Does Your Teen Have Depression?

Post author:Santos Counseling PLLC
Post published:June 3, 2017
Post category:Counseling Blog

Is Your Teen Ready For The School Year?

The school year has started and your teen is navigating the middle or high school setting that you once experienced. Our counseling office has noticed that most teens in school deal with trying to figure out how they will pass their classes, making new friends maintaining current friendships, and navigating the social pressures. Here are some tips to help teens and parents prioritize mental health as they start the new school year.

Would Your Teen Benefit From Counseling?

Santos Counseling has trained counselors that work with teens and parents. We help teens express difficult feelings and build healthy coping skills. Counseling, provides a supportive resource aimed to allow teens and parents to feel happy, overcome emotional challenges, and make healthy choices in life.

Teens with depression, may show:

Sadness. This emotion is often seen by isolation from peers, withdrawal from previously enjoyable activities or pleasures, and/or numbness.
Low self-esteem.
Teens struggling with depression may experience low self-worth or value.
Social withdrawal. This can be seen when your teen avoids recreational activities like sports practice or enters social seen in a state of isolation.

Counseling is a great way to allow your teen to discuss the issues they are experiencing. For parents, counseling gives you a space to address challenges, focus on you, and reach your personal goals.

5 Ways Teens Can Improve Their Mental Health

1. Meditation can help with depression.

Teens have the option to engage in various activities that incorporate meditation and reduce depressive symptoms. Options include: joining a local yoga class, following along to a meditation YouTube Video or simply taking 10 minutes to breathe, relax and gather yourself before engaging in an activity. For instance, before school, wait for 10 minutes breathing and visualizing emotional balance.

2. Capturing and Releasing Your Thoughts Can Help With Depression

Journaling allows the mind the slow down. I’m not sure about you, but my brain sometimes runs a little too fast. Journaling allows the brain to slow down. This therapy strategy helps teens struggling with difficult emotional thoughts.

The act of writing can be approached with several options. Typing, texting, audio recording and/or video recording are all great options to journal.

Time and place to journal is key. I encourage my clients to seek periods that are free of noise and distraction. For instance, prior to bed, early in the morning, or in the car prior to work.

This strategy can help teens:

Reduce tension or stress brought on by the day.
Focus and concentrate on what’s important.
Reduce worry and sadness.
Gain perspective on how he/she is feeling.

3. Having A Voice Can Help With Depression

Teens should have a voice that can say “YES” or “NO”. Often social relationships, peer pressure and/or personal thoughts lead us to feeling insecure and unable to say “NO” or “YES” to others. As a supportive therapeutic strategy, I encourage teens to focus on creating a voice. A powerful, confident, and empathetic voice that allows him/her to say “YES” or “NO” without feeling insecure in their decision or discomfort. This strategy helps teens with build self-esteem, create healthy boundaries, and gain security.

4. Set Realistic Goals

Your teen can benefit from setting goals that they can reach. A great place to start is by using SMART goals. The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, And Time-bound goals. The goal is to give your teen a goal that they can reach while also ensuring that the process to reach the goal is one is founded on challenge and growth.

As your teen starts the school year, try to have a conversation with them about the goals for the year. Below are example prompts and questions:

What specific academic goals do you want to achieve this year at school?
What specific personal goals do you want to achieve this year at school?
Can you name two areas in school where you’d like to improve?
What steps can you take to achieve the personal and academic goals you have?
How are you feeling about going back to school this year?
Are there any particular worries about the school year that you want to talk about?
Are there any particular excitements about the school year that you want to talk about?
What are some things that make you feel stressed about starting the school year?