Mental Health and Teens

The teenage years are a whirl­wind of emo­tions and expe­ri­ences. It’s a time of incred­i­ble growth, but also a peri­od when teens may strug­gle men­tal health chal­lenges. Dr. Todd Porter, a pedi­a­tri­cian, and Kathy Nel­son, a behav­ioral health ther­a­pist, both at Quin­cy Med­ical Group, help par­ents and teens nav­i­gate this cru­cial stage. For Men­tal Health Aware­ness Month, they share some guid­ance for families.

Warn­ing Signs to Watch For
As a ther­a­pist who works with kids of all ages, Nel­son high­lights com­mon con­cerns like anx­i­ety, depres­sion, and rela­tion­ship issues between teens and par­ents or peers. She advis­es par­ents to be aware of changes in their teen’s behav­ior and routine.

Look out for:

• Sud­den changes in hygiene, dress, or sleep pat­terns (increased sleep or fatigue)
• Iso­la­tion or secre­tive behav­ior at home or school
• Increased irri­tabil­i­ty with others
• Gen­er­al changes in behav­ior like dis­hon­esty, break­ing cur­few, or ignor­ing pre­vi­ous­ly fol­lowed rules

Dr. Porter empha­sizes the impor­tance of social con­nec­tion for teens, and shared, ​“All ado­les­cents need social con­nect­ed­ness. They need to be inter­act­ing (in-per­son prefer­ably) with peers and par­ents. If a par­ent notices their child start­ing to dis­tance or with­draw them­selves from them or their friends then I think this would be a red flag.”

Tak­ing Action: Resources and Sup­port
If you’re wor­ried about your teen’s men­tal health, Dr. Porter offers these steps:

• Talk to the teen’s school. See what men­tal health resources they offer, such as on-site behav­ioral health therapists.
• Sched­ule a men­tal health screen­ing with the pedi­a­tri­cian. This can help deter­mine if fur­ther coun­sel­ing with our QMG Behav­ioral Health team or med­ica­tion is needed.

Teens Tak­ing Charge of Their Well­be­ing
Teens can also rec­og­nize the need for help. Nel­son advis­es them to look for signs like:

• Strug­gling with schoolwork
• Feel­ing overwhelmed
• Per­sis­tent sad­ness, depres­sion, or anx­i­ety that inter­feres with dai­ly life
• Dif­fi­cul­ty sleep­ing or feel­ing alone

Mod­ern Pres­sures
Both Dr. Porter and Nel­son acknowl­edge that social media and the con­stant infor­ma­tion over­load con­tribute sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the unique stres­sors teens face today.

“Par­tic­i­pa­tion in social media has been linked to depres­sion and eat­ing dis­or­ders, espe­cial­ly in girls. Ado­les­cents engag­ing in social media expe­ri­ence what is called social com­par­i­son which can have neg­a­tive impacts on their self-esteem,” Dr. Porter stated.

Nel­son added, ​“Com­mon stres­sors are rela­tion­ships and with phones where tex­ting, snapchat, and the like are at our fin­ger­tips, rela­tion­ships are a strug­gle. Ado­les­cents and adults are read­ing into mes­sages things that the sender may not have intend­ed. Ado­les­cents strug­gle with one-on-one conversations.”

If you have con­cerns about your child’s men­tal health, talk to their pedi­a­tri­cian or pri­ma­ry care provider. To learn more about our care team at QMG, vis­it quin​cymed​group​.com.