Being a teen brings a lot of changes. Your mentality changes, your body changes, and there are so many new feelings, that you never expected. It could be overwhelming and a bit complicated, so, don’t worry if you are afraid or not ready for his new phase.

 “Enjoy your youth, hang out with your friends, have fun, enjoy your senior year in high school, try new things”, are examples of what the people always say when you’re reaching your 15’s or 16’s, but nobody tells you “You can get confused, cry or get angry as many times as you want”, because basically that’s how you grow up and learn as a person.

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A lot of teenagers go through a phase where sadness is the only guide for their actions but, did you know this about teens?

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According to the WHO (World Health Organization), more than 20% of teenagers suffer from mental disorders.  For sure, these are diagnosed, and it’s a fact that this amount is getting bigger every time. Sadly, 15% of this population have considered about suicide.

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In my short life I’ve found with many articles, and have attended lectures from professionals that talk about this kind of things, and  give us  a logical explanation about how our brains and mentalities are more likely to suffer  mental disorders or  lack of  good mental health, with the situations that life brings you,  that are very important individually and collectively. (Eventually I would like to hear someone’s experience, someone that is close to my age, because actually when we feel identified by a figure that we meet, we are most likely to copy it, compare to it, or take it as an example.)

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The situations that a teenager goes through, become experiences, that could affect in long terms the way that they notice the world; gain or lose weight, can affect how they think they look, and cause eating disorders, or an obsession with how we look or how others look. The influence of social media, also provides an image of “perfect bodies”, and causes low self-esteem in teenagers.

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The anxiety disorder, is most likely to happen, because of the desperate that teenagers feel to want to know themselves, and adding the social pressure that exists daily. It is also very known in the ones that are getting graduating soon, and are not sure of how they’re going to decide what to do with their lives. The 40% of them, use to experience anxieties attacks when the date of the graduation gets closer.

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The depression is very common in this ages, like a consequence of high scholar expectations, family conflicts, body images, issues with friends or partners, bullying, or even a heartbreak become a big matter to this disorder, (in more serious cases it could influence self-inflicted injuries or attempts to suicide).

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There is something in common. Teenagers tend to perceive the world for other people views, and actually when you become older, that kind of things won’t affect you.

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The matter here, is that these disorders can be underestimated, well, we grow up with a thinking that was showed in movies, that, if you go to the phycologist or the psychiatrist makes you “insane” or you are a “weirdo”, actually that’s why a lot of people are afraid or ashamed to say that they go to therapy.

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Let’s take a look of this.

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Why we grow up thinking that crying or feeling bad make us weak? Is it wrong to work on ourselves? or trying to find safety is selfish? The answer is no. Feeling just make us more humans.

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It’s horrible to feel fear, frustration and anger because you don’t know what’s going to happen with yourself, even worst, feel that you’re not understand or heard.

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Search for help with your doctor or hospital or someone older, start therapy and make some progress could be the solution, but for sure it’s not easy.

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We can help others by just listening, or giving them a hug, or saying I’m here for whatever you want, giving a hand can always be useful.

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People think that teenagers are meant to have an easy life, and girls will be girls, and boys will be boys and stuff like that.

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Mental health is still a taboo, a lot of parents don’t think their children could feel like that, “They just want to call attention”, “They are just being rebellious”, careful with those excuses, sometimes they could mortal.

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Parents be careful”, always take a look of your children, get to know them, hear them, and of course love them, (is always helpful to investigate some symptoms, and be aware of what’s going on in your teenager’s life).

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And this is for you guys, appropriate of your feelings, it doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad, take always care of yourself and always work for you, that doesn’t mean you’re being selfish or dramatic, it is being responsible of ourselves.

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Even talking with someone you trust is very therapeutic and also helps to relief stress.

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Living to reach someone else expectations is impossible, because we’ll never do it correctly, we wouldn’t full everyone’s opinions, the only expectations that we have to reach are ours, and always putting first our happiness, as long you’re happy, everything will come together, with time.

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We have to get rid of critics and judges that won’t help us to improve as a person, the opinions of other people became teenagers worst enemy, with this, I invite you to get to know you better, and if you can’t find wellness for yourself, in your very own way, it is okay to talk to professionals, they are available every time.

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As teenagers is fine to have doubts about who we are, or we want to be, feeling hopeless sometimes. and getting drown in the minimal problems, the only way to accept us and heal is to be truthful and authentic for us, and give whatever we can. There will be someday to live and worry like adults, but not yet.

 

 

If you need orientation these are some available lines:

• Line 192 in your phone, option 4.

• “Línea amiga”: (4) 444 4448

• Monday to Friday 7:30 am a 7:30 pm. Saturday 7:30 am a 2:30 pm

You also can make a session with professionals in this link:

• http://www.way.com.co/

 

 

SOURCES:

https://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-disorders