Common Health Issues

Solutions to Teenage Depression and Mental Health Problems

• By Rich Health Editorial Team
• February 20, 2025

Adolescence is a time for experimenting with new ideas, experiences, and bodily sensations. If your teenage children can depend upon you to tell them the truth about danger to their health and safety, rather than to threaten, exaggerate or mislead them, you have established a healthy atmosphere in which to thrash out some of the problems that will inevitably arise.

 

FACTORS THAT CAN CAUSE TEENAGE DEPRESSION AND MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS

 

Driving

Most teenagers are impatient to get behind the wheel of a car and drive off to freedom. From the moment a boy or girl gets a driver’s license and the occasional use of the family car, he or she must be made to understand that a car can be a lethal weapon if mishandled.

First, make certain that the youngster receives expert driving instructions. Next, keep in mind that the best insurance against recklessness by the young person is the parent’s example. Father and mother must show that they respect traffic laws and exercise good judgement when they drive.

 

But if you sincerely believe that your teenager is not mature enough for the responsibility of driving, tell him that it is out of concern for his safety as well as that of other people that he will have to wait another year or so. Your stand will be difficult to maintain, but you must be firm.

 

Drinking

Studies of alcoholism show that children are least likely to abuse alcohol when they grow up in households where alcoholic beverages are an accepted part of meals or of special occasions, and where drunkenness is equated with foolishness rather than with maturity.

 

Remember that it is not the end of the world if junior reels home after his first beer binge, or if your teenager announces that she drank a glass of wine with her spaghetti dinner at a friend’s house. A more serious problem is the adolescent who rebels against family rigidity by drinking in secret and glorifying sinfulness.

 

Do not let the matter get out of hand. Alcoholism is a grave and widespread problem among adolescents of all classes.

 

Smoking

There is no doubt that the children of parents who smoke are likelier to take up smoking than are the children of parents who do not smoke. What good are health warnings and hygiene instruction to a teenager who is confronted day in and day out with a parent who smokes fairly constantly?

If neither you nor your spouse smokes and your youngster begins the habit on his own, you might suggest that smoking is neither sophisticated nor grown-up—it is in fact, more akin to thumb sucking!

 

Drugs

The use of drugs among youngsters is increasing. No longer confined to the ghetto, drugs have moved to the so-called good neighborhoods and are now used by many middle-class teenagers in the cities and rural areas.

 

Statistics show that there is an even chance that your child will experiment with drugs at some time or other. The habitual use of a psychochemical drug is a means of avoiding the problems of reality.

Drug addiction is a disease like alcoholism; in fact, alcohol is a drug. Because so many adults use alcohol for social purposes, they find its use (or even abuse) by their children more acceptable than, say marijuana or amphetamines.

 

But the use of any drug is harmful to the health and growth of the adolescent. Parents should be aware of this and should be honest enough to admit it and take action when and if their child is a user. Drugs, including alcohol, are dangerous, and it is the duty of parents to protect children from danger.

 

Most young people who misuse drugs are not going to become addicts. But it is conceivable that drugs may become a constant part of their lives.

Laymen often do not recognize the symptoms of drug use. But a parent can tell that something is wrong if a child suddenly does badly in school, if he becomes hideously sloppy, if he inexplicably loses a lot of weight, if he is unusually lethargic or hyperenergetic, if his complexion changes or if his eyes become red and swollen.

 

These signs do not necessarily imply drug use, but they definitely indicate that there is something to be concerned about.

Drugs used by today’s adolescents fall into three main types:

Stimulants such as amphetamines

Depressants such as tranquilizers and alcohols

Psychedelics such as marijuana, hashish, peyote or LSD

 

Most middle-class youngsters tend to choose drugs in the last category. Insecure, frightened and vulnerable as they are, these children find the psychedelic distortion of time and distance a seeming aid to what they believe is social interaction.

 

The peer group is a necessary element in the youngster’s life. A child needs to have friends who share the same feelings of awkwardness, the same fears and frustrations, and the same victories.

 

A child requires a peer group to fulfill his need for rebellion and approval, and the group may introduce him to drugs as part of the search for adventure. The seriously troubled child is likely to become a drug user.

The physical danger of drug use is less important than the potential mental damage it can cause. Drugs offer the illusion of security from adolescent anxiety. Their use signifies the avoidance of the pain that goes along with growing up and regular drug users do not grow up into healthy, mature adults.

 

Parents should know where they can go for help. A drug problem cannot be handled by the parents alone. Check out the resources in your community: schools, churches, hospitals and private counselling agencies.

 

Many parents react more quickly to the noises from their car’s engine than to the distress signals from their children. The adults worry that being realistic and demanding—and making clear that they are prepared to do anything to stop their children from using drugs—will somehow damage the relationship with the children.

 

But parent and child are not equals, peers or friends—at least not at this time of their lives. The parent must be understanding and at the same time let the child know that there are no choices at all where drugs are concerned. 

 

EXCESSIVE SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE

Social media usage among teenagers has been identified as a source of depression and mental health problems. There have been increases in adolescent depression and suicidal behavior over the last two decades that coincide with the advent of social media (SM) (platforms that allow communication via digital media), which is widely used among adolescents (2).

 

Studies have found that more frequent social media usage is associated with various mental health concerns like depression, body image concern and disordered eating (1)

 

Adolescence is usually accompanied by a variety of emotional problems. The child has grown to physical adulthood and wants to be treated as an adult. He wants to make his own decisions. He sees his parents in a new perspective and is conspicuously aware of their weakness and shortcomings. 

 

The girl may become her mother’s worst critic; the boy will frequently be in conflict with his father. Parents may feel that all of their efforts in child-rearing have been for naught and wonder where they went wrong.

 

It is helpful to realize that adolescents have always been in rebellion against their elders. The ‘generation gap’ is not characteristics of just our own time; youngsters in the past may have had to conceal their feelings, but inwardly they reacted just as hostilely against the limitations and discipline imposed by their parents.

 

Teenagers gravitate to social media in a bid to discover a community and identity for themselves. In this difficult period, parents would be wise to remember that while the adolescent is profoundly sensitive and insecure, he has at the same time a deep need to be recognized and treated as an adult.

 

Psychological support can be provided better by sympathetic listening and friendly but firm advice now and then, than by authoritarian scolding or constant nagging. Praise should not be withheld If merited. Adolescents complain with some justification that their elders see only their faults and never their good points.

 

To reduce the negative effect of social media use of teenagers, many parents find it possible to allow their maturing sons and daughters increasing responsibility and independence, while continuing to offer them firm and sympathetic guidance. In such a family atmosphere, it may not be very long before a lasting, affectionate—and calmer—relationship is achieved and the teenager will not feel the need to escape into the world of social media.

 

HOW TO HELP YOUR TEENAGERS HAVING DEPRESSION AND MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS

 As a parent or guardian, try to recollect your own reactions and desires during adolescence. If you remember how you resented the authority of your parents, you will understand why your children object to your strict rules.

 

If you remember your own fantasies, daydreams and grandiose plans, you will listen with tolerance, rather than derisions, when your children plan to remake the world or to become poets, missionaries, or explorers.

 

Parents must realize that their children’s adolescence may be stormy while theirs was quietly miserable or vice versa.

Psychiatrists points out that adolescents frequently have the correct attitude toward living. They are idealistic, intense about life, and hopeful that they can participate in making life better for everyone. The adolescent may not be very practical in his attempts to attain his ideals, but his idealism is worth our consideration and respect.

 

Our job is to help the adolescent reach the goal of maturity. They are a number of things you can do to help them attain social maturity:

1. Let the teenager feel he has a place in the family. Discuss family decisions
2. Give her the details of the family budget. Present a true picture of what things cost in terms of the parents’ outlay of time and energy. Let them see that their share of the income is a reasonable one, and not the result of an arbitrary decision
3. Encourage a sense of adult responsibility about money. Give the teenager a regular allowance—once a month for those 16 or over. If it is possible, provide older children with a personal checking account, which makes them realize that they are being treated as responsible individuals
4. Do everything you possibly can to enable an adolescent boy or girl, or one who is approaching adolescence to have friends
5. Give the adolescent a chance to leave home. Younger children can first go to camp or visit relatives. Then let them visit friends. Older and more mature adolescents should be permitted to take jobs away from home during the summer vacation. These breaks from home life give the adolescent valuable training in self-confidence. The experience also helps reduce the tensions that adolescents generate in their rebellion against home rules and restrictions. The adolescents soon learns that there are rules everywhere he goes
6. Let the teenager decide on his own career and try to get expert guidance for him. If your daughter wants to enter a profession rather than marry at the age her mother did, let her work it out in her own way. Do not add to the social pressure that often makes a girl marry before she is ready for it. Similarly, if your son is willing to give up a lucrative family business for the lesser financial return of some other work, let him follow his own interests
7. Help your children learn to know you and your spouse as individuals—not just as parents, but as human beings who may make mistakes but want to do the best for their children because they love them. It is better to show your love than it is to talk about it.

 

One way you can show your love is by remembering that the growing egos of adolescents need psychological nourishment as much as their growing bodies need food. But be careful not to praise your children for qualities they do not possess.

 

They will either suspect you of being insincere or think you believe what you say, which will make them feel inadequate and insecure. Surely you can find many good things you can truthfully say about your children.

 

REFERENCES

(1) The Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities by Jacqueline Nes

(2) Social Media Use and Depression in Adolescents: A Scoping Review by Carol Vidal et al