How To Help Your Teenagers Stay Healthy: Mental Health

Many mental health problems begin during the teenage years, probably because it is such a difficult time. Teenagers deal with the daily stress of school, peer pressure, and relationships. They have the added stress of exams, learning to drive and getting their license, and impending college decisions. For some, there are also jobs and first monthly bills, like car insurance or cell phones. When combined with the day-to-day stress of home and family life, it can be overwhelming.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to help your teenagers stay mentally healthy.

Stay connected. It is easy for parents and teens to drift apart, sometimes living in almost different worlds. Make an effort to stay connected to your teen. If you know what is happening in their lives, you can spot warning signals that your teen is having problems.

Maintain communication. Keep communication lines open with your teen. While he or she may not always want to talk, they need to know they can talk to you. If you put your teen off, constantly interrupt, or belittle what he or she is saying, then your teen will be less likely to talk to you about the important issues in his or her life.

Try to understand. Although your teenage years may seem like a long time ago, you can remember what it was like to be that age. Take a moment to think about what it was like to be a teenager. Instead of belittling your teen’s issues, or pointing out how small their problems are compared to those of your adult life, try to understand what it is like to be a teenager facing the issues a teenager faces.

Read entire article here.

-business44.com

Anorexia in Teens: Warning Signs of Anorexia

Anorexia can turn into a severe health issue and may even lead to potential death. It cannot be ignored and many teens hide eating disorders for several months, till their parents notice it. Parents should understand the consequences of anorexia and should look out for the warning signs which indicate eating disorders in teens.

Warning Signs:

•Warning signs of the anorexia are very evident in a teen. The common symptom of anorexia is the sudden gain or drop of weight, which is an indicator of a serious problem.
•Teens with anorexia will have an obsession with the calories and they limit the intake of food. This is another sign of eating disorders and teens avoid food which is rich in calories, because of fear of gaining weight.
•Teens tend to use medicines in order to keep them away from gaining weight. Parents should have a check over their teens who have signs like these.
•Teens tend to either skip meals or there will be a decrease in their appetite. They will give all kinds of reasons and explanations for not being hungry and to hide the eating disorders.
•Teens suffering from anorexia tend to faint frequently. Obsession with exercise or over-exercising is another major sign of the eating disorders. In girls, not having their periods is a major indication of anorexia.
•Most of the teens suffering from the eating disorders make excuses for increased weights and weight loss or weight fluctuations.
•Teens suffering from anorexia have trouble in expressing their feelings or they simply brush off the concern others show regarding their health. They are always moody and their levels of anger and agitation are very high.
•Girls often feel cold even if the temperature is quite normal, when they are suffering from anorexia. To cover this up they wear dresses in layers to keep themselves warm. Losing hair is another warning sign of anorexia.
•Anorexia requires professional treatment and may also involve psychological help, medical monitoring and nutritional feeding. Consult a doctor if you fear that your child is suffering from anorexia.

-www.teenhealthline.com

Parent Help for Raising Children

There are no perfect parents nor can most parents say they are experts when it comes to discipline. No one has the answers for your specific questions unless they are walking in your shoes and closely following God's guidance. And because another person on earth will not and does not do that, it is up to you, the parent, to figure out your parental journey.

One way to help you navigate the parental road is to read books related to your specific needs. Reading too many may overwhelm you so choose a few and really dig in. Use a highlighter or sticky tabs if it is something you think you'll need to read again so you can find it quicker. There's nothing worse than knowing you've read something somewhere but can not find it when you need it.

Open up and talk to friends about your specific parenting issues. Most likely you'll be pleasantly surprised to know they can relate. Ask about books that have helped them and then search for one that's specific to you.

Here is a small list to get you started:

• Shepherding a Child’s Heart, Instructing a Child’s Heart
• Dare to Discipline, The Strong Willed Child, Bringing up Boys, Bringing up Girls
• Parenting is Heart Work
• Good and Angry
• Tools 4 Teens- a book for Teens

Most of all, be sure to go straight to God’s Word and soak in what He is saying to YOU as a parent. We can read wonderful sites and books, but ultimately we need to be going to THE BOOK for our final advice. Proverbs is a wonderful book with very easy-to-read, practical parenting advice!

Proverbs 22:6… "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Is Your Teen Using Drugs?

In areas all around the world, illegal drug substances have caused a tremendous amount of problems for a large number of families. What makes it even worse, is that drugs have also become a problem that more and more teenagers are getting involved in every single year. This can be very frustrating and frightening for parents that suspect their teen may be using drugs because chances are, their child is not going to come straight out and tell them they are. A perfect answer to find the answers to this dilemma is to have an expert recover deleted text from your teenager's cell phone. Most people simply erase any text that they do not want anyone else to find, adn they are completely unaware that the data can still be recovered.

Cell phone forensic investigations have made it possible for parents to easily be able to find out exactly what their teenagers are doing at times they think that their parents have no clue as to what is going on. When you suspect that your child is dabbling in illegal drug substances or other things that they should not be messing with, all you have to do is contact an expert that knows how to recover deleted text from the cell phone that your teen uses.

Read entire article here.

-Ed Opperman, www.articlesbase.com

Understanding Eating Disorders: What is an Eating Disorder

Eating disorders are very common among the teens. Teens facing eating disorders often tend to put on weight all of a sudden. They often tend to skip their meal and they tend to vomit if they eat anything.

They even feel sick if they try eating more then usual. Teens suffering from eating disorders feel exhausted, fatigued and irritable. They fall sick and suffer terribly from stomach cramps.

Weight obsession is a serious problem for the eating disorders and millions of teens suffer this especially girls.

Out of every seven women are struggling from eating disorder at any given time. According to a survey by Youth Risk in 2003, 36% of the teen girls were overweight while 59% of them were trying to loose weight. More than 90% of the teenage girls have an eating disorder.

What is an Eating Disorder: read here

-www.teenhealthline.com

Cyber Bullying Illegal: Mass. Governor Signs Landmark Anti-Bullying Law

The governor of Massachusetts has signed a bill designed to crack down on school bullies and require teachers to report bullying to principals.

Gov. Deval Patrick signed the bill Monday. It had been passed after the suicides of two students who were said to be victims of intense harassment.

Sirdeaner Walker, of Springfield, called the bill a watershed moment. Her 11-year-old son, Carl Walker-Hoover, hanged himself at home last year. Walker said he had been tormented by classmates.

In January, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince killed herself after allegedly being bullied at South Hadley High School. Several classmates have pleaded not guilty after being charged with various crimes in connection with her death.

The new law prohibits bullying on school property and outlaws cyberbullying.

The Department of Education reports that 25 percent of American students say they were bullied at least once a day. States have tried to address the issue by mandating their school districts adopt anti-bullying initiatives, CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano reported in a story featuring Sirdeaner Walker last month.

CBS News has identified 10 other students ages 13 to as young as nine years old who were bullied and committed suicide in the last 12 months. Suicide is so rare among children that young the CDC doesn't even consistently track the numbers.

Yale professor Young-Shin Kim has done research on what's been termed "bullycide" and has found that victims of bullying are 5.6 times more at risk of attempting or thinking about suicide.

"I want Carl's legacy to be not that he was 11 years old and he committed suicide," Walker said. "I want Carl's legacy to be we've enacted laws to protect and help all of our children."

-Posted by Edecio Martinez, cbsnews.com

Taking It Easy with Time and Touch

Maybe it's because I just had another birthday. maybe it's because I'm a granddad several times over. Or maybe it's because of a struggling young seminarian I met recently who wishes he had been higher on his parents' priority list than, say, fifth or sixth. He was hurried and ignored through childhood, then tolerated and misunderstood through adolescence, and finally expected to "be a man" without having been taught how.

My words are dedicated to all of you who have the opportunity to make an investment in a growing child so that he or she might someday be whole and healthy, secure and mature. Granted, yours is a tough job. Relentless and thankless . . . at least for now. There is every temptation to escape from the responsibilities that are yours and yours alone. But nobody is better qualified to shape the thinking, to answer the questions, to assist during the struggles, to calm the fears, to administer the discipline, to know the innermost heart, or to love and affirm the life of your offspring than you.

When it comes to "training up the child in the way he should go," you've got the inside lane, Mom and Dad. No teacher or coach, neighbor or friend, no grandparent or sibling, counselor or minister will have the influence on your kid that you are having. So - take it easy! Remember (as Anne Ortlund puts it) "children are wet cement." They take the shape of your mold. They're learning even when you don't think they're watching. And those little guys and gals are plenty smart. They hear tone as well as terms. They read looks as well as books. They figure out motives, even those you think you can hide. They are not fooled, not in the long haul.

The two most important tools of parenting are time and touch. Believe me, both are essential. If you and I hope to release from our nest fairly capable and relatively stable people who can soar and make it on their own, we'll need to pay the price of saying no to many of our own wants and needs in order to interact with our young . . . and we'll have to keep breaking down the distance that only naturally forms as our little people grow up.

Time and touch. nothing new, I realize, yet both remain irreducible minimums when it comes to good parenting. Take it easy! Listen to your boy or girl, look them in the eye, put your arms around them, hug them close, tell them how valuable they are. Don't hold back. Take the time to do it. Reach. Touch.

Don't stand alongside your son or daughter like statues, unable to say what you feel, uncomfortable and distant. Take time to feel, to listen, to hold your child close.

When you are tempted to get involved in some energy-draining, time-consuming opportunity that will only increase the distance between you and yours, stop and think of the unspoken message it will convey. Ask yourself hard questions like, "Could my time be better spent at home?" and "Won't there be similar opportunities in the years to come?" Then turn your attention to your boy or girl. Hold nothing back as you renew acquaintances.
Take it easy!

-Taken from Charles R. Swindoll, The Finishing Touch: Becoming God's Masterpiece (Nashville: Word, 1994), 524-25. Copyright © 1994 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved.
-www.oneplace.com