While eating disorders are complex conditions, they are treatable. With the right support, young people can recover and enjoy a healthy, fulfilling future. Treatment providers who have experience working with autistic people can adapt therapy sessions and other approaches to ensure that treatment is comfortable and welcoming for each individual.
Research has found a two-way relationship between procrastination and self-esteem. Low self-esteem causes young people to procrastinate more while procrastinating also decreases young people’s self-esteem (and vice-versa). This can lead to negative (or positive) cycles of self-esteem and procrastination.
Adolescence is a key period of development, growth, and change. This means that getting an adequate amount of sleep during this time is especially important. However, while scientists agree that adolescents need 8-10 hours of sleep to maintain proper health, many young people frequently sleep fewer hours.
Social exclusion and peer rejection can have serious consequences for young people’s mental health, leading to emotional and behavioural problems and low self-esteem. Social exclusion that is based on prejudice or bias is particularly damaging.
Research shows that young people who are bullied are more likely to develop several mental health disorders, including eating disorders, anxiety, and depression. Bullying is associated with serious symptoms of mental health problems including violent behaviour, self-harm, and psychosis.
Temporary separation from parents in early childhood can have a big effect on a young person’s development. It can cause psychological stress with a lasting impact and affect the way a young person forms and maintains relationships in the future.
For a parent, a child’s academic achievement might seem like a simple and easy measure of their well-being. You might assume that a strong performance in academics is underpinned by stable mental health, self-confidence and self-esteem, and supportive relationships with friends.
Our minds and our guts are closely connected. The gut’s microbiome, a community of microorganisms including bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live in the digestive system, synthesises many of the neurotransmitters (hormones) that regulate our mood, stress, and sleep. A healthy microbiome is linked to better mental health, a stronger immune system, and better digestion.
Adolescence is a time of change. Some of these changes are outside a young person’s control, but others require making decisions. That might be what to do after leaving secondary school, which subjects to study, or decisions about relationships with others.
Many people struggle with aspects of school life, but for autistic people, it can be especially difficult. They may understand teachers’ instructions differently, find it hard to navigate the complexities of social life, and struggle with loud corridors or busy rooms.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental health disorder that affects the way a young person sees themselves and interacts with the world around them. Young people with BPD often have an unstable or incoherent sense of self, patterns of unstable relationships, and intense emotional reactions. They may experience chronic feelings of emptiness and a fear of abandonment by others.
Dissociative experiences often happen when someone is exposed to a traumatic event. When someone experiences trauma, they may be overwhelmed by stress and detach, in some way, from their experience, emotions, and/or body. People who have experienced acute trauma often describe dissociating from their bodies and watching something happen to themselves.
Despite the mental health epidemic among adolescents and young adults, only a minority access treatment. Barriers to treatment are often institutional: in many places, specialist services do not exist, or spaces are lacking with long waiting lists. But many young people don’t seek help for mental health problems in the first place. Studies suggest that only 18-34% of young people with mental health disorders try to access professional support.
