We all want to do the best for our children – but as they grow up and become more independent, this can begin to get substantially harder. In turn, with the growing pressures of modern life, many teenagers are beginning to struggle with the weight of the world on their shoulders. In turn, this is increasing the number of teenagers struggling with mental health challenges. However, finding help for your teenager with mental health struggles is not impossible.
With this thought in mind, today, we’ve outlined several key things you need to know about how to help your teenager with anxiety, depression, self-esteem issues, and more. Hopefully, this will allow you to give them the best chance to grow and overcome the challenges they’ve been facing.
How Common are Mental Health Challenges Among Teenagers?
Before we go further, you might be wondering: how common is it to need help for a teenager with anxiety, depression, or poor mental health? Unfortunately, while we all like to hope that our children will avoid this horrendous condition, it’s substantially more common than we realize.
Around one in five young people will experience a mental health challenge in a single year. Even more worryingly, the World Health Organization suggests almost 5% of all teenagers will experience anxiety by the time they are nineteen.
Other incredibly common mental health challenges faced by our teenagers include ADHD, depression, and behavioural problems. These conditions are also often accompanied by low self-esteem and poor self-worth.
It’s also important to note that different mental health conditions in children often occur together. For example, around three-quarters of teenagers with anxiety will also need help for depression. As such, the scale of the problem is significant; addressing this is crucial to help your teenager lead a positive life.
How to Find Help for Your Teenager with Anxiety, Depression, or Mental Health Challenges
If you think that your child might need help with their mental health, there’s no time like the present. Mental health conditions often get worse with time, which is why making a change now could be hugely influential. Luckily, overcoming these struggles is completely possible with the right support.
Learn How to Address the Topic
One of the most vital first things you should do is learn how to address the topic of anxiety, depression, or mental health. Indeed, you’ll struggle to find help for your teenager with mental health until they can accept it themselves. However, addressing the topic of mental health can feel hard, and you need to be careful not to make your teenager feel like a burden.
Reflective listening is a crucial step in this regard; you should never interrupt them, as it’s their chance to share how they’re feeling. You should also take things slowly and patiently. Try to also avoid closed questions (e.g., are you okay?) to gently encourage your teenager to open up about their feelings.
We’ve looked at what to say to someone with depression in greater detail in our previous blogs. Be sure to spend a little time reading through these, too, to ensure you know where to start.
Be There for your Child
One of the most important things you can do to help your teenager with depression is to be there for them. Don’t push them to share if they’re not ready to. However, always being there for your teenage child can help them feel more comfortable opening up to you when they’re ready. Don’t criticise or ask questions if they do attempt to share their feelings.
Get Professional Counselling and Therapy
We all need a helping hand in life, from time to time. With this thought in mind, if you’ve been looking to find a way to help your teenager with mental health, you may want to reach out to someone specialising in teenage mental health.
Solutions such as hypnotherapy can be incredibly effective for helping your teenage child establish happy, healthy patterns. Moreover, counsellors can also help with numerous different fields, including bereavement therapy.
Personally, I’m proud to also provide effective EMDR therapy support that can help rewind past traumas and help your teenage child move on from their struggles. So, if you’d like to find out more, please don’t hesitate to contact me; we’ll discuss how we can help your teenage child heal.
Spend Time with Them
As a final tip, you’d be amazed at how much difference just spending quality time with your teenager can make. Of course, this may not overcome teenage mental health in its own right. Still, it can give your teenager something to focus on. As such, this may help boost their mood during the healing and recovery process.
Final Thoughts
Seeing your teenager suffering with their mental health can irrefutably be a heartbreaking process. However, while this is a topic that should always be addressed with care, it’s absolutely possible to help your teenager with anxiety, depression, or mental health challenges. Hopefully, today’s short guide will have given you some ideas on where to start.
But, if you’re still feeling unsure or don’t feel confident trying to help your teenager through this scary time alone, be sure to reach out for help. Specialist hypnotherapy and counselling services can transform your experience of tackling teenage anxiety, depression, or mental health struggles. As such, if you’re looking to find help for your teenager with mental health challenges such as anxiety or depression, the first step could be asking for help.