Help for Troubled Teens

The character of a person is shown through his or her personality — by the way an individual thinks, feels, and behaves.  When the behavior is inflexible, maladaptive, and antisocial, then that individual is diagnosed with a personality disorder. 

Most personality disorders begin as problems in personal development and character which peak during adolescence and then are defined as personality disorders. 

Personality disorders are not illnesses in a strict sense as they do not disrupt emotional, intellectual, or perceptual functioning.  However, those with personality disorders suffer a life that is not positive, proactive, or fulfilling.  Not surprisingly, personality disorders are also  associated with failures to reach potential.

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In a famous experiment, students were asked to take a lemon home and to get used to it.  Three days later, they were able to single out “their” lemon from a pile of rather similar ones.  They seemed to have bonded. 

Is this the true meaning of love, bonding, coupling?

Do we simply get used to other human beings, pets, or objects?

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The major task of adolescence is to become ‘your own person’. Adolescents learn to make choices and commitments, follow through with them, and stand up independently in the world.

They need to be respected for taking on these tasks. After all, we respect adults who can do these things. They are complicated and courageous actions.

But teenagers swing back and forth between dependence and independence as they work on these tasks. It’s easy for parents to get frustrated. And it’s easy for a parent to assume that if the teenager would simply follow the plan that makes sense to a parent, things would be all right in the end.

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