Nurturing Mental Well-being in Adolescents this time

Last Updated on March 18, 2025 by

Mental Well-being in Adolescents : In today’s fast-paced world, adolescents face increasing stress from academics, social pressures, and personal challenges. Prioritizing their mental well-being is essential for their emotional growth and overall happiness. Providing a supportive environment, fostering open communication, and encouraging healthy coping mechanisms help adolescents build resilience. Schools, families, and communities must work together to normalize conversations about mental health, offer emotional support, and ensure access to professional help when needed. By nurturing their well-being with empathy and understanding, we empower adolescents to navigate life’s challenges with confidence and strength.

Why Adolescent Mental Health Should Be Prioritized?

• Adolescent mental health problems are very common.
• Early identification and treatment can save severe sickness and significant expenses for the society, family, and person. Teenagers’ mental health issues needed to be addressed immediately as a result of COVID-19.
• An individual in a state of well-being is one that recognizes their own potential, is able to manage everyday stressors, works efficiently, and can contribute to their community.
• covers everything from diagnosable sickness to mental health.
• More significant than the lack of mental illness

Psychological distress

Mentally sound;

• able to handle difficulties;
• work as hard as they can;
• maintain regular sleep and eating schedules;
• maintain relationships;
• socially active;
• able to fulfill obligations such as attending college or school;
• Taking care of oneself

Mentally ill :

• Lack of focus
• Inability to handle typical difficulties
• Severe dietary and/or sleep disturbances;
• Helplessness and hopelessness;
• Substance misuse;
• Self-harm;
• Generalized melancholy;
• Withdrawal;
• Loss of judgment;
• Lallucinations
• Delusions

• Typical mental health conditions like depression and anxiety
• Occur more regularly, with a typical beginning in youth or early adulthood.
• The three main priorities are early detection, evaluation, and action.
• A severe mental condition such as schizophrenia entails
• A severe mental illness that significantly affects judgment, behavior, reality recognition, emotion, perception, orientation, or memory that makes it difficult to handle daily tasks

Frequently Shown Teenage Mental Health Issues:

• Issues with sleep
• Inexplicable fatigue Shaking,
• Sweating,
• Pains and aches that are widespread
• Reduced academic achievement and high-risk behaviors
• Dejection
• Fear and Unease
• Changes in mood A decline in motivation
• Reduced involvement or social disengagement (in social, professional, or educational activities)

Mental illnesses in childhood

• Deficit of Attention Syndrome of Hyperactivity (ADHD)
• Disorders of conduct
• Learning difficulties

Emotional disorders

• Depressive and anxious
• Death and self-destructive behavior

Eating disorders

• Being anorexic
• Bulimia

Risk-taking conduct

• The misuse of substances
• Violence being perpetuated

1. Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder(ADHD):
   • Individuals who suffer from ADHD may struggle to focus, manage impulsive behaviors (doing without considering the consequences), or exhibit excessive mobility. ADHD can be effectively controlled, and as a child gets older, some of their symptoms may become better, even if there is no cure for it.
2. Conduct Disorder:
   • A collection of recurring and ongoing emotional and behavioral issues in children is referred to as conduct disorder. This illness makes it extremely difficult for kids and teenagers to behave in a way that is acceptable in society, follow the laws, respect the rights of others, and demonstrate empathy.
3. Learning Disorder:
   • A learning disorder is an information-processing issue that hinders a person’s ability to acquire and apply a skill. People with learning problems typically have ordinary or above-average intelligence. The disease manifests as a discrepancy between academic achievement and expected abilities based on age and IQ. Common learning disabilities impact a child’s nonverbal, reading, writing, and math skills.
4. Anxiety Disorder :
   • Anxiety disorders are more than just fleeting anxiety or worry. An individual with an anxiety disorder experiences persistent anxiety that may worsen over time. The symptoms may make it difficult to carry out daily tasks like relationships, schoolwork, and job performance.
5. Depression :
   • Feelings of sadness are normal for people. These emotions are typically fleeting. A person may be suffering from a mood condition like depressive disorder if they have acute and ongoing sadness for long periods of time. Clinical depression, often known as depressive disorder, is a serious illness that can impact emotional and behavioral aspects of life as well as bodily processes including food and sleep patterns.
6. Suicide & Self-harm:
   • Suicide is the act of killing oneself by intentionally hurting oneself. Non-suicidal self-injury disorder (NSSID), another name for self-harm, is the intentional act of causing bodily harm or engaging in self-destructive behaviors without intending to commit suicide.
7. Eating Disorder :
   • These severe conditions are linked to recurring eating patterns that impair your emotional stability, physical well-being, and capacity to carry out essential life tasks. The three most prevalent eating disorders are binge-eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, and anorexia nervosa.
8. Substance Misuse:
   • The use of alcohol, illegal drugs, over-the-counter, or prescription pharmaceuticals in ways that are not intended for their intended use and that potentially endanger the user or others around them is known as substance abuse.

• Early onset of severe mental disorders
• The disorder known as schizophrenia
• The Bipolar Disorder
• Getting withdrawn
• Illusions
• Hearing voices
• impaired ability to make decisions

A. Schizophrenia:

Schizophrenia is a form of psychosis, a mental condition marked by abnormalities in language, thinking, perception, emotions, behavior, and sense of self. Hallucinations (hearing voices or seeing things that are not there) and delusions (fixed, incorrect beliefs) are common occurrences.

B. Bipolar Disorder :

Manic and depressed episodes are often interspersed with times of normal mood in this mental disorder. Manic episodes are characterized by heightened or agitated mood, excessive activity, fast speaking, increased self-esteem, and a diminished desire for sleep. Individuals with bipolar disorder are also defined as having manic episodes without depressed phases.

Suicidal Behavior in Teens :

• Suicidal ideation symptoms include feeling hopeless, empty, and helpless, as well as having a strong sense of shame or remorse.
• A suicide attempt is a non-fatal, self-directed, and possibly harmful act committed with the intention of dying.
• Suicidal ideation is the contemplation, desires, ideas, and obsessions with suicide and death.

People want to “harm” themselves, but why?

• Ways to convey ideas and information that are difficult to express in words
• A method of displaying extreme distress
• Self-hatred, fear,
• loneliness, guilt, shame,
• numbness, emptiness, grief, anger, suffering,
• lack of social support are examples of coping mechanisms.
• People may find it tough to get help and turn to different behaviors that don’t include depending on others. They may also employ a method to numb or arouse themselves. Dissociation and anti-dissociation strategies

Selfharm indicators :

• Burns, wounds, scars, or other groups of related skin marks that don’t go away could indicate self-harming behavior.
• Injuries are common in the arms, hands, and forearms opposite the dominant hand, though they can happen on any portion of the body.
• A refusal to engage in activities or events that call for less clothing, like sports or swimming
• Bandaging frequently
• Purchasing razor blades, scorching ointments, and prescription drugs on a regular basis

How to Recognize SelfHarm:

• When someone intentionally causes harm, pain, or both to their own body tissue without having suicidal intent, this is known as non-suicidal self-harm.
• Heads or other bodily parts slamming into walls
• Self-mutilation (cutting behaviors), burning, and scratching
• Dosing too much
• Punching and pounding fists
• Bingeing, self-starvation, and other high-risk behaviors
• Biting and yanking hair

Factors that either contribute to or sustain mental health issues

Factors that protect:

• Age-appropriate intellectual and physical development
• Good self-esteem Good interpersonal abilities
• Strong emotional support at home and positive examples
• encouragement from scholastic achievement Good peer interaction
• Community connection Possibility of leisure and constructive engagement with culture

Factors at risk:

• Genetic risks and prenatal/birth problems Insufficient nourishment
• Misuse of substances
• Challenges in learning Neglect, abuse, or violence Insufficient self-worth
• Family disputes and irregular caregiving
• Failure in the classroom The act of bullying An unfavorable setting for learning
• Disorganization in the community Discrimination and stigma

Acknowledge Mental Health Conditions and Issues:

Stress :

• Procrastination,
• low energy,
• difficulty relaxing,
• decreased social engagement,
• recognizable stressor,
• common and reversible distress,
• Some alterations in food
• sleeping habits

Severe Stress:

• Prolonged sadness,
• worry,
• rage, or dread;
• a sense of worthlessness,
• helplessness, or hopelessness;
• a decline in academic performance;
• a major influence on eating and sleeping habits; s
• evere distress Removal

Illness :

• Prolonged depression
• Complete lack of self-care
• Panic attacks
• Severe emotional difficulties
• Persistent exhaustion
• Hallucination
• Suicidal thoughts
• Intent or behavior
• Severe cognitive disruptions

Foster mental well-being at home by teaching family members how to meet teenagers’ emotional needs.

• Support vulnerable youth and families;
• Educate teachers and create a safe and supportive learning environment; train community leaders to intervene in times of crisis and violence;
• Teach a select group of community members to recognize and refer to health services.
• Encourage a supportive community and lessen stigma through the media.
• Use innovative ways to spread correct information.
• Carefully cover mental health conditions and suicide in the media

Key Message:

• Mental health and mental illness are at opposite ends of the spectrum, which represents a range.
• Depending on a person’s circumstances and abilities, they may be at one end of the continuum and change positions as their circumstances evolve.
• The It is estimated that one in five persons will suffer from a mental illness at some point in their lives.
• The Any syndrome that exhibits a clinically significant disruption in a person’s behavior, emotion regulation, or thought processes that indicates a malfunction in the biological, psychological, or developmental processes that underlie mental functioning is referred to as a mental disorder.
• Mental disorders encompass a wide range of conditions, from more common issues like excessive worry and fear (anxiety) or unusually depressed moods (depression) to more severe behavioral issues like agitation, violence, suspiciousness, and other unusual behaviors (psychosis).
• A common stressor or loss, like the death of a loved one, can elicit an expected or culturally acceptable response; this is not a mental disorder.
• Address self-harm situations by discussing strengths, determining triggers, investigating different ways to express emotions, engaging in frank discussions, limiting access to self-harming materials, offering psycho-education, and developing a safety plan.
• Mental diseases do not include socially aberrant behavior (political, religious, or sexual) or problems that are mostly between the individual and society.

Thanks and Regards

N.B. This information is suggestive only.