way to block them out.  

6. Mood and Cognition

Signs of trauma can be recognized in a teen’s mood and way of thinking after a traumatic event. Trauma can leave a person feeling less enthusiastic about things they used to enjoy, even to the point of anhedonia, or joylessness.

It can also impact a person’s cognitive and creative abilities, slowing them down, affecting memory and critical thinking, and making them less sure of themselves.

7. Aggression, Risk-Taking, and Self-Harm

In teens, trauma will more often accentuate impulsive feelings and feelings of self-harm or shame, and resulting behavioral changes, such as more risk-taking, greater promiscuity, higher likelihood of frequent substance use, and self-destructive or self-harming behavior.

Coping With Teen Trauma

Stress disorders, or post-traumatic stress, as well as other anxiety disorders, may develop because of a traumatic experience. Teens can still function relatively well after trauma but may develop greater signs of mental instability the longer their trauma goes unaddressed.

This is especially true if they begin to seek maladaptive ways to cope with their post-traumatic stress, such as addictive substance use or self-harm.

Healthy coping mechanisms are one of the most important aspects of a good treatment plan for a trauma disorder, including creative endeavors, support groups, family or friend group therapy sessions, sports, and self-care. These coping skills help teens reduce stress levels, manage their stress after traumatic triggers, and help avoid or ignore intrusive thoughts.

Mental Health Treatment for Trauma

Mental health treatment remains the crux of any teen trauma treatment plan. Professional one-on-one or group therapy is the first line of treatment for trauma disorders, helping teens identify and overcome negative and unwanted thoughts associated with their trauma. Trauma-specific therapeutic interventions include:

  • Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing
  • Cognitive processing therapy
  • Prolonged exposure therapy
  • Somatic therapy
  • And more.

Working with a therapist you can trust is important. Trauma disorders are disabling and difficult to overcome. The road ahead may be quite long. It’s important to establish a strong bond with your therapist of choice.

Trauma Disorder Treatment at Visions Treatment Centers

Is your teen struggling with trauma? Reach out to Visions Treatment Centers today. We can help.

Categories
ADHD Body Image Eating Disorders Mental Health Substance Abuse

4 Sneaky Mental Illnesses in Teens to Watch Out For

Mental illnesses in teens can be a complicated topic for parents, especially if they have no personal experience with mental disorders. Recognizing and separating symptoms of a mental disorder from regular teenage behavior can be difficult, because many mental health symptoms are subtle, and begin in ways that can be misconstrued as normal teenage behavior.

Nevertheless, recognizing and identifying these symptoms is important. Teens themselves may lack the awareness or the experience to identify their feelings as troublesome and might instead internalize their symptoms as being their own fault.

This guilt can feed and accelerate feelings of anxiety, depression, or other symptoms, and can make treatment more difficult over time. Pressure at home or at school, a history of victimization, or mental health stigma in the community can complicate things even further, making teens less likely to seek help or consider asking for it.

Mental Illnesses in Teens Have Gone Up

The rates at which mental illnesses in teens have also gone up over time. Some of it may stem from awareness, or from societal factors, such as environmental concerns, greater academic pressure, and a poor economic outlook. But by and large, teen stressors are the same as they have always been: relationship problems, grades, fitting in, family environment, and trauma.

Let’s look at a few common yet sneaky mental illnesses that may affect your teen and how to identify them.

1. Body Dysmorphia

Body dysmorphia is a growing issue with the prevalence of social media and doctored Instagram posts, even amid waves of body positivity and messages about self-acceptance.

Also dubbed body dysmorphic disorder, this mental health condition is characterized by an untrue self-image. It isn’t just that a teen with BDD does not like the way they look – in their eyes, they look completely different than what they might look like to others. A teen with BDD might starve themselves or work out excessively to try and conform to their ideal, unattainable self-image. Teens with body dysmorphia may also abuse substances to suppress their appetite or achieve a different figure, such as using anabolic steroids to build muscle quickly. Signs and symptoms of BDD include:

  • An excessive and extreme focus on physical appearance and repeated negative comments about their self-image.
  • Spending inordinate amounts of time checking and rechecking their appearance.
  • Hiding away from others or hiding their body with loose-fitting clothes and baggy clothing.
  • Not listening to affirmations from others, ignoring praise about their physical appearance/continuing to lament their appearance as ugly.

2. Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are often adjacent to body dysmorphia but are characterized primarily by an unhealthy relationship with food. Eating disorders are usually diagnosed as either binge eating disorder, anorexia, bulimia, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, other specified eating disorders, or unspecified eating disorders.

Binge eating Disorder 

Binge eating disorder is characterized by a cycle of emotional lows and depressive symptoms culminating in an unhealthy binge eating session, leading to another cycle of low mood. Teens who are binge eating may hide their binges, keep food in their room, or store chocolate bars and snacks in their drawers.

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa is a disorder characterized by excessively restrictive calorie counting and starvation, including severe body image issues, such as seeing oneself as fat despite being dangerously underweight. Therefore, anorexia can be a life-threatening condition.

Bulima Nervosa

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by a cycle of self-starvation, binging, and purging behavior (through laxatives or self-induced vomiting). Frequent vomiting can also cause throat and dental damage, as well as create callouses on a teen’s index and middle finger knuckles.

Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder

Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder is characterized by an unhealthily restrictive food intake. Teens with avoidant restrictive food intake are incredibly picky about what they eat, to the point that it causes dramatic weight loss and physical health problems. These problems are progressive, meaning the list of acceptable foods becomes smaller over time. Teens with avoidant restrictive food intake are not necessarily worried about body image, but may be worried about choking on their food, or react nauseously to normal foods for no discernable reason. Choosing to cut out certain foods for health or moral reasons (such as a keto diet or veganism) is not a disorder.

Other Specific or Unspecified Eating Disorders

Other specific or unspecified eating disorders may be applied as a label to teens with disordered eating habits that do not yet fit an established profile, fit into multiple disorders at once, or in cases where more information is needed to determine a teen’s condition.

Eating disorders need to be addressed professionally. They can be life-threatening and can cause lasting physical harm.

3. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or ADHD is a well-known condition in children and teens, but it can present itself in subtle ways that often evade diagnosis for years. Teens learn to cope with their ADHD symptoms over time, continuing to mask them well into adulthood.

However, untreated ADHD can be a great risk to teens because it is often associated with a much higher risk of comorbid mental health problems, including depression and substance use disorder.

One of the primary symptoms of teen ADHD is recurring disorganization. Being disorganized or clumsy is not just a personality trait – if your teen is consistently bad with time management, constantly misplaces their belongings, dodges, or misses deadlines all the time, and is actively anxious about these things (i.e., they are worried, and trying, but their behavior does not change), they may be struggling with ADHD.

Executive functioning problems are another common sign of ADHD in teens. Executive functioning refers to the ability to utilize one’s working memory, flexibility, and self-control to go about their life, including making and coordinating schedules and plans, prioritizing tasks effectively, demonstrating emotional control, effective self-monitoring, focusing on a task at a time, and being flexible about schedule changes.

Teens with ADHD can still learn to develop and hone these skills, but they may have a harder time doing so than their peers. Executive functioning can also be impacted by other problems, such as depression, abuse, or trauma.

4. Substance Use Disorder

Substance use disorder is another term for addiction. Addiction in teens may occur as a result of comorbid conditions, such as an anxiety disorder, PTSD, or depression, or as a result of a combination of environmental factors (socioeconomics, trouble at home, parental disconnect) and inner factors (genetics, family history, addiction at home).

Signs of a substance use disorder in teens can vary. Drug paraphernalia is one common sign, from hidden bongs to a bottle of vodka under the bed. Consistently coming home too late, coming home drunk or high multiple times, and experiencing physical symptoms of recurring drug use – from bloodshot eyes to memory loss – are also important signs.

When To Get Help

Mental illnesses in teens are treatable, and regardless of what your teen is going through, the first step of that treatment is compassion. Help your teen understand that you are in their corner and want them to feel better. They need to internalize that your goal isn’t to punish them, but to help.

In some cases, it can be difficult to convince your teen that you’re on their side. Some conditions make it harder to help teens get help than others, including addiction, personality disorders, and conduct disorders. Working with a mental health professional beforehand can help you come up with the best way to intervene on your teen’s behalf and get them to see things your way.

For more information, contact Visions Treatment Centers today.

Categories
Experiential Therapy Mental Health Treatment

How Can Experiential Therapy Activities for Teens Help?

When people bring up therapy, they’re usually talking about talk therapy or psychotherapy – these are treatment methods that involve discussing certain actions, thoughts, and emotions with a trained professional, and relying on healthy argumentation and dialogue to develop a better understanding of one’s own thoughts and emotions, as well as the effects of a mental health issue. But, experiential therapy is something different altogether.

While still a therapeutic treatment for mental health problems, experiential therapy combines dialogue with action, using immersive experiences to help patients overcome unhealthy coping mechanisms, shed their anxieties and worries, and get to the emotional core of their condition or problem.

What is Experiential Therapy?

Experiential therapy is like talk therapy, but adds action to the treatment process, involving patients in immersive therapeutic environments to help them become more introspective, and achieve a greater therapeutic effect.

The thesis of experiential therapy relies on the idea that actions help reinforce our thoughts and emotions just as much, or even more than words. Rather than confronting negative thinking in dialogue, experiential therapy aims to bring out and expose unhealthy behaviors and thought patterns through roleplaying, psychodrama, music, and other forms of art and public or personal self-expression.

The Difference

The difference is more than semantic – there is a clinical and philosophical core to experiential therapy that sets it apart from other types of talk therapy, and allows it to become an important tool in the repertoire of different therapists and mental health clinics. That core is characterized by the idea that some people are better at introspection than others.

Talk therapy forms like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) are so successful because they help patients identify and argue against thoughts and feelings that originate with or are perpetuated by their mental health problems.

In doing so, they can embrace a healthier thought process that allows them to dull the blow of a depressive or anxious episode, or work against symptoms of their diagnosis. In tandem with medication, family support, and lifestyle changes, therapy helps patients take back control over the way they feel and improves their overall quality of life.

But patients who struggle to look inward and might not have the innate introspective abilities needed to apply lessons in therapy may struggle to progress with traditional forms of talk therapy, such as CBT and DBT.

Infusing Active Experiences with the Therapeutic Process

Experiential therapy takes this conclusion and incorporates active experiences into the therapeutic process to unlock a person’s introspective capabilities and help them translate lessons from therapy into their day-to-day thinking.

It’s not just about introspection. Experiential therapy also taps into the human mind’s innate abilities to translate, recontextualize, and re-experience trauma and joy through wordless actions.

While some of us are able to work through our thoughts and emotions purely through language, whether in our mind, in dialogue, or on paper through journaling, words alone aren’t always enough to explore our emotions, or we might lack the words needed to truly express ourselves. Experiential therapy helps tap into something more primordial, something more accessible than language.

Different Types of Experiential Therapy

Experiential therapy does not come with strict guidelines as to categorization and type. But most forms can generally be categorized into one of the following types:

Art-Based Therapy

Art therapy refers to an experiential setting where patients are encouraged to use different artistic processes to work through inner conflicts, such as painting, sketching, drawing, or sculpting.

Outdoor Therapy

Outdoor therapy utilizes wilderness excursions, hikes, and adventurous activities with therapy sessions, helping patients break through emotional barriers in the therapeutically conducive environments of nature.

Animal-Assisted Therapy

Animal-assisted therapy helps patients open up and engage in therapeutic conversation through the care of animals, often dogs and horses.

Play-Based Therapy

Play-based therapy is a form often used in the treatment of younger children, who might experience difficulties talking about negative thoughts or trauma, but often re-enact or re-experience it through play.

Music-Based Therapy

Music-based therapy is similar to other forms of art-based therapy, using composition and musical arrangements in place of physical mediums.

Psychodrama

Psychodrama or drama therapy involves immersive acting and roleplaying to re-experience and release suppressed or negative emotions associated with a past event or recurring anxious thought, thereby helping patients work through their issues in a safe and healthy environment.

When is Experiential Therapy Used for Teens?

Experiential therapy may be applied to teens who do not respond well to traditional talk therapy. Experiential therapy may help in the treatment of multiple different conditions, including:

Experiential therapy will be more helpful for teens who struggle to express themselves in other forms of therapy, but “open up” through their art, their creative endeavors, their acting, or other forms of self-expression.

Experiential Therapy as Part of a Larger Treatment Plan

As with any other form of therapy, experiential therapy will usually be offered as part of a larger treatment plan involving multiple modalities, including medication. It may take time, and multiple sessions, for the effects of the treatment process to become noticeable.

For relatives and friends alike, patience and understanding become important. Therapeutic treatments can help patients identify signs of illness and cope with them more effectively, but they aren’t a “cure”. There will be good days and bad days. Sometimes, returning to therapy – or continuing therapy even after the bad episodes have stopped – is an important key to keeping up against negative or unwanted thoughts and behaviors.

What Parents Should Know

Experiential therapy can be intense. Patients are encouraged to express themselves, which can result in painful or uncomfortable forms of self-expression and displays of emotionality.

Your teens might not want to talk openly about what they went through in early sessions, and it may take time for them to explore their emotions. You and your teen can prepare yourselves by looking at footage of sample experiential therapy sessions online, or through other online resources.

Contact Visions Treatment Centers today to learn more about experiential therapy for teens and how it can be used in a residential treatment program.

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