Introduction
Welcome to a Family-Friendly Guide on Teen Mental Health
Adolescence is a unique time of transition and self-discovery. As teens begin to explore their independence and roles in the world, they will face new stressors and emotional hurdles along the way. These trials and tribulations impact their journey and those around them.
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Mental health is just as important as physical health, yet due to its vast complexity and the stigma surrounding it, it can often be overlooked or misunderstood. Whether you or your teen is struggling with anxiety, stress, or depression, or you simply want to learn more about how to take care of your emotional well-being, this resource will equip you with the knowledge and skills to understand, manage, and prioritize your mental health.
In this guide, you will find:
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An educational overview of mental health, including general definitions, warning signs, prevention, and treatment strategies
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A deep dive into anxiety and depression in teens
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Education and prevention strategies for suicide and self-harm
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Parent-corner with parent-specific education on navigating teen mental health
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A toolkit filled with interactive therapeutic activities to promote mental wellness, family togetherness and develop a healthier mindset
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No one should go through this journey alone. We hope this tool serves as a teammate and support stone for teens and their families as they navigate this exciting and challenging journey called life!
What is Mental Health?
Mental health refers to emotional, social, and psychological well-being. It describes how a person feels mentally and how they cope with negative emotions.
Good mental health doesn't mean a person always feels happy and positive. It means that a person feels emotionally and mentally balanced and, therefore, able to cope with positive and negative occurrences in life. When mental health is good, you can engage in daily requirements and social interactions and manage mood changes without a detrimental impact on your function.
Poor mental health occurs when a person's emotional and mental balance is off. Either they feel too high or too low. When a person's body falls into these extremes, they can no longer react and cope with daily obstacles and mood shifts as usual. Minor stressors or inconveniences may feel exaggerated, bringing them to their breaking point much quicker than normal. On the flip side, when a person is feeling too low, they may lose the ability to fully feel the impact of negative or positive occurrences. As a result, they don't react to anything, leading them into a zone of shutdown, which is not productive either.
What is the difference between mental health and mental illness?
As mentioned earlier, mental health is an individual's generalized ability to emotionally and mentally engage with and cope with the world around them. Everyone has mental health, and it is shifting up and down a continuum all the time. Use physical health as an analogy: Everyone has a state of physical health, and some days, you feel more healthy, energized, and strong enough to conquer your day. Other times, you feel weak, have low energy, or are groggy. This doesn't mean you are sick. Instead, it just means your health is slightly lower on the sliding scale than usual.
Mental illness is a collection of conditions that affect an individual's ability to think, feel, and behave. Each condition has a unique set of symptoms that impact a person's brain function and result in decreased mental and emotional management. Using the same physical health analogy: While everyone has a physical health state, only some people have diseases such as Diabetes, which impacts the body's ability to function properly. Similar to physical illnesses, some mental illnesses are a forever diagnosis, with permanent changes in brain chemistry and function. Some mental illnesses only last periods, and with proper treatment, medication, and management, they can be eradicated.
Knowing the differences between these two definitions is important when exploring and discussing mental health and wellness. Despite their differences, mental health and mental illness are essential to talk about, treat, and respect because no one is immune to these challenges!
What factors contribute to mental illness or poor mental health?
The origin of poor mental health and mental illness is complex. Researchers continue to uncover many reasons for these emotional disturbances. Many times, there is overlap between factors contributing to poor mental health and mental illness, which is why they have been combined here. Below is a list of possible factors contributing to poor mental health/mental illness; please note that oftentimes, these factors work in tandem, and just because you or your loved one is experiencing mental health concerns doesn't mean they have one or all of these factors occurring. To truly know what contributes to an individual's mental state, doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists should be involved to get the full picture of how one's mind works.
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Genetic factors - Individuals can inherit specific genes that impact brain chemistry and function, resulting in more extreme emotions or a more difficult time managing changing emotions. This is why some mental illnesses run in family history.
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Unbalanced brain chemistry - The brain and body use neurotransmitters, tiny chemical messengers, to biologically communicate emotions and alerts from the brain to the body and back. Some individuals are born with or develop an oversupply of these messengers, which can result in false alarms, increasing an individual's stress or anxiety throughout the day. In contrast, some individuals have too few messengers, which means happy or calm messages are less frequent, making the person feel sad, fearful, or numb to the world more often than others.
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Learned behaviors from others - People learn a lot about the world from those around them. If they are surrounded by people who are always stressed, anxious, or on high alert, they might learn that this is a "normal" state of living. It is important to take into account the people you surround yourself with when thinking about mood, emotions, and mental health.
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Negative life events or acute stressors - All people experience stressors in their lives. Odds are your mental health is poorer during finals week than in the middle of summer. Life circumstances can impact mental wellness. Often, in a therapeutic setting, these adverse/stressful events are called triggers. It is important to identify your triggers to avoid them in the future or make a plan to manage them when they are unavoidable.
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Substance interactions - Substances like alcohol, recreational drugs, and even prescription medications can interact and alter brain chemistry and hormones, resulting in changes in mental health
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Autonomic nervous system - The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the body's fight-or-flight system. Some people are born with this system set to a higher alert than others, resulting in more stress and anxiety, which can impact mental health.
How do poor mental health, mental illness, and stress impact our lives?
Poor mental health, mental illness, and general stress impact all aspects of a person's life. When the brain and body are fighting an internal battle, managing daily tasks can feel more difficult. It might feel exhausting or meaningless to perform tasks like showering and/or brushing your teeth. These simple things you used to take for granted are typically the first to be forgotten when experiencing mental health challenges. Poor mental health can also manifest in larger-scale tasks like school or work. It can make assignments appear terrifying or evaporate your motivation to complete school work entirely. Social interactions and relationships are also commonly affected by poor mental health. A lot of people experiencing poor mental health start to pull back from social interactions or become irritated by the people they love more quickly. When these changes start to happen, it can cause isolation for the person experiencing poor mental health. It is crucial for everyone involved to understand that an individual battling mental health challenges acts separately from their character. While their words and actions may be hurtful at the moment, they often are not aligned with their heart. Try to keep people who care about you close during these times, as they are one of your biggest assets when working to overcome poor mental health.
Why is there such a stigma and what can you do about it?
There is no one reason why there continues to be such a significant stigma surrounding mental health and mental illness. Researchers have proposed many reasons for such stigma; some of the most common contributors are described below.
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Invisibility of struggle - Mental health/illness often appears invisible to those around a person, making it difficult to see and understand others' challenges. This can also lead to a societal perception of those with mental health challenges being weak, which in turn deters people from speaking up and asking for help.
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Lack of knowledge - Mental health/illness is largely not well understood, which results in false perceptions of the challenges and individuals struggling. Even doctors and scientists are still trying to understand mental health. However, great gains in research have been made in recent years.
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History of social rejection - It was only until the most recent decade that mental health has been talked about so openly in the public. Due to the long history of silence and outcasting of those with mental illnesses, many individuals still see it as a taboo topic, decreasing their acceptance of learning and talking about it.
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Cultural differences - Mental health and culture can be largely intertwined. Each culture carries its own perspective on managing and talking about mental health. These cultural differences can make it difficult for people to discuss mental health cross-culturally, leading to continued division and stigma towards the topic.
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Familial perception - When thinking about children, they learn a lot about the world from their family and those they grow up around. Parental perception towards mental health and dealing with emotions play a huge part in how children grow up to manage their own emotions.
It is evident that there continues to be a stigma towards mental health and mental illness. While some great strides in education and social acceptance have been made in recent history, there continues to be a need for much more work to be done. One of the best ways you can fight the stigma is to educate yourself and engage in the discourse surrounding mental health/illness. This resource is a tremendous first step to growing your understanding of the topic and doing your best to end the stigma. Continue through this resource to learn more about mental health and its specific effects on teens; with the knowledge that you gain, you could do amazing things for yourself and those around you. By having even one conversation, you could save a life!
Disclaimer
Please note that this resource has been created using research and reviewed content to the best of our abilities. This resource should not replace professional help, rather serve as a stepping stone for exploration and learning on the content.
If you or a loved one is experiencing a mental health crisis please seek professional help.
For immediate assistance or life threatening emergencies call 911
Suicide Hotline, avaliable 24 hours a day call or text 9-8-8
24/7 Crisis Line: Text HOME to 741741
National alliance on Mental Illness Helpline: 1-800-950-6264
California Youth Crisis Line 800-843-5200
General Crisis Line: Call 2-1-1
It’s okay to ask for help.
Be nice to everyone, and most importantly, be inclusive
-Patrick Turner