During the teen years, peer relationships are developed and formed. This is a time of a teenager’s life when they develop social skills needed to maintain appropriate interactions with others. They learn how to love, to care, and apply certain social boundaries and norm. If this time of their life is filled with overwhelming stress, it will lead to chronic forms of anxiety…
As a parent or guardian, it’s concerning to know that a teenage in your care is struggling with stress. Stress can be good, such as when a teen finds out she has been accepted to a college of her choice. Or stress can be bad such as when a teen is experiencing bullying in school. Stress is a normal reaction to life and situations.
However, untreated prolonged stress, can lead to chronic anxiety. This is when symptoms of stress, lingers more intensely and far after the event or situational factors. Symptoms of stress include, but not limited to, body reactions such as, headaches, chest pains, stomach aches, auto immune disorders, and muscle tension. On the emotional side, symptoms of stress, include, but not limited to, irritable mood, angry out-bursts.
Prolonged and untreated stress will intensify with teens and has the potential to cause major relational issues with peers and family members, causing more isolation and frustration.
During the teen years, peer relationships are developed and formed. This is a time of a teenager’s life when they develop social skills needed to maintain appropriate interactions with others. They learn how to love, to care, and apply certain social boundaries and norm. If this time of their life is filled with overwhelming stress, it will lead to chronic forms of anxiety.
Some of the stressors facing teens these days are conflicts with friends, bullying and peer pressure; academic struggles; divorce of family separation; exposure to family’s financial difficulty; unsafe home environment, a parent or a family member living in the home with a mental illness or specific special needs, etc.
If you suspect your teen struggling with stress, it is time to do something about it. Prolong stress must not be ignored, especially in teens. Stress will cause major issues through the teen years to adulthood. Anxiety disorders in adults can be traced back to the teen years.
For further help, call us at CAV Family Therapy. We have clinicians trained in helping your teen through stressful times. We have resources that you and your teen can use to manage stress so that it doesn’t develop into something much worst. Help is out there; you just have to reach out.
Call us today!