Behavior Problems | Parenting Teens Blog

October 28, 2010

Dealing With Social Phobia

Filed under: behavior problems — Tags: dealing with social phobia, fears of social events, parenting teens, social anxiety, social phobia, ten social phobia — admin @ 9:01 pm

Social Anxiety or Social Phobia is a serious anxiety issue that usually teens develop, but this is an issue that can continue through adulthood if not treated. Social Phobia involves impossible feelings of being shy and is followed by a fear of social interaction with strangers. This can severally influence a person’s social life and the possibility of forming a serious relationship.

Teens that have social phobia usually have no problems communicating with family members, close friends from early childhood, they have issues with new people, group events, and especially speaking or performing in front of a public.

These extreme feelings of shyness and fears of being embarrassed will get in the way of anyone’s life, and if a teen lives through these traumas they can cause major consequences. Teens with social phobia can never enjoy social activities; in most cases they will try to avoid each and every last one of them.

Teens with social phobia are lonely, depressed, disappointed and they offer feel sorry for not being able to participate in a social event, they wish to do it but they simply can’t gather the courage.

This is rather a tricky issue when it comes to school as teens with social phobia have issues with interaction during the class. A highly intelligent teen can appear stupid or ignorant because he or she is ashamed to answer a question or take part in a class discussion. Some may be even too frightened to ask a teacher for help.

Social phobia can also prevent teens from many other events a teen should simply enjoy in those years, like playing a team sport, auditioning for a play, joining a project with his classmates.

Social phobia is developed in early childhood like most types of phobias. It is normally a combination of things that causes teen social phobia like genetics, learned behavior, other experiences and events can all contribute to developing of social phobia.

A teen with social phobia cannot overcome this issue on his own, professional help and treatment is needed in order to get the teen to open up and try to interact with others. With proper treatment teens with social phobia can manage to cope with their fears and they can develop confidence and self esteem needed to engage new people and join social events and gatherings.

But treatment will be hard if not impossible if the person with social phobia doesn’t have a true wish to overcome those fears. It is important to encourage your teen if he or she suffers from social phobia and get him or her to face fears and try and change for the better, as the alternative may mean the life of solitude.

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September 3, 2010

Teen Anger Management

Filed under: behavior problems — Tags: anger management, control emotions, emotional issues, parenting teens, teen anger, teen anger management — admin @ 10:16 am

Every person felt anger at some point in their lives and we all felt the need to yell, scream and even break things, but only a few of us follow those impulses. For teenagers it is much harder to control these impulses and their temper, which comes with maturity for most. Unfortunately there are some that have a really hard time controlling their emotions and their anger, but they can also learn how to control that anger with some dedication. So for the teens that have anger management issues here are some anger management techniques that will help you calm yourself and overcome the anger that possesses you from time to time.

When you lose control over your emotions and your anger the first thing you need to do is calm things down, that is best done by removing yourself from the situation. You can do that in two ways, either by using some method that calms you down like counting to 10 or literally leaving the room or the place where the argument took place. Experiment when you get in that situation and see what works best and the fastest.

Once the first part is out of the way you still have to dispose of the anger that accumulated inside you, find a way to let that anger get out. Most people simply walk it off, but you can go to the gym, write a diary, play some music, let loose and do whatever feels good and removes you from the danger zone where your anger placed you.

When you get into an argument or hot discussion be sure to stick to the issue at hand, when people argue things tend to get out of control and at that time you can start talking about everything related to the person you are arguing with, and that is never a good thing as it will only worsen the situation. Stick to the issue at hand and try to resolve it, don’t stray off the subject. Be sure to present your side and what made you angry, maybe there is a good explanation on the other side as well, but if you burst and let your anger get a hold of you, you may never know the answer the other side has to offer.

You need to understand that there is a pattern with every type of anger for any person, so if you can track back all of your anger bursts you may figure that pattern out and find a way to stop it. There are some things that may set you off on regular basis, learn to avoid them. If you can see the pattern behind you then keep track of things that happen from now on, that will eventually emerge a pattern for you. The only way to look at anger management and get the best out of it is by seeing it as taking back control over your life.

We all get mad sometimes, and although it may feel good at the moment it will not bring you any good in the long run and it may hurt the people around you that care, so use these few tips to take back control over your emotions and subdue your anger.

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July 14, 2010

Warning Signs of Teen Mental Health Problems

Filed under: behavior problems,teen behaviors,Teen Health — Tags: mental health, mental health problems, parenting teens, parenting teens blog, teen mental health, teen mental health problems, warning signs of teen mental health problems, warning signs teen — admin @ 12:52 pm

Teen years are the most frightening ones, for both teenagers and their parents. The time has come for some changes and that scares all of us, we as parents know that some changes will take place, but we don’t know which, but we are prepared a bit, unlike our children who have no idea what is around the corner. We need to face the fact that our children are under a lot of stress, they want to do well in school, they want to be liked by their peers and they don’t want to make mistakes. That is just a part of being a teenager, but in some cases that may go overboard, so if your teenager is feeling worthless, hopeless, sad he might be showing signs of mental health issues.

Mental problems in teen years can lead to sever consequences, so if you have such a doubt you should check for signs of mental health problems, Look for these signs:

-    Your teen child is very angry most of the time, cries a lot or overreacts to things;
-    He or she feels worthless or guilty a lot;
-    Your teen is anxious or worried a lot more than other young people;
-    Your child is feeling grief for a long time after a loss or death;
-    Your child has unexplained fears
-    Your child is constantly concerned about physical problems or appearance;
-    And the most obvious one, your child is frightened that his or her mind is controlled or is out of control.

Other symptoms you need to take in consideration are changes that happened with your teen in the recent past. In most cases they happen suddenly:

-    Unexplained changes in sleeping or eating habits
-    Avoids friends or family and wants to be alone all the times
-    Daydreams too much and can't get things done;
-    Feels life is too hard to handle or talks about suicide;
-    Hears voices that cannot be explained.

There are other signs like:

-    Poor concentration
-    Worrying about being harmed
-    Constant nightmares
-    Alcohol and drug abuse
-    Aggressive behavior

Be sure that if these signs appear out of the blue or they are repeating over a longer period of time, you should consult a professional like a therapist. But also keep in mind that teenagers change their attitude and their behavior frequently, so if this is normal for your child or he changes his pattern in a few days or weeks you probably have nothing to worry about. But just in case, you should be on your guard.

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June 2, 2010

Teen Conduct Disorder

Filed under: behavior problems — Tags: aggressive behavior, conduct disorder, disobeying rules, parenting teens, parenting teens blog, physical cruelty, teen aggressive behavior, teen conduct, Teen Conduct Disorder — admin @ 6:57 am

Teen conduct disorder is unfortunately a reality, and a sad one. Conduct disorder usually includes aggressive behavior against humans, property or animals that is considered to be destructive, deceitful, dishonest and violent. So anything from causing people injuries, stealing and even rape is considered to be conduct disorder. But there is one difference that separates conduct disorder from other similar acts of violence, it is a repetitive process. We are not talking about an isolated incident here; we are talking about a need to do these things over and over again with a pattern.

The person that suffers from a conduct disorder is unable to realize the good from the bad at one point and prevention is impossible, but noticing the signs at an early stage may minimize the distress of the child and the family. Such a person has a repetitive behavior in which he or she violates the rights of others, laws, and society values. If that type of behavior repeats for more than a year with at list three of the symptoms listed bellow than it’s time to act.

•    Aggressive behavior
    Threatening and bullying
    Fighting
    Using weapons
    Physical cruelty to people
    Physical cruelty to animals
    Forcing a sexual activity
•    Destructive behavior
    Intentional damaging and destroying of other’s property
    Starting fires on purpose in order to damage someone’s property
•    Deceitful behavior
    Stealing
    Lying
    Shoplifting
    Breaking into homes
    Car jacking
•    Violation of rules
    Disobeying rules of parents before the age of 13
    Running away from home
    Running from school
    Disobeying rules and laws of society

There are numerous reasons that cause teen conduct disorder; they may be biological, like certain injuries to the brain or genetics, like history of mental illness in the family, but that is not necessarily true. Teen conduct disorder may develop in an unhealthy environment like dysfunctional family or child abuse and traumatic experience; also social aspects contribute to all these factors.

Unfortunately there are currently only two ways by which teen conduct disorder is treated, psychotherapy and medication. For milder cases psychotherapy is used, it is a form of counseling by which the teen is learned how to control and express his anger through some more appropriate ways. On the other hand medication is a bit tricky, since there is no drug that treats conduct disorder specifically various drugs may be used to treat different symptoms.

The best form of treatment can be done if the symptoms of conduct disorder are caught early, then with psychotherapy success is something real and can be expected, while in cases where conduct disorder is not caught early while it’s developing, treatment is almost impossible.

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May 29, 2010

Teenage Attitudes

Filed under: behavior problems — Tags: attitude, cell phone, parenting teens, parenting teens blog, teen attitude, Teenage Attitudes — admin @ 7:57 am

It is normal that teenagers have their own blend of behavior, or attitude in some cases. We are not talking necessarily about bad attitude or teens being rude, they just have different attitudes and each one of them requires a different approach. Yes, there are those teens that will give you the lip, but there are teens that are just set in a certain way, either way they all need some push into the right direction. Well, more like guidance than a push, after all they simply do it because it soothes them in some way.

So let’s see the most basic types of teens and attitudes these days, I’m sure you will recognize your kid in one of these. The first one is a trouble maker, but not in a life threatening kind of way, simple dangerous for your heart, we are talking about impulsive teens. They do things before they think it through, so they first act and then think about it, if you ever wound up with a bill on your credit card that you didn’t make you are getting the idea.

There is also the rebellious type, these teens are not bad, they are just restless and they try to push the limits as much as they can. They can give you a heart attack at some times; they are lovable, but not always. You have teens that are mood shifters; they can go from a smile to tears in a blink of an eye. These types of kids can really give you a fright and a headache, and they can be hard to work with.

Then you have style and friends obsessed types of teens. Style obsessed teens will tend to get everything about them being noticed, from their cap and watch to the cell phone and their hair, they are one of the easier ones to deal with, just don’t get them talking about your taste. The kids that are obsessed with having more and more friends can be troublesome, they tend to forget about school and real issues at hand and all they think about is their friends, which by the way are nowhere near your kid, they are plugged into his cell phone.

The last two types are somewhat of a nightmare in their own way, the silent and incommunicative type which always answers with yes or no, and you never know what he or she is thinking. And then you have the risk taker type, extreme is their middle name, they will do anything that can get them excited and you scared out of your mind for their wellbeing.

These are all kids we deal with every day, there are even worse types, the ones that give you the lip always, but wait… I can tell you who is partially or completely to blame for that, but I won’t, you already know that. Get to know your kids, try and talk to them, communication matters more than you can imagine, for both you and for them.

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