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Facing the Challenges of Young Lives

Facing the Challenges of Young Lives. Becky Turner School Counselor. Adapted from McCarthy, A. (1999). Healthy Teens: Facing the Challenges of Young Lives 3rd Edition.

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Facing the Challenges of Young Lives

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  1. Facing the Challenges of Young Lives Becky Turner School Counselor Adapted from McCarthy, A. (1999). Healthy Teens: Facing the Challenges of Young Lives 3rd Edition

  2. The most useful tools in raising healthy young people are love, compassion, sensitivity, praise, understanding, and communication.

  3. Stages of Adolescence • Early Adolescence (11-13 years) • physical changes • “Am I normal?” • Stronger affiliation with peers vs family/parents • Middle Adolescence (14-16 years) • Peers assume greater importance • Individualization-prompts teens testing the limits • Late Adolescence (17+) • Relatively stable identity • Important mutual friendships • Better relationship with parents

  4. Tips for working with Adolescents • Remember your own adolescence: your changing feelings, anger at authority, and fears and hopes. • Listen more than talk. • Teach adolescents about the joys AND troubles of life and ways to enjoy or cope. • Use positive reinforcement for positive behavior whenever possible. • Remember that most youth have problems at some time.

  5. Behavior Expectations • Rejection: Peers are important during this time. They will be pulling away from family and authority figures. • Closed doors: Do not pry. • Tests of authority: Teens want independence but appreciate limits

  6. Managing Stress • Sit back and count to ten • Take a walk, jog, or exercise. • Use positive “self talk”- “I disagree, but I can cool down and talk to her.” • Write down why you are angry, upset, or sad. Think through a plan and write it down. • Talk to someone about your feelings • Listen to quiet music • Inhale a deep breath through your nose and hold for five seconds. Slowly exhale through your mouth as if blowing out a candle. Repeat several times.

  7. Depressive Illnesses: Signs • Signs • A change is school performance. • Inability to concentrate. • Irritability or anger. • Persistent unhappiness. • Change in eating and sleeping habits. • Withdrawal from people and activities. • Excessive guilt or anxiety. • Physical complaints. • Aggressive, impulsive, or risk-taking behavior • Thoughts or talk of death or suicide.

  8. Depressive Illnesses: Causes • Causes • Poverty • Victimization • Family dysfunction • Expectation society holds • Assault/ rape/ other crimes • Stress • Family genetics • Environment factors like a messy divorce

  9. Depressive Illnesses-Treatments • Early and accurate diagnosis of depressive illness is important because depression can lead to school failure and suicide. • Depression must be distinguished from normal sadness, adjustment disorders, learning disabilities, anxiety deficit disorder, and all the other factors that may be present in the adolescent’s life. • If the depression has a biological basis, antidepressant medications may be helpful.

  10. Possible Treatments • Counseling or Psychotherapy • Supportive therapy offers reassurance, empathy and advice to parents and adolescents. • Cognitive therapists- try to change the adolescent’s pessimistic attitudes and disheartening automatic thoughts by challenging them. • Interpersonal therapy- takes account of the teenager’s need to identify and resolve personal disputes arising at a time of life when important choices have to be made.

  11. Teen Suicide • Talking about suicide does not increase its possibility. Helping adolescents understand the warning signals of suicide may save the life of a teen.

  12. Teen Suicide-Motives • Researchers have identified seven motives for suicide attempts among adolescents: • A cry for help to get assistance • Making amends for having done something they think is unpardonable • Rejoining a lost loved one • A kind of blackmail to get better treatment. For example: “If I threaten to hurt myself, they’ll be nice to me” • Getting back for real or imagined abandonment, either physical or emotional • An intense rage at others that is directed at self. • Mental illness or personality disorganization

  13. Teen Suicide-Providing Help • Although you may feel powerless, there are a number of things you can do to help a teen that is going through a difficult time. • Make sure they have someone to confide in. • Don’t attempt to minimize or discount what the teen is going through. • Always express support and concern. • Express that these problems can be overcome. • If a student ever expresses that he/she is suicidal or homicidal, you are mandated to report this.

  14. Mandated Reporters • Now you can look at the hand out I gave you.

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