Tips for parents how to help your child cope with teenage depression
Tips for parents how to help your child cope with teenage depression
Teenage depression is a serious problem, faced with which parents often do not know how to behave. We offer some useful advice of a psychologist.
Do not leave the teenager's problems unattended
Symptoms of depression - apathy, increasedtearfulness and irritability, loss of interest in what used to bring joy, isolation, restriction and refusal to communicate with peers close. As well as migraines, dizziness, gastric disorders, causeless "just a bad feeling." Noticing such symptoms in adolescents, you can not leave them without attention. After all, teen depression can lead not only to dropping out of school or sports section, but to serious problems, including suicide.
Gently and unobtrusively ask the teenager,what is the reason for his reduced mood. But do not rely on a clear answer - it's unlikely that a teenager himself understands the changes taking place with him. The main thing is to demonstrate support, participation, attention to the problems of a teenager.
Do not scold or blame the teenager
The main mistake of parents who facethe manifestation of adolescent depression in his child - this is a charge of laziness, weak character, attempts to "stir up" and appeals to "get together". It is especially hard for teenage boys, who are forbidden to "defile" cultural stereotypes. If you start to shame and abuse the adolescent, it will only lead to aggravation of depression. After all, a teenager already feels to himself not necessary, not understood, abandoned. And if you add to this and constant reproaches - then you can think about balancing accounts with life.
Teenage depression is a disease
It is important for parents to understand that the teenageDepression is not an excuse, it's not an invention, it's really a disease, like a flu or a sore throat. And just like any disease, it can lead to complications, if you "drive it inside", do not attach importance. It is important to understand and eliminate not so much the symptoms as the cause.
In adolescence, there is a person. Unrequited first love, failures in school, conflicts with peers - a teenager without protection of life experience, these factors perceive this very painful and any of them, against the background of physiological, hormonal, and psychological adjustment may become a cause of depression. And, as a rule, there is a combination of factors.
Therefore, in addition to constant support, aspirationsto understand the child's feelings, unconditional acceptance of it with all its problems, parents need to turn to the help of specialists. It is worth turning to a psychologist who has the necessary techniques to help a teenager through this difficult age, regaining a new "I" and the joy and fullness of life.