Stress! As adults, we struggle with stress and we can feel it weighing us down. Our physical health and mental wellbeing also bear the negative impact of stress. Now, imagine your teen being faced with his own stressors. If stress is a problem for us adults, think how much the negative impact will be for a teen who is barely equipped with the emotional and mental maturity to deal cope with stress. And your teen does face stress on a...
This summer, help your troubled teen get back on more even footing towards his journey to maturity. A wilderness therapy program can help your teen realize his value and his positive traits even as it provides him with the opportunity to get away from the pressures, peers and bad influences. The program will usually involve outdoor recreational activities (camping, fishing, hiking and trekking). These activities are aimed towards promoting your teen’s self-esteem and outlook and challenge him to look more...
Is your teen undergoing major changes in his life? Are these changes negatively affecting his behavior? Sometimes, parents tend to underestimate the level of stress that their teens are going through, assuming that the teens have the capacity to cope. But it is important to recognize that the stresses that adults may consider “all in a day’s work” can seem massive and overwhelming to a teen. What is Adjustment Disorder? Also referred to as “situational depression”, this type...
During the teenage years, it is not only the changes in the body that is wrecking havoc on your teens. The tensions in your family life, the added pressures of school and the transition from childhood to adulthood and a number of other factors may leave your teen an emotional train wreck. More often than not, he will vent his frustration and confusion in the form of anger. What’s more, these feelings may be directed to figures of authority such...
The teenage years seem like a 180-degree turn for your child’s personality. Your talkative child with the sunny personality seemed to have transformed into a melancholic and quiet teen overnight. This change may also reflect in his choice of hobbies. When once, he loved to be with friends and to play his favorite sport, he now prefers to keep holed up in his room. The mood swings and the shift in interests may be normal for a teenager who has...
The world is fraught with challenges and threats. And this fact can feel more terrifying if your children are in their teens and are on the verge of exploring this world on their own. Your heart and mind may be filled with a lot of questions: What issues will my teen face? How can I protect him or, at best, ensure that he gets through these issues and perhaps learn from them? What help do I need? What will I...
Is your teen acting up, behaving recklessly and rebelliously? Is he endangering himself and others and getting himself into trouble with the law? Is he hard to control and has become characteristically defiant and uncooperative? Are the disciplinary measures you have implemented becoming less and less effective? It may be time to consider help your child – help that comes in the form of a troubled teen program. With the number of options available, though, how can you decide which...
You thought the outbursts and the tantrums over when your child reached his teens, only to realize that you are up for another (and far more stronger) dose of aggressive behavior. Aggression and rage can be a common response in teens, with all the hormones raging uncontrollably. Manifestations of and Reasons behind Aggression Aggression is mostly physical (hurting others, harming other people’s property or getting into fistfights), but it can also be passive (glaring, temper outbursts, surliness, self-isolation or deliberate...
You are at your wits’ end. What do you do? How do you respond to your child’s latest bout of misbehavior or aggression? How does one deal with a teen who seems to be impervious to all your usual disciplinary measures? The problem is that your teen may be getting into deeper trouble. The rebelliousness, rudeness and reckless behavior can get your teen into the wrong kind of friends, into drugs or even into jail. His actions may not only...
Do you often feel that your teen has never outgrown the so-called terrible twos? Is your teen persistently belligerent, irritable and uncooperative? Is your child simply strong-willed or does his behavior point to something else? It may be useful to look more deeply into your child’s troublesome behavior to check whether he is simply being difficult or may be exhibiting symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder. What is Oppositional Defiant Disorder? Oppositional Defiant Disorder or ODD is marked by disruptive, defiant...
