What Should I Know About My Teenager’s Emotional Health?

The teenage years are a time of transition from childhood into adulthood.  Teens often struggle with being dependent on their parents while having a strong desire to be independent.  Ideally, they are maturing from the one-sided self-centeredness of childhood to a self-identity that balances responsible self-interest with care and love for others.

What Are The Characteristics of Emotionally Healthy People?

People who are emotionally healthy view all that they do and say in light of how their words and actions affect others.  They do not manipulate, exploit, or abuse others.  They understand that the world does not revolve around them. They are not self-absorbed and they don’t feel entitled.  They recognize their self-centered nature but choose to value their relationship with God and others over their own self-interest.  Because of this, they are less likely to suffer from depression or anxiety.

Emotionally healthy people accept personal responsibility for their behavior and their choices.  There is no victim mentality, no blaming others, society and the universe for their problems or disappointments.  They realize that they are in charge of their lives — responsible for every action, word and thought, and accountable for the resulting consequences.

People who are emotionally healthy experience, acknowledge, identify, and accept their own emotions.  This means that they are open to their feelings and are aware of what they are actually feeling. They don’t distract themselves from their emotions through hiding or numbing themselves with obsessive behaviors (e.g., drug and alcohol use, sex, self-injury, gambling, work, hobbies, Internet use).  Those who are not in touch with their own feelings are not likely to have a sense of conscience.

Because emotionally healthy people are in touch with their feelings, they can identify with others’ feelings — they show empathy.  It’s necessary to not only “get into the shoes,” but get “into the heart and soul” of another.  To do that, the person must put the need for acknowledgement of his or her own emotions on hold.  Being able to correctly and comprehensively read another person’s emotional messages empowers them to intuitively identify with the person.  Emotionally healthy people are able to imaginatively insert themselves in other people’s situations and experience them intimately.  In turn, they are able to feel and make a compassionate response.

What Can I Do to Help My Teen?

Working on your own emotional health and communicating your love for your teen are the most important things you can do.  Children decide how they feel about themselves in large part by how their parents behave and react to them.  It’s also important to discuss your values and spiritual beliefs, and to set expectations and boundaries (e.g., honesty, self-control, respect for others), while still allowing teenagers to have their own space.

Parents of teens often find themselves noticing only the problems, and they may get in the habit of giving mostly negative feedback and criticism.  Although teens need feedback, they respond better when it is given positively and spoken with love.

Acknowledging and praising appropriate, responsible, and caring  behavior can help your teen feel a sense of accomplishment, enhance self-esteem, and reinforce your family’s values.

Although no chemical imbalance has ever been proven, health professionals prescribe psychostimulant medication (such as Ritalin, Strattera, Adderall) as the primary treatment in correcting the ‘chemical imbalance’.  In 2000, more than 19 million prescriptions for ADHD drugs were filled, a 72% increase since 1995.

However, with the known side effects of these drugs and without knowledge or evidence of long-term results on growth and development, is medication really the best option?

Parents should know that the psychostimulants normally prescribed for ADD/ADHD help all people — with or without an ADD/ADHD diagnosis — to focus attention more easily, depending on the dose.

However, these drugs are not without serious risk.  Between the years of 1990-2000, over 569 children were hospitalized, 38 of them were life-threatening hospitalizations, and 186 died from Ritalin.

It is well known that psychostimulants have abuse potential.  Very high doses of psychostimulants, particularly of amphetamines, may cause central nervous system damage, cardiovascular damage, and hypertension.  In addition, high doses have been associated with compulsive behaviors and, in certain vulnerable individuals, movement disorders.  There is a rare percentage of children and adults treated at high doses who have hallucinogenic responses.  Drugs used for ADHD other than psychostimulants have their own adverse reactions: tricyclic antidepressants may induce cardiac arrhythmias, bupropion at high doses can cause seizures, and pemoline is associated with liver damage.  (Diagnosis and Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, National Institute of Health)

Many parents do not realize that if their child takes Ritalin or other psychostimulant medication past the age of 12, according to the 1999 Military Recruitment Manual, that child may not join the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, or National Guard until after a doctor has signed a paper stating that the person has been off the medication for four years.

Also, if a child uses Ritalin or other psychostimulant medication, the state or federal government cannot hire him or her if the job involves state secrets or national security, because that child is a Class 2 drug user.

If a child uses Ritalin or other psychostimulant medication, some insurance companies will turn down that child for being a Class 2 drug user, and may even turn down the entire family.  Other health insurance companies will raise rates and write in a pre-existing condition clause, excluding some coverage for the ADD/ADHD child.

Psychostimulant medication are drugs that are commonly abused.  Some unprescribed users of Adderall, an amphetamine, and methylphenidate, more widely known as Ritalin, are adults.  But experts say many are young people, as young as 11, who get the drugs from peers being treated for ADD.  Users often crush the pills and snort them to get a cocaine-like rush, as these drugs and cocaine have more similarities than differences.

Students who take ADD/ADHD medication are often asked to sell or trade their drugs, and many know students who have given away or sold their medication.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a study of students in Wisconsin and Minnesota showed 34% of ADHD youth, ages 11-18, report being approached to sell or trade their medicines, such as Ritalin.

There are so many concerns surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of ADD/ADHD that parents must be knowledgeable and cautious.  It is usually the school that approaches parents to have an assessment for ADD/ADHD and parents often feel pressured in having the traditional drug treatment to ‘correct’ their child’s behavior.