Parents or other caregivers play a huge role in a child’s development, especially in their early years. They continue to influence their emotions and behaviours during adolescence and into young adulthood.
The Wave Clinic offers specialist mental health support for children, adolescents, young adults, and families. Our programs are trauma-focused, emphasising the role that past and present experiences play in shaping young people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
Teenage girls may experience these conflicts face-to-face, but they can also happen online. Gender norms that discourage girls from open conflict can push teenagers towards online animosity. These conflicts may often remain confined to social media and never be properly addressed or resolved.
This guide explores the way that parental affairs impact the family system and young people’s mental health. It outlines the different forms of support available for young people after an affair to protect their well-being and help prevent harm.
Our self-concept plays a huge role in our mental health. When we don’t feel good about ourselves, we’re more likely to feel anxious, guilty, scared, or sad. We may worry more about past mistakes, feel like we’re unable to do the things we want to do, or struggle to believe that we are loved or lovable.
While the internet can bring many positive things to the lives of young people, it can also be dangerous, with a real risk of cyberbullying, sexual victimisation, and harassment. Despite the ubiquity of the internet in adolescents’ lives, young people are often unable to navigate the internet safely.
Social support can be especially meaningful between individuals who have shared experiences of grief and loss. When someone experiences a sudden and unexpected death, the grieving process can feel very different to when a death is expected, such as following a long illness. There may not be people they are close to who have had a similar experience, and this can feel isolating and lonely.
Like adults, children and young people also benefit from the restorative power of nature. Spending more time outdoors and in green spaces may help reduce mental health symptoms among an age group that’s particuarly vulnerable to mental health disorders.
Many children and adolescents have experienced some form of trauma. They may have experienced a death or loss in their family or among friends. Or they may have experienced attachment trauma when parents have been unable to meet their needs. Some children are exposed to violence in their community or in society, especially when countries experience instability and war.
Dissociative identity disorder is a type of dissociative disorder. Teenagers may be diagnosed with dissociative disorders if they have regular experiences of dissociation that are distressing and affect their daily life. Sometimes teenagers may have dissociative experiences that are symptoms of a different mental health disorder. In this case, they may not receive a dissociative disorder diagnosis.
When a young person develops very low self-worth, they can feel like they don’t deserve to have a clean and tidy room. If they feel hopeless about life, or like nothing has meaning, they might feel like there’s no point in keeping their space organised. Fatigue, another common symptom of depression, can leave young people struggling to find the energy to complete even simple self-care tasks.
Before teenagers begin to reprocess traumatic events, they have to be able to access these memories, thoughts, and emotions safely. The preparation phase of EMDR supports teenagers in developing distress tolerance skills that help them cope with the pain connected with traumatic memories. It also helps them to access suppressed emotions and feelings in their bodies.
In this blog, we look at how narcissistic abuse from one parent to the other impacts the family system, leading children to take on the role of parents. We also outline the long-term harm this can cause for young people’s mental health.
