Mental Health Tips: Teens

May is Men­tal Health Month. Through­out the month, we’re pro­vid­ing some help­ful tips for all age groups on ways to help sup­port your men­tal health. Men­tal health in the teen years can be tricky as ado­les­cents are going through so many phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al, and social changes at one time. Here are some ideas for mak­ing it a lit­tle eas­i­er to cope with all those big changes.

1. Dis­con­nect from electronics.
2. Get active.
3. Be nice to your­self (catch your­self using neg­a­tive self-talk and replace it with some­thing more rea­son­able — ​“I suck at math.” to ​“Math is chal­leng­ing for me.”).
4. Talk about the stuff that bugs you, don’t bot­tle it up.
5. Have respon­si­bil­i­ties that can be man­aged well (builds auton­o­my and inde­pen­dence along with self-esteem).
6. Let the adults in your life know what you need from them.