Introduction:
Teenage is certainly about change in personalities, a period of evolution and adjustment, however, severe intense or sudden behavioural changes can be strong pointers of severe mental health concerns.
Hypothesis: Understanding distinguishing mental changes in the teenager is mostly done through looking for the behavioural changes.
Research methodology: qualitative research analysis by article review, commonly called a literature review.
Summary:
Psychiatric emergency calls amongst adolescents of ages 16 to 24 are increasing by 28 per cent between 2011 and 2015. Most parents consider worry and anxiety as the same, however, they are categorically different. Worry is a situational concept, it disappears when the child is done with the phase or event causing worry, like a football match or biology test. While anxiety is a deep-rooted condition, it is stubborn and extreme – and remains intact even after the simple reason of pressure or suffering is over.
Symptoms:
Many clues appear in a child that is overlooked or taken for granted by the parents that can cause severe and acute mental condition, these signals should be detected and nipped from the bud. As Debbie Thomas, stated in the article that the best results are attained when the treatment is not delayed until anxiety starts dominating the behaviour and disrupting life.
Anxiety and pulling behaviour is mostly always accompanied by certain clues that parents must notice and deal with in a timely. According to Debbie Thomas,” these can all be warning signs that trouble is afoot.” The clues of anxiety are more of physical nature like nausea, stomachaches, headaches, or sleep disorders. It is more persistent and may cause a mental health issue. As it is seen commonly that the process of transition into maturity is sufficient for causing anxiety – adolescents should not be left alone to battle their mental health in the period, said Dr Thomas. Therefore the child should be given proper attention and if needed required mental health supervision, to deal with issues of anxiety, this will help them in many ways and save later troubles, and help them in forming positive, considerate and well-balanced adults. (“The New Generation Gap: Nationwide Survey Finds Different Perspectives on Anxiety between Parents, Young Adults | GeneSight”, 2022)
Causes:
Teens are facing multiple problems these days that are causing anxiety issues, some of the problems like virtual bullying comprising segregation, generating rumours, mocking, and inspiring others to bully the individual. Then there are social media influences, FOMO and disrupted routine because of the pandemic. All this is adding up to cause fears and embedded complexes of being accepted in the social circle, there are times when people are unable to come up to the expectations of parents. This also makes adolescents develop a fear of losing.
Communicating with children:
As the question is, how to find out if the mood swings and other anomalies are persistent or temporary. The more a parent is closer to the child the more they may notice such changes. As one of the clues is that such people tend to go into isolation and start shying away from parents as well. Initiating conversations may help diagnose the severity of the situation. Paying attention to their words and symbols also helps apparent in early recognition of the related issue which in turn can be supportive in saving time and further harm. The parents may reassure the child that it is normal and ideal to pursue support at other points in their life if desirable – and is another constructive phase in destigmatizing mental healthcare. (Swift Yasgur, MA, 2022)
Conclusion:
Both the articles emphasize that parents are the ones who can play an active role in the early detection and handling of mental health issues in teens. They must be proactive and communicate with their children constantly.
References:
Swift Yasgur, MA, B. (2022). Clues Your Teen May Be Facing a Mental Health Challenge. WebMD. Retrieved 20 February 2022, from https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20220208/clues-teen-facing-mental-health-challenge.
The New Generation Gap: Nationwide Survey Finds Different Perspectives on Anxiety Between Parents, Young Adults | GeneSight. GeneSight. (2022). Retrieved 20 February 2022, from https://genesight.com/news-and-press/the-new-generation-gap-nationwide-survey-finds-different-perspectives-on-anxiety-between-parents-young-adults/
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